Salida Town and Country Fair and Festival

Salida, CA Saturday, August 22.


The booth fees for this event were quite reasonable. $75 for commercial, like us and $50 for A&C. Can't go too nutso over that? The information for the show said that it starts at 11:00 am and ended at 4:00 pm. So, we left home at 6:45 and drove down to Winchau's Donuts (spelling is correct.... formerly Winchell's but Chinese took it over) in San Lorenzo and picked up a bit to eat on the way. Salida is located on Highway 99, just south of Ripon and we arrived there around 8:00 So, if the show starts at 11:00 that meant we had 3 hours to set up. However, as we approached the event, I saw that 90 percent of the people were already set up and open for business. I most definitely didn't miss a darn thing. Amazing. I checked in and got my space number and was given directions to our space. I guess there were about 2 1/2 blocks of booths and I would say that 40-45 of them were vendors There were other non-profits and 5 food booths.





click here to read more on Starving Vendors

Sunk in the Lake

LAKE COUNTY FAIR. Just heard from them last week after giving them more than a month to decide. Fair is Labor Day Weekend. I sent in my application and they took their time responding. Several weeks ago, I was told that they had a 'new administration' and they were taking a long time deciding. After that, I attempted to get a decision by them and emailed them several times. Finally, last week I recieved a response:

I apologize for not meeting your expectations. However, at this time, we do not have a space for your merchandise. For a better chance in finding booth space at this fair, I would suggest putting in your application much sooner than the middle of July. Many of our vendors place an application with us just after they are posted on our web site in January. Thank you for your interest in our fair. ...... Ray

and I responded:Why didn't you tell me this in the first place? (no space) I am not impressed at all with the way this was handled and I really have no interest in ever doing your fair. Gosh, do you treat everybody like this? You people are terrible and quite inconsiderate and of course, I will pass this information on to my fellow vendors.

NOTE: If you hang on to an application longer than a week, then one would assume that they have been accepted. If you are filled with vendors, all you need to do is to inform people that you are full and that's the end of it. This is not a rocket science, you know. I am not somebody who is going to get three, maybe four spaces and I am sure that you would handle things differently. But me, I am a struggling vendor trying to make ends meet just like everybody else out there and I wish that you would treat us with a little dignity and respect instead of tossing our paperwork aside. I don't appreciate that and I am sure you wouldn't either if you were put in the same situation. Don't bullshit me, okay? One of these days, when you are struggling to find vendors, don't ever come looking for me. Seriously, if you treated me like this now, I can only imagine getting even more shafted if I were there. Hasta la vista, baby. And I speak for all the vendors around that have ever had this happen to them....You can kiss my ass!!

I have talked to people who are familiar with Ray and the Lake County Fair and they basically gave me good reports. But as far as I am concerned, their reputation is tainted and this could happen to you. I would like to encourage vendors to contact any event they submit applications for after one week has elapsed. Most importantly, ask them when their decision will be made.

Jefferson County Fair

Madras, OR July 22-25

We are presently selling at the Jefferson County Fair and it has been terrible. Nobody around and a number of us are in a very bad area of the fair. People can't see us. Don't really expect much to improve and I just have to watch out when I cross The Mine Field in front of us where the cows take dumps.

Monday, July 20. We arrived in Madras and quickly found the fairgrounds and went to the office at 12:00PM and checked in and got our space number in the RV Park a couple hundred yards away from our space. We also got our booth number out in the fairgrounds.. We then drove over and found our space. They had an area with two rows of around 8 booths each, one vertical, one horizontal. We were located in the second space of the farther row against the fence. The spaces weren't marked, so I had to pace off a 10x10 area. Even though we are two days early, we decided to get our canopy, grids and tables up. This area is scorching hot during the day time and we planned on returning either Tuesday morning or evening to get our things set up.

Please click here to read more about the Jefferson County Fair

Mount Shasta Fourth of July Festival 2009

We just did the 3-day festival up in Mount Shasta City.

On Wednesday, we left Hayward around 10:10 and had a few stops to make along the way. We arrived in Weed at 4:15PM and checked into our Motel and took a little rest. As we left the motel there were some drops of what I originally thought were rain on my windshield. But believe it or not, it was actually snow because of the shape of the crystals. I could not believe what my eyes were seeing. Maybe 5-10 small flakes that melted immediately. I looked over in the direction of Mount Shasta and saw some really ugly dark, ominous clouds surrounding it. We arrived in Mt Shasta City at 5:30 and began setting up our canopy. We stuck around until 8:00PM and didn't really accomplish very much since it was still quite warm. We also encountered a few sprinkles of something here and there and we had some threatening cloud formations. We closed everything up and headed back to the motel for the night.

To read more about the event, please click here.

Mount Shasta 4th of July Festival

Mount Shasta City, CA July 2-4, 2009

DandL CREATIONS will be located on Castle Street for all three days. Come on over and check out our shoulder sling bags, wrap-around skirt, tote bags, hand-made shell and semi-precious necklaces; great looking turquoise and agate necklace sets-affordable. We also sell parasols, garden sticks, small stools (great for the parade), shell creations and a lot more.

Thank gosh the weather will not be as hot as it was a couple years ago. It's a great festival and gets loads of people attending on July 4th and hopefully people will visit the many booths on the days prior, Thursday and Friday.

click here to read what I had to say about last year's event.

For you crafters, vendors, etc. that subscribe to Craftmaster News. Recognize the picture? This is one I took a couple years ago from about 20 feet up from my booth. This photo was on the cover of the April/May issue. Isn't that a beautiful place? Looking at the mountain, you might think that it's kind of cold there? Uh uh uh. That day it was 106 degrees...at least. It can hot there.

Pinole Cruisin in the Park

On Sunday, June 29, we were vendors at the 'Cruisin in the Park' car show at Fernandez Park in Pinole.

Left home at 5:10 and arrived at Fernandez Park around 5:45. I had to seek out Kathy, who showed us where our booth was to be located. I then drove the van over and we began setting up. This was in a ball field...deep second base just into right-center field. At least we weren't way out in left field, which was actually the far end of the show.We were able to park the van behind the booth. They had a lot of cars on display in the event....perhaps a hundred on the field in front of us and more off to the left. There were many more spread througout the event all the way over to San Pablo Avenue.

To read more about the show from a vendor's perspective, please visit my website:
http://www.starvingvendors.com/Events_Pinole_Crusin_in_the_Park_Car_Show_June_2009.html

Vendor News

I have just started a new Forum for people selling at festivals, arts and crafts shows, etc. Please stop by and contribute. The old forum that we were using had a lot of problems and this looks like it's going to run a lot more smoothly,

Vendor News

Free Overnight Parking at Indian Casinos

I have found a website that I would like to share with you that lists FREE RV PARKING at Indian Casinos throughout the country. A lot of times when I travel in my motor home, I spend the night at one of these. The ones that I have stayed at are pretty safe and there are other RV's parked around.

http://www.casinocamper.com/States.htm

I am going to compile a listing of places where you can park for free in the Western States. I believe that a lot of Wal-marts allow parking still.

Listen to this 14-year old female sensation

Nikki's new single is out - 'When I look in your eyes'

Check out this young sensational up and coming female vocalist. Only 14 years old and she's going to be pretty good. Downloads are available at www.cdbaby.com/cd/nikkiamber or you can visit her website http://www.nikkiamber,net/. You may contact her on myspace www.myspace.com/nikkiamberbabyy.

THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING HER.

Isleton Crawdad Festival Cancelled

Isleton Crawdad Festival Cancelled!!!

The city of Isleton has cancelled its annual Crawdad Festival this year.
The event had been scheduled for June 19-21. It typically features crawdads - crayfish - prepared in all manner of ways, Cajun music and plenty of vendors.

City Manager Bruce Pope told News10 a drop in vendor participation prompted the decision. With the festival requiring a sizable financial investment upfront, Pope said the Chamber of Commerce determined the risk was too much for the town.

However, City Councilman Jim Corsaut said last year's experience was a bad one for vendors.
"A lot of them said they wouldn't be back this year," said Corsaut, because of "the way they were treated by the fire chief."Chief Bob Bartley says he was merely enforcing the fire codes required by law. http://www.news10.net/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=59803

MY 2 CENTS WORTH: Thank you vendors for not giving in and giving away your money. I am not aware of all the facts, but I am pretty certain that the fire chief is not at total fault for this. Fees were kind of high $450, but I don't think that was the main reason for vendors not participating. Can anybody give me some input on this?

31st Annual Hercules Cultural Festival

Saturday, June 6, 2009, 10:00am-7:00pm and Sunday, June 7, 2009, 10:00am-6:00pm.

This will be the 31st Annual Cultural Festival which is held in our beautiful tree lined Refugio Valley Park located at the corner of Refugio Valley Road and Sycamore Avenue in Hercules. This festival was established in 1978, in conjuction with local community organizations, in order to celebrate the rich ethnic diversity within our community. The event has grown over the years and is always held the first weekend in June. This two day event is our marquee event serving nearly 10,000 people from all around the Bay Area.

DandL Creations will be there selling their popular shoulder sling bags in space#32. Also many varieties of shell and semi-precious necklaces, tote bags and a whole lot more. Check them out.

To read more about the event, please click here.

Please join the Starving Vendors Forum where you can see what others are saying about events, etc., and give your two cents worth. Of course, please check out Starving Vendors website where you can read many reviews of shows and get info.

Dogs at Festivals, Arts and Craft Shows, etc.

This weekend I was a vendor at the Foster City Arts and Wine Festival and there were lots of people and pretty much a decent event.

However, there appears to be a huge dog population in the area and many of the owners like to take their 'significant mutters' to the event. I have seen loads of dogs at many events and I can't understand why any normal person would want to bring their dog to such a place.

What really bothers me is that there are many instances of dogs urinating in people's booths and a lot of the vendors do not realize where those puddles in their booths are coming from. A friend of mine noticed that a dog had urinated on his table covers and had to throw it away. I had a mysterious puddle in my booth and it wasn't until later that it dawned on me that the only way that could have appeared in my space was for a dog to have relieved itself. This is digusting people. Have you no shame? You bring your mutts to these shows and you are so uncaring that you allow 'that thing' of yours to urinate around people's belongings. I have seen your dogs pee in front of my booth on many occasions throughout the years. Leave your damm dogs at home, okay? I'm not even going to mention about your dogs sticking their noses on our clothing, etc. after they have walked around sniffing other dog's booties.