|
|
Post by davejs on Feb 13, 2011 12:53:31 GMT -5
What's happening in April?
|
|
|
|
Post by walkersstics on Feb 13, 2011 22:06:22 GMT -5
Clovis "Big Hat Days" for me
|
|
|
|
Post by davejs on Feb 14, 2011 0:35:49 GMT -5
Clovis "Big Hat Days" for me I think that will be a good show for you. Large crowds of people there. |
|
|
|
Post by bmermaid on Mar 5, 2011 11:03:35 GMT -5
I am officially doing the Stockton Asparagus Festival apr 15-17. Biggest show I've ever signed up for, they reported 85000 folks last year. I'm excited but also a little nervous as to how much inventory I should make and what a show that big will feel like. I do have a helper friend in town so that will be good...
|
|
|
|
Post by davejs on Apr 5, 2011 0:07:39 GMT -5
April 2-3, 2011. I guess I picked up where I left off in November. Another doozie, this time in Manteca. I only had 3 choices for this weekend; DeAnza College, Big Hat Days or Manteca. I didn't want to travel far and I didn't want to set up for a one-day Flea Market. It was somewhat slow there. The weather wasn't bad. Some sunshine but windy and cool. Had to deal with a cheap, lower middle class Jerry Springer crowd and they didn't spend very much. There were quite a bit of people but they left their dollar bills at home. You can read what I have to say. I still have a few more things to say and I might stick some photos in there as the week progresses. www.starvingvendors.com/Events_Manteca_Street_Faire_2011.html |
|
|
|
Post by walkersstics on Apr 9, 2011 8:54:26 GMT -5
Big Hat Days....Clovis, Ca. ...well we did this festival last weekend, arrived on a Friday afternoon for a two day stay at the Fairfield Inn....the weather was fine, a little cool in the mornings, but absolutely excellent in the afternoons....my booth was centered pretty much in the heart of this festival...I would say for the two days there was around 120,000 in attendance...Saturday sales were slow, with most customers staying on the yellow line and ignoring the vendors...it took until Sunday early afternoon to begin to turn a profit...Saturdays crowd was a more younger type, and Sundays was a more older version, but with more dollars in their pockets to spend.....Tammi with the Chamber was a joy to speak and work with...Again we did profit, not anywhere near what I personally expected to do, the economy seems very slow there, all the vendors I spoke with, seemed to be hurting....I was contemplating doing the Clovis Fest there later this year, but will now put that one off until this economy gets better....or the city lowers their fee's for the event.....The food vendors seem to fair a lot better then the craft vendors...every customer had a food item in their hands, but only bout 1 out of 30 had a package...I handed out quite a few biz cards and I am hoping for quite a few residual sales from those cards....I would do this one again next year
|
|
|
|
Post by davejs on Apr 9, 2011 14:58:31 GMT -5
Big Hat Days....Clovis, Ca. ...well we did this festival last weekend, arrived on a Friday afternoon for a two day stay at the Fairfield Inn....the weather was fine, a little cool in the mornings, but absolutely excellent in the afternoons....my booth was centered pretty much in the heart of this festival...I would say for the two days there was around 120,000 in attendance...Saturday sales were slow, with most customers staying on the yellow line and ignoring the vendors...it took until Sunday early afternoon to begin to turn a profit...Saturdays crowd was a more younger type, and Sundays was a more older version, but with more dollars in their pockets to spend.....Tammi with the Chamber was a joy to speak and work with...Again we did profit, not anywhere near what I personally expected to do, the economy seems very slow there, all the vendors I spoke with, seemed to be hurting....I was contemplating doing the Clovis Fest there later this year, but will now put that one off until this economy gets better....or the city lowers their fee's for the event.....The food vendors seem to fair a lot better then the craft vendors...every customer had a food item in their hands, but only bout 1 out of 30 had a package...I handed out quite a few biz cards and I am hoping for quite a few residual sales from those cards....I would do this one again next year I think you hit the nail on the head. I haven't done this show in a couple years but all your comments sound familiar. Loads of people and they mostly walk down the center of the street (until they smell the food). Booth fees are too high and it's hard now for many of us to turn much of a profit there. People out for their 'yearly stroll.' I really enjoyed doing the show over the year's but each year I was going down 20-30 percent. And of course, you could have to deal with weather elements. One year that I did it, we had loaded everything into our van. Just after I closed the back door, it began to pour. I'd say that I got out in the nick of time. We have done Clovisfest a couple times and there are substantially fewer people. I believe it's on Sunday that they have the hot air balloons going up early in the morning and it is difficult to find a parking spot. |
|
|
|
Post by Cartoonist on Apr 10, 2011 22:27:37 GMT -5
Wow! 120,000 at Big Hat Days? Thats pretty good. I did that show last year and it seemed like about 40-50,000 were there. The weather was overcast most of the time last year, however. They put me over by the horse rides across the street from the carnival last year. I didn't go this year, as I live a lot farther away now.
I did the Pacific Grove Good Old Days yesterday and today and it was only "fair." Yesterday the weather was FREEZING most of the time and overcast all day, luckily no rain, but damn cold! Today was a lot more sun and warmer but still freezing cold by 3pm. More people spending on my stuff today and a better day overall. Saw a few more people carrying bought items yesterday than today, however. I moved my booth to a different spot today where I did better. Lucky I turned a meager profit, but by the skin of my teeth as the $265 10x10 fee leaves you pretty much "scalped." The letter we got from the Chamber a week earlier designating our booth number also stated that they were "sold out" this year, so don't request this and don't request that! But, after taking a walk up and down the mainline of vendors showed that there were a number of empty spaces at both ends of the festival. Not a bad fest, looked like it drew somewhere between 20-40,000. Again, like most of northern California, no one wants to spend much. Seems like I always do a lot better if I go to Reno, Vegas, or LA. Can't make much of a living in NorCal anymore.
|
|
|
|
Post by davejs on Apr 11, 2011 17:26:55 GMT -5
Pfew. That was a close call. After I sent in for the Apple Blossom Festival I talked to several people and they told me how bad the event was. Biggest problem? They are charging $10 admission for adults. Wayyyyyy too much. I heard that the booth locations are kind of funky and they stick people in some pretty bad spots where there is little traffic flow. They told me that sales have been very poor. Now the good news.... I just got a rejection letter today. I guess I sent in too late. Thank gosh. Almost another doozy. So, here we are in the middle of April and I have only done one event this year. No problem with that.
|
|
|
|
Post by bmermaid on Apr 13, 2011 14:10:16 GMT -5
Pfew. That was a close call. After I sent in for the Apple Blossom Festival I talked to several people and they told me how bad the event was. Biggest problem? They are charging $10 admission for adults. Wayyyyyy too much. I heard that the booth locations are kind of funky and they stick people in some pretty bad spots where there is little traffic flow. They told me that sales have been very poor. Now the good news.... I just got a rejection letter today. I guess I sent in too late. Thank gosh. Almost another doozy. So, here we are in the middle of April and I have only done one event this year. No problem with that. I did this show last year and it was pretty good. I think the weather has a lot to do with it. They had all the craft booths sitting around the building next to the park, so I don't know where a 'bad' spot would be. I guess inside the park would be better, but we were all in the same boat there. They did have a tie dye guy very close to me, and didn't seem to limit the types of crafts. I do remember lots of drinking one day, and not much happening the next day. Anyway I had fun and my sales weren't stellar, but not terrible either. If I wasn't doing the asparagus thing I would have gone back. Speaking of the Stockton Asparagus Festival, Dave... I mis-reported earlier, they do indeed have commercial vending booths. For 2x the cost of the craft booths, plus deposits and other crap. Yikes. Like 1200 bucks, and I paid $600 for mine. But the commercial booths are in the center of the festival, vs our area that is on the opposite end from the stages. So I guess if you can support that amount of inventory, it could be good. Their web site still has all the aps and info up. Like I said, this is the most I've ever spent on a booth so I'm a little nervous. I'll give a full report next week! (I AM excited to get away from the rain and wear my summer sandals. woot.) -Bekki |
|
|
|
Post by davejs on Apr 13, 2011 19:25:54 GMT -5
Pfew. That was a close call. After I sent in for the Apple Blossom Festival I talked to several people and they told me how bad the event was. Biggest problem? They are charging $10 admission for adults. Wayyyyyy too much. I heard that the booth locations are kind of funky and they stick people in some pretty bad spots where there is little traffic flow. They told me that sales have been very poor. Now the good news.... I just got a rejection letter today. I guess I sent in too late. Thank gosh. Almost another doozy. So, here we are in the middle of April and I have only done one event this year. No problem with that. I did this show last year and it was pretty good. I think the weather has a lot to do with it. They had all the craft booths sitting around the building next to the park, so I don't know where a 'bad' spot would be. I guess inside the park would be better, but we were all in the same boat there. They did have a tie dye guy very close to me, and didn't seem to limit the types of crafts. I do remember lots of drinking one day, and not much happening the next day. Anyway I had fun and my sales weren't stellar, but not terrible either. If I wasn't doing the asparagus thing I would have gone back. Speaking of the Stockton Asparagus Festival, Dave... I mis-reported earlier, they do indeed have commercial vending booths. For 2x the cost of the craft booths, plus deposits and other crap. Yikes. Like 1200 bucks, and I paid $600 for mine. But the commercial booths are in the center of the festival, vs our area that is on the opposite end from the stages. So I guess if you can support that amount of inventory, it could be good. Their web site still has all the aps and info up. Like I said, this is the most I've ever spent on a booth so I'm a little nervous. I'll give a full report next week! (I AM excited to get away from the rain and wear my summer sandals. woot.) -Bekki Hi Bekki. Thanks for your input. I've been dragging as far as putting in for my shows. Only have done one event in the past 6 months. I talked to a few people that told me about the Apple Blossom Festival and I wasn't too impressed. I got my application in too late for it. What really turns me off is that $10 admission for adults. I would have done it had I been accepted. I hope you do great at the Asparagus. I've never done it but it probably is the best show in the Highway 99 areas. I could never do that show because my items are mostly under $20 and I would need to rattle off a load of sales. If I had the right $40-50 items, I'd probably jump at the chance. Anyhow, it looks like great weather for the weekend. Best of luck. |
|
|
|
Post by bmermaid on Apr 22, 2011 10:21:54 GMT -5
Okay, here's my Stockton Asparagus report... how to begin? lol. I did not do well. I managed to cover my expenses plus a little, but made about half of what I thought would be my minimum sales possible. BUT, many people did just fine so there were a few factors involved for me... One is that the 'juried fine arts' area was about 1/2 buy sell. Not even trying to fake it lol. Chinese parasols, non crafty clothing, sun hats, cheesy fake designer bags, you name it. Nothing wrong with these things at all, just personally I do not do well in competition with buy/sell. I never would have paid so much if I knew that going in. Completely misrepresented to me and a letter shall be written. So, dave, you could totally do this one and maybe do better than I did... however, I did notice which crafters were doing the best. Those with more crowd pleasing items like the copper mobiles with marbels, the crystal window hangers, lower end jewelry, painted signs for your home, etc. I don't think any of the clothes did gangbusters (so that made me feel a little better  . The people did not have money... which I knew going in really. I did figure that with attendance numbers like that, percentage wise I couldn't go wrong. WRONG lol. Oh how we continue to learn, eh? Now I know... numbers alone won't do it for me. I gotta have my peeps too. But, gotta try right? yeah. As for the show outside of sales... it was fun. Very well organized in a beautiful park, you don't even feel like you're in downtown stockton. I was nervous mostly about how icky and rude the people might be and I was dead wrong. I met plenty of nice folks, fun vendors... the staff was helpful (mostly) and the weather in the 70s. SO outside of bombing sales wise, we really had a nice time. hahaha. And I did say before we left that if we had to bomb, at least I don't want to suffer. So okay. Now, if you are one to believe in karma like me... when I got home I had my email box full of orders! Big wholesale ones. I feel like I'm getting paid back for all my work and thank you very much, I'll take it! Here's my hubby with a rare smile at the fest... even he had to relax and enjoy the sun. Attachments:
|
|
|
|
Post by walkersstics on Apr 22, 2011 20:57:33 GMT -5
Kinda the way I felt after "Big Hat" Plenty of peeps with no monies....I did turn a profit there, but really mis-judged my sales....Keep a Smile.....and on to the next one....Peace
|
|
|
|
Post by davejs on May 5, 2011 19:38:37 GMT -5
Really nice weather this year and the crowds were moderate. They came around noontime and mostly congregated around the stage area. During breaks in the entertainment, they walked around the booths. I did somewhat okay. Nowhere near as good as 4-5-6 years ago, but I am satisfied because the economy is so bad.
They re-configured the booths,moving the (Non-profit) food booths to a parking lot in back of my booth and in the vicinity of the Senior Center.
I'll do my write up on the show and will provide a link. I'm just getting old and lazy.Might say that I've kind of lost my mo-jo and having a tuff time getting things rolling.
They made a big mistake by not providing a shaded area with tables and chairs to the people could eat. I was shocked when I walked over to RIck's booth around 1:10pm on Sunday and saw 18-20 people (Japanese) sitting on the ground in front of his booth eating their tempura, potstickers and chicken cabbage salad. Wow. I thought I was at Sproul Hall in Berkeley at one of their sit-ins. Ready to get the tear gas and call in the riot squad. I talked to Jerry who managed to 'disperse the crowd peacefully' I never had seen people plopping themselves down in front of somebody's booth like that Wow.
|
|
. The people did not have money... which I knew going in really. 