14th Annual Fil-Am Festival in Daly City

Fine print, no print, between the lines....call it what you may, but it looks like a number of vendors are getting screwed on this festival at Serramonte Mall. They (Mall) are requiring vendors to use the canopies they are setting up for us. There are a number of vendors, such as us, that sell merchandise and these canopies are not suited for our setups. Okay for insurance, health plans, local services, etc. But not good for a number of people that try to sell their products. With the sides attached, it's too dark inside. It is quite difficult to set up grids, etc. to display our things. In addition many of the canopies will have the big 4-foot high drums of water (to weigh down) sitting in front, posing an obstruction.

Most importantly, they are not providing security for us which means that we have to pack up our merchandise on Saturday night and bring it back for Sunday. Gosh, it takes us 3 hours to set up and another 1 1/2 hours to take our stuff down. So, I have to spend an extra 4 1/2 hours doing all this. We were never told about this before we paid our fees. The name of our business is DandL CREATIONS, so stop buy and see us...but do it on Saturday before if we have to pack up, THEN WE ARE NOT COMING BACK. Not on Sunday, next year or ever. My wife and I are too old for this crap. You can read more about shows, etc., on our websites.... STARVING VENDORS and DandL CREATIONS. I would really like to see promoters actuall accomodate vendors wishes, but I guess it's all about the dollar, in this one, the Peso!!!

My wife is Filipina and we really enjoy this type of event, where we can listen to the wonderful Filipino performances and taste some of the food being sold. I love lumpia, pancit, adobo, toron, etc. Please enjoy yourselves at the festival....it's free.

Coming Events

Here's a listing of DandL CREATIONS events through the month of July. Hope to see you there!!! Please check our website for great buys on shell necklaces, wrap-skirts and our complete schedule.

Jun 28-29..14th Annual Fil-Am Festival,Daly City,CA
Jul 4-6....4th of July Celebration, Mt. Shasta, CA
Jul 18-20..Oceanfest, Winchester Bay, OR
Jul 22-26..Coos County Fair, Myrtle Point, OR
Jul 30-3...Deschutes County Fair, Redmond, OR
Aug 5-9....Douglas County Fair, Roseburg, OR

Smoke, Clouds all over California

There are around 800 fires burning around the state and the smoke from the fires up north is drifting down here to the SF Bay Area. It's been extremely hazy the past several days and this has just about obliterated the sun. We are under a cover of smoke-filled clouds and it looks like it's getting worse day-ty-day.

Canopies

I just checked COSTCO and it looks like they've discontinued the Alumina design (low-end of low-end canopies). I'm sure there's a lot of websites selling canopies such as the EZ-Ups, etc.

Here's one website with a number of different designs that I found interesting:

http://www.canopycenter.com/canopies/353+366.cfm

I'm going to put a link on the right hand side to list canopy vendors.

Energy Efficient Lightbulbs contain Mercury

Please read this about the light bulbs. Very dangerous if they break and the mercury comes out.

Starving Vendors Website

Hi People. Please check out our much improved Starving Vendors website. Have changed servers, used new software, added loads of images and put in new material. Completely revamped!!!!

Take a look at our BITTER BUSINESS BUREAU. A listing of businesses, promoters, etc, that we recommend doing business with

This website explains much about the life of vendors and how these troubled times are affecting a lot of people. Have also written a lot of satire, etc., and it's located in the 'Bull" section. I've got show reviews in there, but only the real doozies are listed. I have all my other reviews in our main website DandL CREATIONS show reviews. So, click, click, click and enjoy!!!

Sports fans.... you might want to also check out The Boston Sports Nut, my blog about the Red Sox, Celtics and other sports information, charts, etc. Also provides links to sports blogs.

Chabot College Flea Market

Did this event just around the corner from my house. I did not really schedule any events for this weekend, since my son and I are heading up to Infineon Raceway to watch the NASCAR race. I don't schedule any major shows, etc., over this weekend so we can go and also, like to give me wife a mid-season rest. It's boy's day out. My favorite sports are baseball and basketball, but I do enjoy the racing.

Anyhow, this is Saturday and a couple weeks ago, we signed up to do the Chabot College Flea Market. This is the second time here this year for us. We do not normally do any flea market, but because of an open-date and it's close to home, we do it. Yesterday it was super-hot here in Hayward...temps just under 100 and it was such a relief to see some cloudcover rolling in during the morning, which has cooled things off substantially.

The Flea Market was held in a different parking lot because the other lot is being re-done. No big deal, except that if you are a customer looking for a particular vendor....well, you have a problem. It didn't matter for me..... I really didn't have a good spot, but we were shaded for a couple hours in the morning. We went with a very simple setup..... putting up 4 sets of grids arranged in triangles and we hung our shoulder bags, tote bags, etc., from them. Normall setup time is around 3 hours for us, but we just put out a little. Sales were okay....not disastrous and not too good. Okay, though. Just Okay.

I was surpised to see a lady that had visited us in our store earlier this year (it's closed now). And, I guess she was surprised to see us at a Flea market.

What your (our) money bought for them!!

Here you go. This is what our money from the oil bought for these people in Dubai.

It's one mile long and 670 feet tall.- It will have 12 lanes for traffic.- It will cost 817 million dollars.- The design has Sheikh Mohammed's official stamp of approval.- The bridge will carry more than 2,000 vehicles per hour in each direction.- A metro line will run across the middle.- Construction begins in March, with a slated completion date of 2012. Damm piece of shit!!

From the land where artificial islands arranged in the shape of the world located and where the world's only seven-star hotel existed, come the home to the largest and tallest arch bridge ever. It will be completed in 2012, according to the source. Nothing is impossible in Dubai, at least architecturally. This money is NOTHING to them; but it is to us..even now at $4.61 a pop!!!

14th Annual Daly CIty-Quezon City Fil-Am Festival

Daly City, home of the largest Filipino-American community in the United States, will host the 14th Annual Filipino-American (Fil-Am) Friendship celebration on June 28 and 29, 2008, at the Serramonte Shopping Center Mall. The Daly City festival remains to be the longest-running Fil-Am event in the Bay Area that offers free admission. For more information, please check the following link:

http://dalycityfilamfestival.com/default.aspx

I am not associated with the organization, but we have been a vendor at this event for approximately 8-9 years when it was at Westlake Shopping Center. We did not participate the past 2 years that it's been held at Serra Bowl. This is the first year that the festival is at Serramonte Shopping Center. Over the years, I guess attendance has been around 3,000-5,000. We enjoyed doing this event and listening to the entertainment, which was sensational the year they celebrated the Philippines' Independence. It was very difficult to set up and take down our displays in Westlake, since it was quite confining. Security was a major issue there also and the mall was declining, with many empty stores our last couple years there.

Fiesta Filipina - San Francisco

June 7-8. I am hoping to hear from people who did this event. Originally we planned in participating in this festival for the 9th consecutive year, but when I contacted the 'new promoter' I found out that spaces were $700. So, we signed up to do the Hercules Cultural Festival in the East Bay. While in Oakdale, I was told that there was another promoter involved who was offering spaces for $375.00 and that would have been fine with me, but I had already paid for the other event and we were unable to participate. Still, the $375 was a hefty increase in booth fees for this show and us vendors are victims of price gouging by promoters, etc.

Anyhow, we do expect to return to Fiesta Filipino at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco next year and we hope to see a lot of our returning customers and other vendors with whom we have shared our aquaintances with over the years. The entertainment there has always been great and occasionally is beamed back to 'The Islands'. In the past, they have had very large crowds on the Sunday of the show.

And what do I think of this event? Let's give it a 4-lumpia rating!!!

American Graffiti Car Show & Festival-Modesto, CA

I know a number of people that did this event during the weekend of June 6-8 and I haven't heard anything good from vendors. To my understanding, sales were atrocious. I think that we did this show the first or second year they had it and it was indeed ATROCIOUS with capital letters!!! It can get pretty hot in Modesto in the month of June.

However, they do have a number of events circling around the 'American Graffiti' theme as they celebrate the 35th anniversary of this great movie classic. Check this link for more info. Maybe you are interested.

http://www.visitmodesto.com/calendar/specialevents/graffiti/calendar.asp

Sunday in Cambria

After we closed up on Saturday, we drove down the street to the Main Street Grill and picked up some Baby Back Pork Ribs and their Main Street Salad and took them back to devour at the motel. Absolutely delicious. Been getting food from there for years!!! Read what people have to say about this place. Highly recommended!!!

http://www.yelp.com/biz/main-street-grill-cambria

Sales were extremely slow on Sunday. Worst day we ever had in Cambria and shall not be returning. We had planned on coming back in November, but those plans are now shelved. Very few tourists nowadays and the 'locals' just do not support us. The street running behind the show was blocked off for construction, forcing people to drive an extra mile to the other side of town. The show is highly visible from Highway One.

Perhaps in 2009 over Father's Day Weekend, you can find us in Isleton at the Crawdad Festival. Time to give it a try. Anyway, check out our reviews of shows on our website DandL CREATIONS 2007-8 show reviews

If you are a vendor and need to stay in the motel, it's not really worth it. Some local vendors were satisfield as booth fees are reasonable but added expenses of gas and motel just don't make it!!!! I would rate this show: 2 cups of noodles!!