May 18, 2008 Arbutus MD Arts Festival

I was worried about this show, it was a week or so before and I still hadn’t gotten any information about my location or set up...nothing…

Then an e-mail, that information was soon to follow, that it had taken too long to get some things from the printer.

And when it arrived… the surprise… in order to be able to pull the van near my space I was going to have to arrive at 5:45 in the morning. What??? The show starts at 10 am!!

So I e-mailed, what in my biased opinion was an eloquent letter asking what my options were if I didn’t arrive at 5:45 am. I explained that I had a 2:45 hour drive that morning and that really set up took me no longer than 2:00 hours and that leaving at 3 am to get into my booth space two hours or more before I really needed to was, well, a waste of some good sleep.

And they were WONDERFUL! Both an e-mail and a follow up phone call to explain that I could park near my booth in parking lot and then haul my stuff, not too far (across the street) to my booth. Fabulous!

So we arrived around 8:00 am and low and behold, to our surprise (and obvious dismay of other crafters who had arrived at 5:45 am) we were even allowed to pull in next to our space and unload. Which we quickly and quietly did.

Set up was fast and simple. Good music was being played in the intercom. Fun, lively songs, most of which I knew the words to (and this will come back to haunt me later…)

We walked around, the show is pretty large, I recognized a few other crafters who came from pretty far away. There were a few candle makers who had some soaps (in varying amounts and types) but I was the only soap maker who makes only soaps & toiletries.

Sales started around 9:30 am and continued steadily till 12 noon. When the heavens opened and poured forth with rain, lots of rain….

With no sales for 2:30 hours, the radar still showing rain, and an impending 2:45 hour drive home, we packed early. (Not as early as our neighbors and many, many other vendors) and started home. Our drive became longer due to rain and traffic. Dinner was a salad from a McDonalds that had worse than usual customer service. We made it home around 8:00 pm. Tired.

Sales were good, in just a few hours I made ½ of what I wanted to make all day. Bet this is a great show when it doesn’t rain. I’ll try again next year.

Oh, and did I mention they gave all the vendors a commemerative cup. Its plastic and yellow, but more than I get from shows that cost 5x more and last 10x as long...

And that CD I liked during set up... it was the only one they played all day. Over and over and over...I still have "Lime and the Coconut" stuck in my head.