You're probably thinking this is a picture of my booth during the set up process.

Nope.

This is what it looked like when I was done setting everything up.

The wind was incredibly crazy. I didn't want to risk having my stuff getting blown away, which is why I kept them in boxes. And even the security of the boxes wasn't enough! There were a few times when I had to run out to save my prints! And someone else's table display got knocked down and a tent almost blew away!! Yeah, it was crazy fun.

I will admit that I left early because of the weather and people just weren't interested in buying anything. The festival crew only promoted their stuff, all of the free activities, not any of the artisans. (So, yeah, that was nice of them.) So families were only coming for the free Quidditch, puppies and ropes course, which, I don't blame them! They looked super fun! But it left all of us vendors out in the dust.

Although it stinks that I lost a bunch of money, at least I learned something: I can never ever do outside events. The weather is just too risky. My signage and products in general are just too fragile (I sell paper for pete's sake!). My first event I did, it was really hot. The prints inside my vellum bags were making condensation from the ink! So, my products were almost ruined. Then at this event, because of the extreme wind, I couldn't set up my displays. And I worked hard to make as much use of this space I had. Big plans. Sales. But I won't get into that. It just stunk.

So that's what I learned. I'll keep to indoor events, where the temperature and weather don't matter! What matters is if the event team does their job to advertise and promote the event, which is also something I learned from this event. They did not do their job in helping get the word out. I need to stay leery of event teams such as this. It's incredibly rude to take vendor's money and not do anything in their power to help!

Anyways, just getting the steam off my chest.

If you came, thank you for coming! If you came to see me and I was already gone, I'm incredibly sorry! It was just not worth it for me to sit there for 4 hours with no buyers. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't doing it for the money. Instead, my husband came to bail me out, take my tent down, got pizza, and we spent the evening watching The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. So a much happier ending than getting frozed to death with all of my product being blown away.
I was really proud of the chalkboard sign I made. The wording took a good half hour to master and keep straight.
My stuff all huddled together so it wouldn't blow away.