Some bad festivals we have done

We've been doing events now for over 15 years and we have most certainly done some real doozies. Here are some of the one's we have done over the years (in no particular order)

Vacaville Bizarre Bazaar. Held in downtown Vacaville (CA) on a couple streets. I guess it was held in April and we did it three times in our early years. It seemed to always be raining or cloudy and cool. One year, the vendor next to us tripped on the curb and broke his ankle. As the name of this blog suggests, this ain't paradise!!! A bad show.

Vacaville Harvest Days. This event was held over two weekends at the Nut Tree in Vacaville, adjacent to Highway 80. Long ago, there was a restaurant, etc., there by the name of Nut Tree and it was a great stopover for travelers. People that traveled Highway 80 between San Francisco and Sacramento back in the 70's and 80's would remember the place dearly. Very nice place to take the kids, grab some snacks, etc. However, it hit hard times a number of years ago and closed because people had other places to go. October 20-21 and October 27-28.

Anyway, they have capitalized on the Nut Tree name and built a number of stores there. The show was poorly organized. On the first weekend it was held in front and there was virtually no foot traffic. Heavy winds at night blew over our canopy. Thank gosh we had taken our merchandise home because we were aware of the local riff-raffs!!! On the second weekend, it was held in the back in the Pumpkin Patch, which turned out to be even worse. Everybody had poor sales. Everybody!!! Very poor traffic flow and people just were not interested. Take the kids to the Pumpkin Patch, grab a pumpkin and drive away. We were forced to walk a very long ways to the bathrooms. Promoters claimed they couldn't put porta potties back there for our convenience. City this, city that, fire department this, police department that.... they were ready to blame the failure of Vacaville Harvest Days on everybody else except themselves. So, people the moral of the story is to never do this event. You are not going to make any money, There is no paradise there...keep on truckin!!! And the other moral of the story? If you are ever going to leave your canopy up overnight, either put up all or none of your side panels. Mistakenly, I only put up 3 and the canopy caught the wind over night and toppled over. What a mess in the morning!! Vacaville Harvest Days ... what a mess.

Watsonville Burrito Bash. This was an event that happed around 13 ago in Watsonville (CA), located north of Monterey. Very hot that weekend. Hot, hot, hot!! That year they decided to eliminate beer sales there and the people didn't like that. I say 'let em drink'... as long as they don't get rowdy, let 'em drink!! Quite often, some of them spend more money when they are saused. Located next to a very dry field and they were giving helicopter tours. Oh my gosh...when it took off, it blew dirt, sand, mowed grass and everything else all over the place. We were selling beaded-T-shirts back then and they got pretty filthy. We packed up early Sunday and got the heck out of there. I don't see this festival around anymore, thank gosh and paradise was never found here!!!

Newark Days. We did this event on September 22-23 last year as a fill-in. Rained quite hard on Friday, but fortunately the rain stopped around 6:00AM on Saturday morning. Occasional sprinkles on Saturday and cloudy much of the weekend. This was a bad event to do. Booths were located in a parking lot, away from the rides and food, so you are not going to get much of a traffic flow. Many of the people entered through this way and departed, not even looking at the booths. They claimed that they get 130,000 people for this event. I am sorry, we have to file a missing person's report on this one. I guess 100,00 people were abducted by aliens or something, I'm going to stay away from this one forever and a good idea for you to stay away also. Most definitely not paradise.

Next week, perhaps on Tuesday, I'll give you the lowdown on some more bad events we did over the years shows....Orinda Holiday Bazaar, Ripon Almond Blossom Festival and the Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival there too and also the Cupertino Fall Festival.

Join me later this week when we take a look at some of the worst weather we have ever had to endure at festivals. Heat, heavy rains and strong winds are three elements that I can no deal with!!We had flooding at the Chandler Ostrich Festival two years ago; rain, snow and 38-degree temperatures at Lake Tahoe over this Memorial Day weekend; 108-degree temperatures at the Dixon Lambtown Festival many years ago on the day that the power went out up and down West Coast; Coarsegold Mountain Festival last September; the Jackson County Fair (Oregon) and it's 106 degree temperatures with sand being kicked up by winds and dragging feet. Many problems.