Wow. Every bit as bad as I thought it would be and worse. Got there at 6:30. They were putting up the canopies that we were being FORCED to use. Ours was still laying on the ground. No big deal, I just arrived there a little bit ahead of schedule. Set up was set to begin at 7:00. My part of the canopy was up at 7:12 and I then came on over with my van. Somewhat difficult to set up. We put up our grids, which were quite unstable, as I mentioned before and then we put up our merchandise.
Most of the crowd (crowd? What crowd?) came before noon and a large majority hung around to watch the entertainment, which was subpar until the young ladie's began performing around 1:30 and that sparked things up.
It was overcast and foggy all day long and a bit breezy at times. Common for this area... I lived in Pacifica just over the hill and in 7 months in 1981 I only saw the sun for 4 days. Not too many people arrived during the afternoon and the crowds dwindled down. Sales were poor for us and a number of the other vendors had a bad hair day also and this just not worth it. Very cheap crowd. Free admission, so would you expect? Event was held in a parking lot at Serramonte in back of Target. Kind of spread out and they could have placed booths in closer proxmity to one another.
During the latter part of the afternoon we felt the large canopy being lifted in the air and being plopped back down on the ground. Kind of like an earthquake? I thought we were goners. The wind had parachuted into the canopy and jolted it around. Canopies were not properly weighed down. My grids almost toppled over and were now leaning inward about two feet and I tried to push them back into position and wasn't able to.
A few minutes later, one of the ladie's in charge of the event just happened to be passing by and I told her what just happened with the canopies and what it did to my beautiful display. She said that she saw what happened when she was standing down on the other end. I told her that these canopies are unsafe and I was going to remove all my things tonight and not come back on Sunday. I asked for a refund for one day and replied extremely bluntly, "NO, YOU ARE NOT GETTING A REFUND.' I just shook my head. "This is not my fault, your canopies here are dangerous. They are not properly secured" She told me that the men were going to come tonight and secure the canopies better. Hell, they should have done it correctly in the first place. So, we do not return on Sunday...... that's the end of the Daly City Fil-Am Festival for us which we had been associated with for 8-9 years in the past. Salamat, arriva derchi, hasta la vista, adios, zai jian, au revoir, shalom .... GOOD BYE. And of course, did not find Paradise here either!!!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Fil-Am Festival, Daly City
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3 comments:
I am sorry to hear you were so disappointed with the festival. Although I was not part of the planning committee, I am the Marketing Director for Serramonte Shopping Center and was hoping this event would be a nice community event for us to be the host location. As simply the host location, we were not involved in the majority of the planning, but I will pass your comments along to the committee for feedback. I know the anchors were a hinderance to your booth display, but they were necessary to make sure the tents didn't fly away as we have lots of wind in Daly City. I'm sorry that it still wasn't anchored properly Saturday and will be sure to pass that along to the committee as well. I was there today, Sunday and would have introduced myself to do what I could to make it right, but you were not there! I bought several things myself and it looked crowed to me. I hope you will re-considering being involved in future years.
Sincerely,
Cherie Napier
Marketing Manager
Serramonte Shopping Center
Thank you so much for your comments, Cherie. Deeply appreciated. The total arrangement of the booths leaves a lot to be desired. Spread out too far. We do roughly 40 events throughout the year and highly prefer to use our own canopy. No problems with the wind, as it sets lower than the ones used AND we set up approx 17 grids along the sides, tying them on the side and securing them at the top.
This could not be done with your canopies and when we had a very strong gust of wind come along, which raised the row of canopies and deposited them about a food toward the back, my grids leaned forward about 2 feet and I found it to be unsafe.
I think that the shows they had at Westlake Mall were more organized and people were closer to one another. I think that there was around 100 feet between the two rows of canopies.
I was really shocked to see that there was no security provided. It is extremely hard for us to take down our merchandise and then spend an unnecessary 2-3 hours on Sunday morning putting all these things back in. Put yourself in our place...my wife and I are in our mid 50's and this is a lot of wear and tear on us.
We really enjoy doing these Filipino Festivals (my wife is Filipina) and look forward to doing such events in the future. However, conditions were intolerable and there are other shows to do. Please remember these important words.... everybody involved with the festival (promoters, attendees, vendors, etc.) should be able to walk away from an event satisfied. Thank you...dave
Dear Cherie:
I also was a vendor at the Fil-Am Festival. I found management to be exceptionally nice. I agree the enetertainment was sub-par I liked the string veteran group on Sun as too much American entertainment (even if performed by Filipinos).
I was there on Sunday & you did not stop by & introduce yourself. I was the hat vendor with 20'. One of the reasons that we showed was my Filipina wife was interested.
I had two complaints. Security. I did 62 events last year & have been doing shows for 12 years. This is the first show I have done that charges vendors full price (or more) without security. I never would have applied had I known. I spoke with your security 3 times & got 3 different stories. Finally I was shown how they will enter the area about hourly. We packed up most of our inventory & re-set up on Sunday.
The other is I want to use MY canopy. MY canopy is wind safe. I complained to management who said Serremonte Mall insisted that we use YOUR canopies as Serremonte Mall didn't want to have a bunch of rat tag canopies that looked like a flea market.
1) Your Farmers Market didn't look like a rag tag flea market but they use many different colors & styles of canopies.
2) I have won Best Booth Award at two shows (Pismo Beach ClamFest & Oakhurst Mountain Peddlers Faire) so I look good. Your canopy hurt the safety & appearance of my booth.
3) My canopy is wind safe. I made it so the legs bolt into the 100 pound shelving units & have. The wind is going to have to pick up 8 75+ pound shelves + my grids to lift me. I was worried your canopy would flip & injure someone. I WAS PROMISED TO HAVE A WATER BARREL TIED TO MY CANOPY BUT IT DIDN'T HAPPEN. Had there been an injury, Serrmeonte Mall would have been liable even though I signed a release as I didn't get what I was promised & I asked twice.
3) The event was hurt by the lack of security. I know several vendors left leaving open spaces. It is such a small event that if we have to set up & pack up twice...it isn't worth it. For the record, my sales were just over half what I do in an average event.
Depending upon my calendar & if I can use my canopy & if there is overnight security & if they reduce the rent (maybe I was paying extra for that canopy)...I would return.
Alan
HolmPatches@aol.com
510) 799-HOLM
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