A Weekend at the Apple Festival

Well, our big debut at the Apple Festival is over and done with, and I plan to put my energy back here again.

Oh, and into my Etsy shop, too.

Thank y’all for sticking around and being patient with me last week during our frantic rush to get everything ready to sell. It was a crazy week, but very manageable with being able to focus so intently on the crafting tasks at hand.

So now you’re wondering, “How did it go?”

It went…meh.

There are some things that you just can’t know until you try something. This being our first arts and crafts show, I learned a thing or two this weekend.

• Fridays are always slow. That’s the day when the kiddos get field trips from school to come visit, and kiddos, as a rule, don’t have a whole lotta moolah to drop on, say, art for your living room walls or jewelry for Mom.
• Sundays are usually slow. That’s when everyone comes from church to wander, eat some goodies, and socialize. They don’t come to buy.
• You’re screwed if it’s an outdoor festival and it rains. Foot traffic drops to non-existent and sales bottom out.
• There is a difference between an “arts and crafts show” and a “festival”. At an arts and crafts show, people come to see cool handmade goodies to buy. At a festival, people come to buy fudge and funnel cakes, walk around, socialize, sit and enjoy the musical performances and jump in the bouncy castle. They don’t necessarily come to buy. (Did I mention this was a Festival? Yeah. A hand full of vendors did brisk trade this weekend. I think most of us, though, barely covered the expense of showing up.)
• People are very skittish. Darrel and the lady in the booth next to us both observed that making eye contact, or, heaven forbid, actually daring to say “Hi” to someone who ventured into our booths caused them to immediately turn around and leave. Seriously! I wanted to say to some of these people, “Don’t run! I’m not being a pushy sales person – I’m just being polite!”
• Speaking of polite, people will walk into your booth and stand there with their friends, verbally bashing everything you’ve crafted by hand with comments like “oh yes, those are SO easy to make” and “$6 for that?! Geez – I could make that, easy!” Resist the urge to smack those people upside the head. Especially when their closing shot as they leave the booth is a bright smile and “You did a really good job!” Jerks.
• Same goes for the people who visit your booth, ask questions about your work, then smugly report that they’re going to go home and make it themselves rather than buy it from you. Again, rude jerks.
• When you’re setting up your tent in the pouring rain, as the temperatures drop from “balmy” to “frigid”, the thought will cross your mind that, well, you’ve lost your ever-lovin’ mind. Yes, yes, you have. But don’t worry; the poor schmucks masochists vendors all around you have lost theirs, too. You’re in good company.
• Try not to set up shop to sell things during the weekend of a government shut-down. People get scared about things like that and stop spending money. Ergo, you don’t sell much.
• Don’t bring your food allergic kiddos to a festival. It’s just asking for total mind-blowing panic on your part!

We had my mom bring the kiddos out on Friday because we knew a cold front was set to come in for the weekend while Friday was supposed to be a bright, warm, beautiful day.

The kids loved it!

We hated it! 

It was an APPLE festival. APPLE’S, y’all! Jed can’t eat apples. Fructose, you know. He also can’t eat cornbread , pinto beans, pizza, sno-cones, Apple cider, fudge, or pretty much anything that was served at this festival.

And people are not very neat eaters when walking around eating. So there were stray bits of food all over the ground as the boys explored. Stray bits of food that we were constantly telling the kids to “put (that) down” and “don’t eat (that)!”

Darrel and I completely abandoned our booth for three hours on Friday as we tag teamed the kids to keep them out of trouble. Next time, the kids stay home. It’s just not worth the stress.

Although, it was so, SO sweet to hear Jed tell Grandma, “Grandma, I MUST have this car!” and “Ooh! A puppy dog! I love the puppy dog!”

Nah. Still not worth the stress.

So, it wasn’t a total wash, financially, but it was not nearly as successful as I’d hoped. On the plus side, as I said, almost all the vendors there commented that business was really poor this weekend and none did as well as they’d anticipated. So, it wasn’t a problem with our merchandise; it was a problem with the economy and the weather.

We’re willing to give craft shows another shot, but in the meantime I will be working this week on my Etsy shop to make it look purdier and get all my new goodies online. You’ll be the first to know about any improvements!

After all, the biggest interest in my wares I received all weekend was from photos of our booth I posted on Facebook. Obviously I’m missing out on online interest until I get my Etsy shop up and running!

So, there’s a quick overview of my weekend. It was fun, and frankly, it was really good to do something one on one with Darrel and No Kids. We haven’t done anything as a couple in a really long time. Every now and then, it’s good to remember that you enjoy hanging out with your spouse. 

He’s kind of my favorite person in the world, after all.

How was your weekend? Have you ever done an arts and crafts festival/show? What little tidbits did you learn along the way?