CASTROVILLE PUTS 'CHOKE HOLD ON VENDORS. First of all, I would like to welcome all the new vendor's who will be participating in next year's (2011) Castroville Artichoke Festival.  I have spoken to a good number of vendor's who were pretty disgusted with poor sales which can be partially attributed to the promoter's raising the admission price to $10.00 for adults.  Many vendor's were outraged by this and had to deal with the resulting poor sales throughout the event.    Booth fees were raised during the past couple year's to $200 and with the economy being as bad as it is, this seems quite unfair.  Vendor's are human also.  Please think about that.    Would anybody like to comment on all of this?  comments@starvingvendors.com 

 

THE MUSIC AT THIS EVENT was not up to par and certainly does not justify raising entrance fees by 25 percent.  There have been good performances and entertainer's over the years but this time around, it was far from good.  The only music I really want to hear though is 'cha ching, cling-cling, cha ching' and that ain't Chinese music either.  I think that the only sounds you heard coming from vendor's booths was snoring as they were put asleep by the sounds of inactivity.  Lots of people, but they were nonchalant as they walked down the street, making their way over to the food and drink areas as the show turned out to be a 'drink and pee' festival.

 

I really do think that any vendor who happens to be considering doing this event in 2011 should pay attention to the admission fees they are charging for visitor's.  It really hurt when it went into double-digits.  That just did something to these people.  Sure, they want to make money, but so do the vendor's.  Look, I am certain these people don't appreciate paying ten bucks a head for this and not even have decent music to listen to.  It's going to be the SOS next year if they don't make necessary changes with the most important being to lower the admission.   This was not a good show for vendor's and if these people are telling you anything different, they are lying.

 

   

Saturday, May 15.

We arrived at the gate to the Festival at 5:52 and positioned ourselves in back of 4 other vehicles.  At 6:02, I left my van and walked over to the gate and approached one of the members of Sargent Garcia's Security Patrol.  I called him over and asked him what time they were going to open the gates.  He said "8:00."  I was amazed.  I told him that our contracts said "6:00."  He told me once again "8:00."  Oh gosh.  Why do these things have to happen to me.  A few minutes later, one of the organizer's pulled up in her vehicle and opened up to allow us to check in.

 

 Now tell me something.  Maybe.  Just maybe you thought I was asking you what time do the regular people come in.  Maybe there was some kind of mis-communication there.  I did ask you then 'what time are you letting the vendors in?'  Did you happen to wonder why vehicles were lining up in front of the gate well before 6:00?   Uhhh.  Hellooooo.   Maybe this was a bad omen of things to come.  When we arrive there, we all expect to be let in in an expeditious manner.  Some of us have to get their early and set up.  Those that you saw at that early hour all had intentions of getting an early start for their own particular reasons.

 

TATTOOS, TORTILLAS AND TOMMY GUNS.  How many security guards, sheriffs and policemen can you fit in an 8 square block area?  Seemed like there was a security guard every 30 feet and other law enforcement personnel roaming all over the place.  Gave me the impression that this show was being held in a state prison or something.

  

THEY CHANGED THE SETUP of the booths, etc.  Had a street lined with vendor's toward the back of the show and they moved them over to another street and put some of them in a plaza.  Figured this might work out well for us because there would be fewer distractions for the visitors entering the festival from that street.  Moved the car show from the plaza area over one block to another area and did away with the vendor's on that street also.

 

IT WAS CLOUDY ALL DAY LONG.  The sun made an unsuccessful attempt to poke through the clouds during the early part of the afternoon.  A bit breezy at time and that made it a bit cooler.

 

IT'S A COOL WEEKEND ALL OVER THE PLACE.  Temps at the Oakdale Chocolate Festival were in the low 80s, a far cry from what it normally is this time of year.  When we did the show 2-3 year's we had temps up around 105-108 degrees.  Big difference.

 

HEALTH AND SAFETY ALERT.  There were too many carts and vehicles racing up and down the aisles during both days.  Hell, people had to jump out of their way to avoid them.  A number of them had exhaust problems (the vehicles, that is) as I did smell quite a bit of fumes coming from their carts.  You could smell the strong emissions as they passed by.

 

THE FOOD.  I picked up a couple Italian's for the outrageous price of $8.00 apiece.  That's disgusting.  They were pretty decent as they piled on the onions and peppers.  Once again, I will tell you that the best Italian Sausage Sandwich I have ever had at an event had to be in Castro Valley at the Fall Festival last year.  They are good and I do believe they were only $6.00  However, this still can not compare with a Lockforde Sausage, which is the best sausage deal you can get.  The thing is long and both ends hanging over the sides of the roll.  Sauerkraut is piled on.  You can't beat that for the cost of $5.00.  Food here at the Artichoke Festival was horribly over-priced.  Fried Artichokes selling for $8.00.  Gosh, I can get that for $6.00 (or less) at other festivals.  Why do you have to price gouge these people.  That's not worth eight bucks, but I did see a lot of people walking around with them stuffing their faces.  Thank you.  That left less money leftover for the vendor's.

 

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I PICKED UP SOME ONION RINGS in the 'other' food area and they turned out to be rather soggy and deflated.  They looked pretty sick, tell you the truth.  On Sunday, I got some onion rings over there in the main food area and they were pretty decent.  I also got some taquito's along with sour cream, salsa and avocado and that was delicious.  Not bad for $4.00.  I think that might be one of the better food deals in the entire show.  That vendor also had a decent selection of other items...  i.e. hamburgers, etc.

 

 

THE FOOD VENDOR WITH THE CINNAMON ROLLS had some pretty decent hot chocolate and mocha and we warmed up with it.  It was kind of cold in the booths; thank gosh I wasn't on the 'wind' side.

 

JERRY SPRINGER TONITE TV SHOW  8:00 pm CBS.  Join Jerry tonight as he encounters the mother's of a small farming community who adorn their bodies with dozens of tattoos.   A free for all errupts when a 13-year old lady tells her dad that she is pregnant and doesn't know which of 3 young men is the father.  DNA tests proves who is the father. 

 

Sunday, May 16.

 

KNOWING THAT THE PARADE was to begin at 9:45am on Sunday, I left home early with the intention of getting there around 8:40 and thinking that I would be able to get a parking spot nearby the entrance.  I guessed wrong.  Last year I arrived there around 9:30 on Sunday and their were people lining the streets and I was fortunate to get a parking spot three blocks away.  I drove down the street where I planned on entering and every spot was taken.  I tried to squeeze into a spot between a car and a 'no parking here to corner' sign but ended up 5 feet too long.  Had to go looking for another place.  Problem.  I didn't want to park 10 blocks away for sure.  I went down another street and had no luck.  I went back over and manage to see a space over there in the lot in front of the post office and grabbed that one.

 

WE THEN WENT TO OUR BOOTH and prepared for the day.  The show opened at 10:00 but you did have some vendors, etc. walking around.  No sales though as we all waited for the parade to end.  I thought we would get swamped, but it never happened.  Sales were slow all day and it turned out to be one of the worst day's of the year.  Wow.

 

THE KID'S WERE GRABBING EVERYTHING ON OUR TABLE AND PLAYING.  Enough to drive you crazy.  One after another.  No sales.  Group after group.

 

SMOOTH TALKING SHELDON comes over to the booth with a couple of his friend's.  Looks at my bling hanging on a hook and asks how much.  I tell him 15 bucks.  Normally going for 18.  So then, he asks me I can sell it for ten dollars.  I pause for a second.  Really desperate for some kind of action.  I tell the kid 'Yah. okay.'  He looks at it and puts it on.  Takes it off and looks at it again.  Duhh.  I then ask him if he's going to buy it.  "I don't know," he says to me.  I look at him.  "You asked me if you can have it for ten and I said yah.  What is the problem with that.  "Well, uhhhhh.  I have to think about it."  "Why are you asking me to sell it to you for ten dollars then?  That's a good deal.  What's the problem. Are you playing games with me?  What's going on."    Then the kid tells me that he has to go to his friend's house or something like that for the money and it's 14 blocks away.  This kid is like 13-14 year's old.  "Hey, look kid. You don't even have 14 blocks in this whole stinkin' town, what are you talking about?"  His friend then started playing with one of my hats and I then told them to 'get out of here.'

 

I REALLY CAN'T UNDERSTAND how you can be in one place one weekend and people are buying left and right.  You go to another show and you have thousand's more people but  nobody buying from the vendor's.  It's sickening.