Sat, August 16. HAYWARD, CA. Unbelieveable. Welcome to Zucchini Ghostown, USA. There were AT LEAST 120 vendors missing from this dying event. Booths spread amongst the trees with huge empty spaces in between. And here I am, crammed up into a 12x12 space along the sidewalk with 3 other vendors. In my 17 years of doing events, I have never seen such a decline in the number of vendors. Wow.... where did everybody go?
Last year was pretty bad and that's why they are MIA. There's probably 30 vendors in back of our booth (spread around) and it seems like one-half of them are new. Out in the field, we have huge open spaces. Something is terribly wrong.
The entertainment was so-so again. I had the second worst Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich of my life. Don't ever get a Philly cheese from a Greek food booth. Awful. From another food vendors I got a combo of mushrooms, zucchini and I don't know what the hell the other thing was. Not very good also.
This show has pretty much hit rock bottom and one of the few ways to survive is to offer booths to vendors for $150 next year...instead of $350. Crowds were down considerably and things didn't pick up until 2-3:00PM. Poor sales; bad attitudes. There is a handful of vendors who are showing some kind of profit at this event, but that is the The weather was absolutely marvelous and the winds never kicked up in the afternoon. And of course, how would you like to be a vendor at an event that forces you to load your stuff in the dark (no #$#(@# lights around) and swerve your way around trees, people, vehicles. etc. This thing ends at 7:30PM on Sunday and gets dark shortly after that.
And of course, the Zucchini Bread was terrific, as always. I always pick up a couple loaves on the Saturday of the event and they are always devoured by my family by Sunday afternoon. Delicious. Well done.
Sunday, August 17. Weather was okay...a bit cloudy in the AM. Decent late-morning crowd and we had a much larger turnout than on Saturday. Better sales for us today, but not necessarily for other vendors. A number of vendors did very poorly. Person selling silver jewelry next to me had many items stolen. This show still attracts a lot of riff-raff. Music wasn't very good. I had another Philly Cheese Steak from another food vendor and that was bad too. Somehow, I get the feeling that I had leftovers from Saturday. Meat rather dry and chunky. Had some decent Garlic Fries and a good combo basket with mushrooms, zucchini and cheese.
Vendors had to wait until 7:30 to bring their vehicles in to load up and that, my readers, totally sucks. Not being fair to the vendors. The let the music play until 7:30 PM and SOME YEARS it goes longer than that. Come on now.... it's dangerous for us to load up when it gets dark because THERE ARE NO LIGHTS AND DIFFICULT TO SEE. I guess they are waiting for somebody to get run over? Hellooooooooo. Absolutely no reason in the world to extend the show beyond 6:00, which is two hours after a lot of other shows end. Also, there were no Festival Programs handed out this year.
Expect more new vendors next year. Poor management led to so many booths missing this year.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
At the Zucchini Festival
Hayward Zucchini Festival
Why on earth is the music going on until 7:30PM. That is way too late. On Sunday evening, vendors want to come in and load up and leave....especially before it gets dark. Richard Essi, every year people have to maneuver their way around in the dark and it is rather difficult. Give the vendors a break.
I know that the fair is going through hard times right now and is not as good as it was in the past when the entertainment was much better and did not bring in so much a drinking crowd as it does now. Let's go a different direction with the entertainment next year, if we do manage to have another Zucchini Festival. I can't recall a lot of the singers/groups over the years, but Juice Newton was okay years ago, Paul Revere and the Raiders was quite nostalgic for people and enjoyable. Elvis impersonators were always interesting. The wrestling thing had to go. If you get the right entertainment in here, you can increase attendance dramatically.
It is nice to be able to set up our booths on Friday, because Saturday morning is such a mess and you can not make it around a lot of the booths to unload. However, I did see quite a number of new vendors this time and we all know what that indicates.
Let's get this thing over with at 6:00..... which is two hours later than a lot of events conclude on Sunday. Chime in on this people.
Hayward Zucchini Festival Aug 16-17
