Pittsburg Seafood Festival Sep 6-7

Saturday, September 6, 2008. My gosh...where do I start with this one. One day gone; one day to go. Temps reached 101 degrees. It was terrably, excrutiatingly HOT. Please read my review Pittsburg Seafood Festival; I have lots to say about the Pittsburg Seafood Festival and certainly even more after today. Lots of people, but they just walked past the booths over to the food and entertainment areas and we were more or less, window dressing. We did catch our expenses, but that was by default.

I guess that you can truly refer to this event as a 'Seafood Festival' because there are a lot of food vendors selling seafood. Even saw somebody selling 'Alligator on a Stick.' No thank you, Vendors on the whole, did not do very good and it was a very hot day, with temps reaching 101 during the afternoon. Lots of people, but they were mostly heading for the food and tertainment areas, most of them bypassing the vendors. We were able to meet expenses today, but by default. We had NO SHADE. You know, one day does not make a show...but lots of problems here.

Vendors had to park in a lot well over a mile away from the Pittsburg Seafood Festival. Long hot walk and it was not enjoyable at all. When I had to walk back and forth from the festival, there were no shuttles to be seen. SUCKS.

WOMAN USING MEN'S TOILETS at the Pittsburg Seafood Festival. There were several bathroom facilities and each of them had a huge sign that said ...WOMEN ONLY. What the hell is going on here? Of course, we had the porta potties and you know what? They were pretty clean all day. Wouldn't that make you wonder exactly who is messing them up if most of the ladies are using the bathroom facilties? That's a crock of U-know what! They were being allowed to use the men's room also. What the hell....so are they sticking their butts inside the urinals... or are they standing in front and well...you know?

Trying to drive around the town was a nightmare. Construction, detours..can't go this way, can't go that way. Oh gosh. Pittsburg is a mess I don't know what they are doing, but it's a #(#*$# MESS!!

Sunday, Sept 7. A bit cooler and sales were somehat better. However, booth fees were $300 and this just aint going to make it. We determined that this is a $150 show at most. Crowd seemed to be a little less than Saturday, despite the cooler (91 degrees) weather. Good event if you are attending it. Air show at 3:00 and boat races. However, stinkarooski if you are a vendor. Just nothing more than window dressing, as thousands of people just pass by with nary a look.

The show ended at 6:00 and I imagine everybody was anxious to get out of there, I went to my van around 5:45 and parked in line at the far end of the event, preparing to come in. I was third in line and it wasn't long before there were several dozen vehicles behind me. They kept B.S. ing us about when we could get in....10 more minutes...5 minutes, 10 minutes, etc. and we finally got in just before 7:00. That's a crock of baloney because it would be getting dark again and didn't want to end up loading in the dark again like we were forced to do at the Hayward Zucchini festival a couple weeks earlier.

We loaded up quickly, as we had just about everything packed up and ready to load. As we were doing so, I noticed a long, long, long line of cars waiting to get in. It looked like they were going to be there for hours to come. We left around 7:30 and zig-zagged our way the decrepit downtown areas of Pittsburg. What a mess...construction and detours all over the place; stores closed for good, boarded up, broken windows. What a beautiful city these people have. Downtown area looks like hell. This is not a show I would recommend doing the Pittsburg Seafood Festival unless they lowered the fees to $50. Solly!!!