7.08.2010

My first craft fair

A couple of weeks ago, I bit the bullet and paid for booth space for a craft fair this past weekend.  The site of the fair was Friendswood's 4th of July celebration, but on the 5th of July, as the 4th was a Sunday.  I chose this event because it was very close to home, reasonably priced, and I had decent hopes of a crowd that would have some spending cash.

It was supposed to be in the park, under trees and away from cement.  However, massive rains flooded the park.  They had to play it safe in the event that it did not dry in time and moved it to a nearby parking lot.

I borrowed a pop-up shelter from work to use to keep us out of the sun's rays and packed it in the truck for set-up.

We got up at 5:45 Monday morning, grabbed breakfast, and got the last few items packed into the truck.  We made it to the site around 7:30 after a short 2 mile drive.  We were early compared to most vendors, and I expected we would be, but it made for a leisurely set up.  We were able to get our area set up and then help a number of other vendors get their shelters set up as well.

Crowds were sparse until after the parade ended, around 10:45.  Actually, crowds were sparse all day.  We had two sales, before noon, and that's it. 

The heat really picked up around 1 pm and K and I partially dozed during parts of the afternoon because of it.  We were under the shade of the shelter all day, but I still managed to pick up a decent sunburn.  No pain, and it's pretty much faded into tan already, but it was still amazing.

The band shut down around 3 pm, and then vendors did not wait much longer.  No one else was still around.

We got everything packed up in about 20 minutes, helped a couple of folks take down their shelters and then headed home.  A quick, cool shower revived me a little.

We might do this again next year, since the fireworks and parade will be on the same day, and that will get more folks out to check out the vendors, I hope.

We did not make back the cost of the booth, but a number of folks took business cards.  I hope they take a look at my artfire site and decide there's something without which they can not survive.

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