8.04.2007

Musikfest 2007 Day 1 August 3

Whew, the first day was tiring, but in that sort of way where at the end of the day your are revved up and a little wound on adrenaline, and you just know you’ll have a hard time falling asleep, even though you are beat tired.

I left the house around noon and picked up some water and some ice for the cooler on the way in. I also picked up some flyers for Stone Soup Studio, a store in Bethlehem on Broadway which will start carrying some of my best sellers in just a few weeks. I’m trying to create some buzz by passing out info on them before we even get the product stocked.

I got a pretty good parking space, the first one in line in the CW lot before the break for the curve. I was parked after the sigh, but before the caution tape marking the no parking zone, so just in case I got a wayward parking ticket, I actually took some pictures of where I was parked and the locations of the signs and tape. I mean, who know if that tape would be ripped down, or even moved by some clever Musikfest goer? This way I would at least have a chance of not paying the fine…

It was very hot throughout the set up, but I learned I have great neighbors; F & J make awesome jewelry and are awesome people as well. I am also near A, another jewelry maker I have known for years. S is down at the end, near the entrance and we are good buddies, and G is here too, with his entourage. So the “family” I know and love is here, a little spread out, but here all the same. But like all family reunions, there is always someone who doesn’t make it. Sometimes its is people like B, who you just miss in your core the moment you arrive, some are like another B, that at first you are glad are gone, that you won’t have as much drama, and then after just one day, you realize how much more fun the event was with just a little drama, and then there is I who you really expected to be there and whose absence actually makes you worry about them, their health, and why after all these years they are missing.

The show opened officially at 5 but didn’t really seem to pick up until 8 and then for just a few hours. The day was oppressively hot and that was the time the heat finally began to break and even then most people were still too hot, you could see it on their rosy cheeks, their sweat filled brows. I don’t keep sales records per day, I probably should, but sales felt slow and draggy, I got lots of lookers and got to see many, many old friends, loyal customers that I only see at Musikfest. I know they’ll be back later in the event to do their buying, so no worries, I have 9 more days and 45 more performances of “The Bell Guy” to sit through before this is all over.

Here are a few pictures, they are "a view from the booth" or what I see all day when I stare out my tent. There is a day picture and a night picture.


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