Mount Shasta 4th of July Festival

Mount Shasta City, CA July 2-4, 2009

DandL CREATIONS will be located on Castle Street for all three days. Come on over and check out our shoulder sling bags, wrap-around skirt, tote bags, hand-made shell and semi-precious necklaces; great looking turquoise and agate necklace sets-affordable. We also sell parasols, garden sticks, small stools (great for the parade), shell creations and a lot more.

Thank gosh the weather will not be as hot as it was a couple years ago. It's a great festival and gets loads of people attending on July 4th and hopefully people will visit the many booths on the days prior, Thursday and Friday.

click here to read what I had to say about last year's event.

For you crafters, vendors, etc. that subscribe to Craftmaster News. Recognize the picture? This is one I took a couple years ago from about 20 feet up from my booth. This photo was on the cover of the April/May issue. Isn't that a beautiful place? Looking at the mountain, you might think that it's kind of cold there? Uh uh uh. That day it was 106 degrees...at least. It can hot there.

Dogs at Festivals, Arts and Craft Shows, etc.

This weekend I was a vendor at the Foster City Arts and Wine Festival and there were lots of people and pretty much a decent event.

However, there appears to be a huge dog population in the area and many of the owners like to take their 'significant mutters' to the event. I have seen loads of dogs at many events and I can't understand why any normal person would want to bring their dog to such a place.

What really bothers me is that there are many instances of dogs urinating in people's booths and a lot of the vendors do not realize where those puddles in their booths are coming from. A friend of mine noticed that a dog had urinated on his table covers and had to throw it away. I had a mysterious puddle in my booth and it wasn't until later that it dawned on me that the only way that could have appeared in my space was for a dog to have relieved itself. This is digusting people. Have you no shame? You bring your mutts to these shows and you are so uncaring that you allow 'that thing' of yours to urinate around people's belongings. I have seen your dogs pee in front of my booth on many occasions throughout the years. Leave your damm dogs at home, okay? I'm not even going to mention about your dogs sticking their noses on our clothing, etc. after they have walked around sniffing other dog's booties.

Los Banos Street Faire - April 18, 2009

We arrived at our space and set up. It was 7:00 and it was already getting warm. Crowds were late and very light throughout the day, as compared to other year's here. There were way too many booths for the amount of people attending and the people around here do not have much money. Sales were down this year for us, but we didn't do 'terrible' like some of the other vendors.

I can't understand why you have 4 blocks of vendors, etc. and you are only providing 6 porta-potties. Three on a side street in the middle of the show and another 3 at the far end (our end, luckily) at a car show across the street. Still a long walk. To read my review of this event and many others please click here.

BOOTH FEES: $50 for one space; $80 for two. Anything goes. Excellent. When people are buying, the 'value' of the show is $80-$100. Note: This event is held in mid-April, right on the outer fringes of our rainy season and weather could be a problem. Thus, perhaps the reason for low booth fees.

PROMOTERS: They handle the show pretty good and there is a good police presence throughout the event. Very nice. However, they do not send confirmation of acceptance and need to work on the porta-pottie solutionn.

THE GOOD: Cheap. Spaces are 15 feet wide. Great for us and others who need to display ln side of canopy. Parking not a problem, at least on the far end. They had people sit in for vendors leaving for toilet and food breaks.

THE BAD: Porta potties. Car show in separate area across the street. Food booths spaced amongst vendors. Might be better to put them all in a separate area. There were a number of non-profit hot dogs, etc. I don't know if they would do any good if they were together with other food vendors.

Riconada Hills Bazaar

Going to do the Riconada Hills Bazaar in Los Gatos. I guess this is a new location for this promoter's show and is held the last Saturday of the month from 9AM-4PM. Located at 1500 Pollard Road at the shopping center. click here for more info. Alpha Zeta Events.

Evidently, this show was held at a different location previously. Can anybody give me some info about it? Thank you...dave

check out Starving Vendors where you can see reviews from many of the events we have done. Also listings of European, Philippine Festivals and a whole lot more. Great site!! You'll love it.

Clovis Big Hat Days Festival - April 4-5

Big Hat Days in Clovis will be held on April 4-5. For an application, click here

Booth spaces are expensive, running around $435 for commercial and A&C. About two hundred dollars too high for me. Include gas and motel prices...ouch. However, they do get one heck of a lot of vendors for this show and also a huge crowd. Here is my review of last year's event: Too
Weather was great. Big crowds, they came out for this one. Show is over-priced for vendors. A lot of people did Manteca's Street Faire, but I would stay away from that one. They added more booths (again) this year in Clovis. We were located all the way at the end of Section J here in Clovis, but that wasn't too bad.

Click here to read the remainder of this review.

Living Green in the Kern River Valley - event

Another Kern River Valley opportunity for VENDORS is LIVING GREEN IN THE KERN RIVER VALLEY (March 27-30, 2009) See www.KRVR.org for details.There is a 'Green Expo" all day Saturday, March 28 in Wofford Heights. 26 vendors already signed up (as of 2-12-09)

VENDOR FORM

download flyer

Los Banos - Mother's Day Arts and Crafts Fair

Mother's Day Arts and Crafts Fair. Here's a nice event for that weekend held in Los Banos.

LOS BANOS TIGER SHARKS ANNUAL "It's a Beautiful Day in the Park"
Saturday and Sunday, May 9-10, 2009 9:00AM-5:00PM
Booth fee $75 for 15x15 space (approximate) flyer application

Festivals of Texas

I just found a nicely designed website that lists events in Texas. It's called Festivals of Texas and breaks down into five areas of the state....North, East, Central, South and West. Describes event and provides contact numbers. Good site if you are either a vendor or are looking for festivals in your area.

Some of the shows included are: 12th ANNUAL SPRINGFEST WINE, ART & FOOD FESTIVAL, ROCKPORT’S CLAY EXPO, 63rd ANNUAL ST. PATRICK’S DAY CELEBRATION (in Shamrock), LUBBOCK ARTS FESTIVAL, OILMAN’S CHILI COOK-OFF, 37th ANNUAL REDBUD FESTIVAL and a lot more.

The have a page entitled 'searching for vendors' which comes in handy. There are parts of the website under construction. Very nicely done.

Store Fixtures

If you are a vendor or store owner, I am providing you with a number of businesses that sell store fixtures.....i.e. grids, shelves, display cases and much, much more. I've been to all of these over the years and those are the places where I have picked up things for our booth and store (that we once had).

Nearly New Store Fixtures, 3950 Norwood Ave, Sacramento, CA - (916) 920-3003 (this is a big warehouse up in Sacramento that has used fixtures they picked up from store liquidations. Interesting. You could browse here for hours.

These other three sell new fixtures:
Visual Merchandising Systems, 2260 Paragon Dr, San Jose, CA 95131 408-436-1307
Grand & Benedicts Fixtures, 2368 Tripaldi Way, Hayward, CA (510) 782-1988
Union Store Supplies & Fixtures 22128 Mission Blvd, Hayward,. CA - (510) 881-2845

Shows, Festivals and Events

If you are a vendor, I'd like to find out how you did/are doing this weekend. Especially if you are at the Orinda Holiday Bazaar. I was rained out at DeAnza today and the rain was widespread throughout Northern California.

Did anybody else drop by the Orinda event today? Kind of curious. Large crowd. Small crowd. Spending. Not spending. Wet crowd, Dry crowd. Either comment in this blog or send me an email at StarvingVendors@aol.com Drop by Starving Vendors and read what I have to say about many events and other things Loads and loads of stuff to read. You will love it. Great reading on a cold, rainy evening, ya know?

Anybody out there participate in any other events? Or visit anything else?

You can order shell necklaces, cowrie chokers and a whole lot more at our main website: www.dandlcreations.com

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.

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.

Mt. Shasta City 4th of July Celebration

Very nice event. We arrived Thursday afternoon and set up most of our booth. The weather was great, but a little hazy from all the smoke. Temps were in the mid -80's and quite comfortable. We spent the night at a local motel and then returned to our booth around 5:30AM on Friday morning.

We were ready for everybody at 7:00, as were just about all the other vendors, expecting a large crowd from the run/walk event scheduled around 8:00. Quite a difference from last year, when temps soared to 110 degrees.

Attendence was very good today, as they started the day off with the walk/run and then had their parade. I believe that today's crowd was mostly 'locals' and there weren't too many tourists. I checked outside my motel and the parking lot outside my room is virtually empty. Maybe they have heard exagerrations of the fires up here, which are some distance away.

People...it's a beautiful weekend here in Mt Shasta City and temps are only in the mid-80's. Very nice breezed. So, come on down or up to the celebration which runs through Sunday. Many vendors over the next two days. Come on over and see us on Castle St. (D and L CREATIONS) and buy one of our popular shoulder/sling bags

Inhaling Helium-filled balloons

While at the Hercules Cultural Festival there was a business in back of me giving away free helium-filled balloons. Child after child came over to get one and many of them would open them up and suck in the helium, enabling them to talk like 'Donald Duck'.

A while back, I read something explaining the dangers of inhaling helium (nitrous oxide). Sure, we all have done it many times and it does get kind of funny. However, I just did some research on inhaling helium (search Google yourself and see what you come up with) and found that this is indeed a dangerous practice. I have never myself seen anything happen to somebody inhaling helium and I do not want to be a party pooper, but reality is that.

Here is just one of the stories I read.

A 10-year-old in New Jersey child collapsed at a birthday party after sucking helium from a balloon. Is helium really that dangerous? It can be. Breathing in pure helium deprives the body of oxygen, as if you were holding your breath. If you couldn't breathe at all, you'd start to die in minutes—as soon as your body exhausted the supply of oxygen stored in the blood. But helium speeds up this process: When the gas fills your lungs, it creates a diffusion gradient that washes out the oxygen. In other words, each breath of helium you take sucks more oxygen out of your system. After inhaling helium, the body's oxygen level can plummet to a hazardous level in a matter of seconds.

You don't have to worry about fatal asphyxiation if you're sucking from a helium balloon at a party. At worst you'll keep going until you get lightheaded and pass out—at which point you'll stop inhaling helium and your body's oxygen levels will return to normal.

Link to dangers of inhaling helium

And another link

This blog contains a lot of information for vendors and I provide information regarding festivals, A&C Shows, etc. Basically, people who participate in or go to shows and festivals are the ones reading this. When your child runs over to get one of those helium-filled balloons, please be sure that they do not inhale the helium (or you either) and if you see a business giving away the ballons and you notice kids opening the balloons and inhaling the helium, please let them know that something bad could happen to them.

It's nice for businesses to give away the balloons to the kids...... kind of a 'pacifier' for some etc. But I think that these people that do give away the ballons have to post some kind of 'disclaimer' or a notice informing parents/kids that inhaling helium is unsafe. It is a shame though, that nothing will ever be done until there is a casualty at a festival someplace and parents lose a loved one.

Oregon County Fairs

Each year in mid-July we pack up our motor home and head up to Oregon to sell at several county fairs. This year we are scheduled to participate in:

July 18-20 Oceanfest, Winchester Bay
July 22-26 Coos County Fair, Myrtle Point
July 30-3 Dechutes County Fair, Redmond
Aug 5-9 Douglas County Fair, Roseburg

Oregon is just such a nice place to visit and there are fairs virtually every week from May-September.

VENDORS: Many resources available that provide listings for these shows. http://www.craftmasternews.com/ is the best publication around. You also check Oregon County Fair listings on several websites which provide links and info for each event.

http://www.oregonfairs.org/dates.htm

VENDORS - check our reviews of festivals

During the past several years, we have done well over 100 events in California, Oregon and Arizona. I am providing reviews of these events on our website:

http://www.dandlcreations.com/reviews_2007.htm

Get the scoop on the shows, promoters, etc. and hear how the event was.