Street Fairs, Events, Festivals

Hi People. How about letting me know how you did at your events (vendors). I'd really like to hear from you and you can email me at starvingvendors@aol.com. My website is http://www.starvingvendors.com/ and I have many reviews of events to read.

There are many shows each weekend and I'd like you to share that information with me on how you did, problems, the good things, the nightmares, etc.

I just heard from a lady that did the Central Valley Pizza Festival (Lemoore) and she hit the hammer right on the nail. Some of her comments were: we did it for the first and last time!!! There was only four to six "crafter's" there...... the rest was resale and food. Weather was HOT and as another vendor said people were walking around like they were in a daze...... I will give the award for the rudest kids to this street fair...... As a matter of fact, rude is too nice of a word to use. This is the first place I have ever had to ask anyone to leave my space...... There was a guy walking around with the huge snake wrapped around his neck. I saw one girl who was trying to get away fall over a bike..... also saw a vendor fall and they had no way to get an emergency vehicle in there.... but they did walk in to help him.... Also, porta potties were about half way back in the parking lot... and by noon they were filthy.... two porta potties at the end of the street I was on (the carnival end)... Was told they were too expensive to have any more than the two. BTW, I look at your site daily and love it!!

You know what? I believe her because we were vendors last year at this event and I had many of the similar occurences. Click here to read my review of the Pizza Festival Seems like they have to get a whole new bunch of vendors every year.

I would love to hear from other people. Let's hear about the Chandler Ostrich Festival in Arizona. Anybody else do Manteca? Clovis?

Craftmaster News new feature

CRAFTMASTER NEWS subscribers. New feature. You are now able to provide reviews of events you have done. Select a time period from last year and scroll down and find events you have done. Select one and then you will see an area at the bottom of the page provided for your reviews. Luckily, you might find other reviews also. Tim just started this and I think it's a great idea. I really love to hear what others have to say about their shows and it provides insight for me. It's a lot better than the reviews on the paper copies of CFG because you just don't see those 'one liners'.

If you want to read more reviews of events, please go to my website, Starving Vendors where I have detailed descriptions of many events we have done over the years along with loads of other information, etc. Go to the menu and choose Guide to Shows>Events and then choose the dates. We have just finished doing shows in Tyson Wells. Sell-a-Rama and the Arts & Crafts Show. I also have reviews from last year of upcoming shows. Whiskey Flat Days Ripon Almond Blossom Festival and the Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival

Mini-reviews of some 2008 events

Check out our mini-reviews of numerous events we participated in during this year. Included in this group are the Apricot Fiesta in Patterson, Ceres Street Fair, Marina International Fesival of Winds, Clovis Big Hat Days, Casa de Fruta in Hollister, Los Banos Street Fair, Hercules Cultural Festival, Cambria A&C Show, and Millers-Y in South Lake Tahoe.

Starving Vendors Mini-Review of Events

For other longer versions of review, please go to the Starving Vendors website and check events/reviews.

Reviews of July and August Events

We are providing reviews of our events during the months of July and August, 2008 in our Starving Vendors website.
Hayward Zucchini Festival, Hayward, CA ... They 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?
Douglas County Fair, Roseburg, OR... The setting sun brought out large crowds, but mostly kids. There's a concert about 40 yards from us and IT IS LOUD. Earlier this evening we had a pig run into the booth. Unbelievable. The music continued all night long and we could not hear our customers
Deschutes County Fair, Redmond, OR... was another slow day and worse than Wednesday. Alice Cooper did a 2-hour performance and afterwards, most of the crowd made a beeline for the gate. The carnival has been hopping and that's where a lot of the crowd goes. Coos County Fair, Myrtle Point, OR... Last day of the fair. Better crowd late morning, but this is Saturday and should be the busiest day. A bit slow mid-afternoon. Weather is great. Slight breeze.
Winchester Bay (OR) Oceanfest... It was pretty much dead on Friday morning and people didn't start showing up until noon time. Seemed like mostly tourists and they weren't buying much. Lots of kids with the 'itchy finger syndrome.' It was sunny most of the day with arriving and departing clouds. Winds picked up closer to noontime and increased in velocity throughout the day and kept up well into the night. Our canopy stayed intact, but the wind was whipping the top cover up, down, left, right, etc.
Mt. Shasta 4th of July ... They really came out on Friday and the place was alive and buzzing. People were buying.... I was located over in the Castle Street area and that part is a 3-day show. On Saturday, booths are set up for a two-day show on the main street. This is to allow various events to occur on Friday... a run/walk with a lot of participants and a long parade. Very enjoyable

Vendors Comments

Hi Vendors. Thank you for visiting this blog. I would appreciate if some of you could comment on events you have done I would like to hear about it. How have your shows gone? There's events all over the place. Sales up? Sales down? Buying crowds? I would like to also post your comments on my Starving Vendors website. If your show was bad, tell me why. Ditto for the good. Just input your comment at the end of this entry. Thank you.

Voice of the Vendor

Hello fellow vendors. I now have an area on my Starving Vendors website where you can view comments made regarding shows, festivals, promoters, etc. If you have done a show recently (good or bad), place your remarks in the 'comments' area below and I will put them on the following page:

http://www.starvingvendors.com/voice_of_the_vendor.html

I will post this notice every Monday and I would like to hear from our vendors out there on how they did the previous weekend. Thank you very much.

Vendors' Comments

Hi Vendors. Thank you for visiting this blog. I would appreciate if some of you could comment on events you have done or just gone to. Russell City Blues coming up in Hayward; Cornfest in Brentwood. How about your July 4th shows. There were lots of them all over the place. Sales up? Sales down? Buying crowds? I would like to also post your comments on my Starving Vendors website. If your show was bad, tell me why. Ditto for the good. Need your comments.

Patterson Apricot Fiesta

This weekend it was off to Patterson, 70 miles away from us, for the Apricot Fiesta. This was the 5th year we have done the show and most of the time, it has been hot. However, temps were in the low 80's this weekend and quite comfortable. Pretty decent crowds came out on Saturday, but many fewer on Sunday. Sales were okay on Sat; down considerably on Sun. A lot of vendors did poorly. However, it was so nice to do a show locally and one with decent weather. The past three weeks we have had to endure 40 degrees in Marina, 104 in Oakdale and 38 in Lake Tahoe.



Didn't eat much there. Had some Lockeford Sausage which was delicious. Been buying it for years at many of the festivals we have been in. Only $5.00 for a big sausage topped with saurkraut if you desire. MMMMM. I had garlic fries twice from a different vendor...on Saturday they were pretty decent, but on Sunday, I must respond with "Where's the Garlic?"


In an attempt to satisfy my recent cravings for a Philly Cheesesteak and purchased one from one of the other vendors. Oh my gosh. Completely tastless. One of the poorer ones I have ever had.