This past weekend I had a booth at the WindFest in Bandon, Oregon. This was my first festival ever. One of my goals this year was to be in at least one festival.
Friday night my hubby and I were able to go choose our spot and set up the tent. The fact that it was so windy and we had never put up this tent before, made it about a 2.5 hour set up. While we were setting up the tent, we were both hit with bird poop! And let me tell you, I had no idea it came in that color!
When we arrived early on Saturday, the tent was intact, just as we had left it. We were a little worried because of the wind.
I had a really great day meeting people and selling a lot of my inventory. I had spent weeks working on the inventory and building it up. Reading forum postings and blogs about other’s festival preparations, was really helpful.
Most of the items I sold were note cards, 5×7 blank greeting cards, 8×10 and 12×16 prints. I was very surprised that I only sold a couple of the 11×14 matted prints.
For the very first time I used Square for processing credit card purchases. Square has an app that you use on your iPhone or iPad. When you set up your account, they send you a free card reader. This worked great!
On Sunday, the wind wasn’t as strong, but there was less traffic and very low sales compared to Saturday.
It was a great experience to participate in the festival. I hope I can get another opportunity next year to be in at least one.
Here are some things I learned about being a vendor in an outdoor setting:
1. You must have a canopy, preferably a commercial tent like an EZ-UP Canopies. They are expensive, but well worth it. My tent held up well even though we were afraid it wouldn’t. I saw vendors unprotected and exposed in the elements. One vendor selling knitted hats was hit by seagull poop. She told me she was unprepared for it. Another few vendors had inexpensive recreational canopies. They did not hold up well with the wind. They were constantly fixing things and messing with them.
2. Have a table close to the front of your tent. I had two tables, one was in the back, the other on the side. I could tell that people didn’t really want to come inside the tent. I decided to move the one table from the back to near the front. It was amazing how quickly people started to stop more. People felt more comfortable looking through the baskets of matted prints. I also think that people collect when there are crowds.
3. Make eye contact and don’t sit down. By the end of each day, my feet really hurt because I stood so much, but I’m glad I did. I stood most of the time, near the front of the tent and tried to engage everyone that looked my way. When people were looking through the baskets, sometimes I would tell them about the photographs that they were admiring. I met some really great people that way.
4. Protect your cards and prints from the sun. Even though I was under shelter, the sun did make it’s way into the tent. I did have to adjust my cards and prints so that they weren’t in the direct sunlight. At one point I noticed that a small display of cards had the sun on them. I reached over to move them into the shade and I saw that condensation built up in the sleeves. Hubby and I rescued the cards from the wet sleeves, but they could have easily been damaged due to moisture in the air.
5. Be careful with your hanging art pieces! Up until the last couple of days before the festival, I had no idea how I would hang up my framed prints. After reading what other artist did, I decided to use the wire shelving idea a fellow Etsy seller used. I bought three and strung them together. It worked great until a huge amount of wind finally worked a couple of my attachments loose and two framed pieces fell. Though nothing broke, I did get a gouge in a wood frame and a small rip in my tent. I ended up removing all the hung art the rest of the day. The next day, hubby came up with another idea utilizing carabiners and cable ties that worked much better. I just didn’t trust it enough though to put as many pieces up.
6. Make use of displays and easels. I borrowed some easels from friends. I was not able to use an easel one friend loaned me due to the wind, it was just too flimsy. Another easel that was loaned to me worked really well as it had supports on the bottom. Because I had two large 16×24 framed prints there, it drew a lot of attention. Table top easels, baskets and plexiglass displays are nice and worked well.
7. Putty works wonders! A friend suggested I use putty for securing the table top easels he loaned me. I ended up using the putty for securing several items on the table. Even the baskets shifted a bit from wind and with people going through them, putty helped keep them in place as well as my signs.
8. Have plenty of signs and banners. I had a large 6 foot banner, my pricing and a sign showing I accepted credit cards through Square. I was disappointed that I couldn’t use a sign I had made to slip into a banner sleeve that came with the tent. It was to be attached to the awning top in the front. Hubby and I realized we had put the main tent canopy on backwards with the banner attachment facing the rear!
9. Securing your tent. Since this was a coastal festival, vendors were lined up along the boardwalk. We were advised to use bungie cords and rope for securing our tents to the railings. We also used several flat 5 lb. weights hubby borrowed and placed them in white sand bags to secure the legs. It worked well to secure it in the wind and it tucked nicely away under the tent sides.
10. A price on everything. I took the advice of someone on a forum about pricing everything ahead of time. Even though it took a lot of time, I’m glad I did. No one ever asked how much something was, they already knew when making the purchase. I admit I have been lazy about this during my monthly artwalks, but now I see the value. Even though I had some small signs on or near every basket, people tend to overlook them.
11. Visit with other vendors. You’ll learn a lot from other vendors. I found out which festivals in Oregon are the best and most profitable. You can exchange ideas and meet some great people!
12. Business Cards. This is probably a no brainer, but have a lot of business cards and place them prominently. I went through several. I gave some to people, but most just took them and commented on how nice they looked. I had met a couple of other photographers and vendors that I struck up a conversation with that didn’t have any cards on them when I asked for one.
Here’s my list that I revised after the festival. Feel free to download it if you find it useful. If you want to share it with others, please direct them to this post. As always, I welcome your feedback and comments.
Great post. Lots of very useful information there. I’m glad to hear you sold well.
So Windfest lived up to its name then? Although from what you and the knitted hat vendor experienced it could have another name too… Although I dont think that would look too good on their marketing material.
i found you on an etsy team forum (fpoe)…just wanted to stop by and tell you that your photography is beautiful!! i remember fondly my first art fair 4 years ago…i learned so much…and continue to learn…having weights on your tent was the number 1 thing i learned…just like you said!!
Excellent post!!
Thank you for dropping by Jay! Appreciate your feedback!
Thank you so much for posting all this information; it is very generous of you; I have asked a Kansas e-friend three times about how to start up, and she has failed to answer any of my questions, although we are in touch most weeks! This all so helpful, and I’m so glad it is all going well for you.
Glad to hear you find it useful! I have other of these type of blog posts in the works. You may want to subscribe by RSS so you can catch those as well. Take care!
Congrats Patricia, interesting article