Isabella Iglesias grew up calling herself Joanna Gaines. As a teen in Northern Virginia during the pandemic, she crafted and cooked like her hero and followed her footsteps to become an entrepreneur at 19.
This summer, five years after starting her business making baby clothes, she saw the email on her phone at a stoplight: “Congratulations, Silobration.” She cried tears of joy, knowing she would join some 90 vendors at the annual fall festival at Magnolia Market at the Silos in downtown Waco.
“This is the market of markets, our Super Bowl. You’re at Silobration with Joanna Gaines. Nothing can be bigger.”
Isabella Iglesias
She made it to Waco in time for the four-day celebration that ended Sunday, despite a trailer tire blowout on the long journey from Virginia.
The festival has been a staple of downtown Waco since October 2015, three years after Chip and Joanna Gaines launched the “Fixer Upper” home renovation show and an enduring lifestyle brand. And the generation raised on that show is part of its fan base.
An artist’s foothold
David Brazier of Greenville, S.C., grew up watching “Fixer Upper” with his grandparents and started exhibiting his paintings at Silobration three years ago, when he was 18. The opportunity has helped him build a career in art.
“It was really cool to get people to see my work in person, and I think it’s cool to meet artists and build those connections.” Brazier said. Those connections range from first-time buyers to collectors to commercial clients that commission work directly from him.
This year Brazier left his barista job to pursue art full time.
“I’m figuring it out and sales have been popping off,” he said.
The Silos pilgrimage
Silobration this year included free daytime shopping and attractions and ticketed evening concerts at the Silos and Foster Pavilion.
Beyond just shopping, Silobration brings friends and families together in an idyllic Main Street atmosphere and lets them imagine themselves as an interior designer, home renovator or handpicked artisan. Some Magnolia fans like the scene so much they decide to stay.
Elizabeth and Soren Solberg were regular viewers of “Fixer Upper” when they lived in California, watching Chip and Joanna Gaines transform bargain homes in Waco’s inner city week after week.
Nine years later, the couple lives just down the road from Chip and Joanna’s old house near Crawford.
As locals, the Solbergs enjoy coming to the Silos to people-watch and see the decorations change with the seasons and trends.
As their daughter was growing up, they brought her and her friends to all the different Magnolia locations to look around and take photos, which they cherish now that she is off to college.
Nikki Latson and her friends drove down from the Dallas-Fort Worth area for some girl time at the Silos. On Saturday morning they were taking the garden and Magnolia herbarium.
“It’s peaceful,” Latson said. “We love when they do the line dancing and we like hanging out.”
