OXFORD — Following the recession in 2008 things were slow in Oxford, especially at the Oxford Conference Center. With few things scheduled, events manager Micah Quinn came up with an idea that has become a community event tradition.

The 10th annual Indoor Yard Sale will be held at the conference center this Saturday. It is an event that started as a way to help people with their winter cleaning and generate some extra money. Today, the event has become much more to the city of Oxford.

“A lot of stuff wasn’t going on in January and we weren’t doing a lot of events. It was kind of a dead time for us,” Quinn said. “So, my director at the time came up with this idea of ‘why don’t we create our own event? What about a yard sale?’ I thought that was a genius idea. We don’t have anything like that.”

In 2009 the inaugural indoor yard sale was launched. In the first year, the conference center had three yard sales throughout the year: the first in January, the second in the spring and the third during the fall. The inaugural event had a high turnout, but the other two did not have as many attendees and eventually fell away, leaving January as the sole event.

Since the event began, there has been annual growth in attendance, not only in numbers but in distance traveled to attend as well. Quinn noted people drive from as far as Memphis and West Point to participate.

Word of mouth as well as social media has been credited for the growth and success.

“People just like it because the time of year is good,” Quinn said. “People usually go in their attic during Christmas or you get new stuff during Christmas. It’s a good time to purge which is why I think this particular yard sale has gotten popular.”

There will be 45 vendors on hand including a food vendor. The application process for the yard sale begins the day after Labor Day and it is a first come first serve process. Once the day to apply arrives all allocated spots are usually taken by October. Vendors are offered a 10×10 and 10×20 foot sized booth to display their items.

Items that can be found range from the typical yard sale merchandise to a vinyl record booth and anything in between.

The event will run from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday at the Oxford Conference Center. Admission is $2 per person and children 12 years and under are free. For more details on becoming a vendor, contact Quinn at micah@oxfordconferencecenter.com