Yesterday, I was one of just under 50 vendors who participated in the Queen City Craft Bazaar.
As I've done in the past, I'd like to recap the show.
The Good:
-It constantly blows my mind how supportive and kind fellow crafters tend to be. (Usually. See "The Ugly" below.) And although, in some ways, it seems that many of the show's attendees were feeling the pinch of the current recession, the vast majority of them were genuinely excited and curious about the crafts present at the show.
-The QCCB really is a simple little show without any pretentiousness. Compared to other shows I've done, it's pretty cheap to vend there, Despite that, Kasey, the organizer, did a great job of spreading the word via advertising and a prime location.
-With what marked the beginning of the spring/summer crafts season, the show took place inside a building. Sure, it sounds simple, but having a roof over my head sure beat Commercial Grade Polyester. My apologies to my outdoorsy readers, but I have my reasons. (See below in "The Bad" section.)
-I had an ample amount of help. My mom came to help out, which is always much appreciated. Additionally, a friend of mine came by as the show was wrapping up to help us pack up and load the car. (Thank you, Mami! Thank you, Christina!) It can take me hours to set up and break down for shows when I'm alone. Not to mention, being alone makes me have to choose between being dehydrated all day, holding "it," or trusting that people won't steal my stuff during my bathroom breaks. I know that I currently live in Burlington, VT, but when it comes to theft, I'm not very trusting. Sue me.
The Bad:
-When the snow stops falling and melts away, it's easy to forget that Burlington, VT gets a lot of precipitation. There was torrential rain during yesterday's show, and it came on a day that the meteorologists were predicting decent weather. Liars. We still had a number of shoppers, though, in spite of the weather.
-The set up was quite aesthetically pleasing; however, anytime I needed to get up to help customers, it was a bit difficult to squeeze between my table and the ones next to me. In the future, I'd recommend that the organizers either space booths a tad bit farther apart and/or offer vendors corner or end spaces for a little bit more. I would definitely prioritize being on a corner or end higher than being upstairs or downstairs. She charged a little bit more for spots downstairs, but I love being at the top. My guess is that just as many people entered on the top level as the bottom. Plus, there were signs all over pointing to there being more vendors upstairs. Anyway, I digress. I recommend that corner/end spots be offered at a premium or that booths be spaced a bit farther apart. (I do acknowledge that few may share my sentiments. I brought a 6 foot table for a 6x4 booth.)
The Ugly:
-When I arrived, I was notified that the lights upstairs (where I was vending) weren't on because of some high-tech issue. Basically, the building had sensors that made it so the lights wouldn't turn on until the building was dark "enough." A similar issue had been resolved downstairs, and Kacey was working feverishly to fix the problem upstairs. Alright, so let me be clear - the lights not being on isn't the reason this is listed in "The Ugly" section. The reason I put it here is because of how some of the vendors responded to the "darkness." It. Wasn't. A. Big. Deal. I wanted to just tell everyone to breathe and calm down. I think more than a few ugly comments were made about it, and it just wasn't necessary. I don't think any sales were missed because it was "dark." (In truth, it really wasn't that dark, as evidenced by the fact that the gizmo-y lights didn't "sense" enough darkness in the first place. The sun was shining deceptively bright given the flooding (maybe that's a slight exaggeration) that would soon follow.) Ah, I love the blogosphere's capacity for one-sided, unchallenged rants like this. I didn't feel like speaking up yesterday, but instead enjoyed my contained, low blood pressure.
With that said, how did you find the show?
*And note: the lights did come on towards the beginning of the show and stay on during its duration.
14 years ago
