The .918 Club will hold its annual Lancaster Printers Fair on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Al Starr Community Building at the Willow Street Fire Company, 2901 Willow Street Pike, Willow Street.

The 13th annual event will have no admission charge and plenty of free, on-site parking. The event will be held rain or shine. Go to http://www.lancasterprintersfair.org for more information.

There will be 29 exhibitors from all over the region, coming from all across the Keystone State, as well as from New York, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, Virginia and Massachusetts.

"We bring all kinds of people who are involved in letterpress printing and various support activities for it," said Kenneth Kulakowsky, .918 Club president. "If you have any interest in doing anything in printmaking, this is the place to be for the day."

Food will be served at the event through the fire company. Premium hot dogs are the featured item, although chips, snacks and Turkey Hill iced tea and beverages will also be available for purchase.

"We have suppliers of equipment and type, paper and everything else," Kulakowsky said. "We also have people who print different things that will be for sale, like cards and posters and tablets. ... We also have a print gallery, original prints that were made and printed by various printmaking methods. They'll be for sale at the fair.

"There's always somebody to answer your questions," he added.

The fair is the group's major fundraiser. In the past, it has helped the group fund the Letterpress Printing Center on the campus of Thaddeus Stevens College, which was closed down in 2023. However, earlier this year, the group was donated land for a permanent home in Willow Street.

The group is amid a fundraising campaign for the new home, which will be located behind Graphic Crafts Inc., 300 Beaver Valley Pike, Willow Street. The club initially estimated that around $200,000 would be needed for the project, but rising costs and inflation have caused that number to double to $400,000.

"Every time my phone rings and it's one of my vendors, I cringe," Kulakowsky explained. "My donations are not keeping up with the cost of materials, but we're in the process of writing grants, and hopefully we'll be able to get some grants from some various organizations to help offset the cost of this building."

Sept. 18 is National Letterpress Appreciation Day, so the fair is always held on the Saturday closest to that date, Kulakowsky explained.

The .918 Club meets the fourth Wednesday of each month at 7 p.m. at The Studios in The Candy Factory, 342 N. Queen St., Lancaster, which is in the same complex as the group's Heritage Press museum.

Everyone is welcome, and the .918 Club is always seeking volunteers. The museum is staffed by volunteers from noon to 4 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays and on First Friday nights.