This show is held yearly over the first weekend of May.  We will be there for the 15th consecutive year.  The show is spread out over 5-6 blocks and usually contains around 60-70 vendor booths and perhaps a dozen non-profit food booths.  Additionally, there is a car show.

 

The weather can vary from year to year.  We have had temps in the high 90's a few times and we have also had rain.  The people come out; rain or shine. We used to have a large tree which covered our booth, but to our surprise last year, it was chopped down.  Great shade when we had those super-hot days.

 

The set-up is quite organized.  Drive there and get in line with your car.  Check-inn begins at 6:30.  You get your space assignment and they call down on the walkie-talkie to one of them near your space.  You drive down and that person shows you your space.  Very organized and we love doing this show. 

 

Please read past reviews:  Ceres Street Fair 2008  2009

 

Saturday, May 1

 

WE LEFT HAYWARD at 5:00am and arrived at the check-in area for the Street Faire at 6:25.  We were given our paperwork and then proceeded to our booth space, which was located in the same spot that we had in previous year's.

 

We unloaded our bags and set up our canopy and then positioned our grids.  It took us approximately 3 hours to finish.  It was a bit breezy during the early hours and throughout the day.  A bit cool in the morning, but no big deal.

 

MANY LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS have jumped on the bandwagon and have food booths at the festival, selling anything from hot dogs to tacos and burrito's.  Good way to raise funds for supposedly good causes. 

 

THE FOOD.  Picked up a couple tri-tip sandwiches for $5 each.  Didn't look too bad and we didn't have too many choices.  They had a Papa Murphy's there but no way am I gobbling down one of their pizzas.  I had one a few year's ago and it tasted like one of those $1.98 pizzas you get at Food Maxx.  Anyhow, they put the sandwich in a plastic baggie.  I was going to put some ketchup on it but some of the meat dropped out of the roll and I decided it would be too sloppy.  Took them back to our booth and we ate.  Not bad.  Plenty of meat.  I ate 3/4 of it right away and then stuffed the remainder (in the baggie) into the pocket of my sweater and finished it up about an hour later.  That was a decent sandwich but I felt like it was missing something (other than the ketchup).

 

I WALKED UP AND DOWN THE STREETS a couple times.  I counted 62 vendor's there along with an area that had a car show going on.  Not a bad little show.  Had a decent-sized crowd on Saturday and I had some good sales.  A lot of see me, feel me, touch me looky-loo's and stupid questions throughout the day and that can drive you bananas.

 

WASN'T ABLE TO TAKE MANY PICTURES OF THIS EVENT BECAUSE  I was holding on to my canopy much of Sunday.

 

 

 

THEY SHOULD RE-NAME THIS EVENT "The Sunglass Festival" because I counted at least 9 people selling sunglasses.  Guy next to me had a trailer with them and he's been there for several year's.  Turned out that he was in Row-R at the Sell-a-Rama in January and he had some of the canopies go airborne around him.  I didn't see him there because I wasn't able to walk around very much because I was alone and we had bad weather.  Last week in Cupertino I did not see a single person selling sunglasses.  Figure that one out.  So, we had 62 booths and 9 were sunglasses?  That's like 15 percent.  I didn't count how many were selling jewelry but there were a lot.

 

Sunday, May 2

 

TRAFFIC WAS EXTREMELY LIGHT heading down the 580 at 7:15 in the morning.  Huge spaces between single cars and that pretty much indicated what the crowd flow for the day would be.  It was a very late crowd, but we got there around 8:30  because I wanted a particular parking spot behind my canopy and we were going to catch the 'early-birds.'  Yah, that's right.  Pretty funny, huh.  Very slow morning.  Even though the show was supposed to get rolling at 10:00, there were quite a good number of vendor's who had their booths open before 9:00.  Maybe these people had a good day on Saturday and they got a little excited as they actually thought that Sunday was going to be awesome.  Guess again.

 

THE WINDS PICKED up around 10:00 and they were relentless throughout the entire day.  Why me?  Oh gosh, we had constant 20mph breezes all freaking day long with occasional rock me, shake me 40-50mph gusts.  Terrible.  Canopies went airborne all around the place but fortunately there were no big disasters.  I had mine weighed down pretty good with all the grids I had, but I froze with every gust and watched my canopy sway back and forth.  Later in the day, I decided to bring my van around and park it alongside the canopy on the side where the wind was coming from.  That did block a good portion of the wind, but my canopy was still whipping around because the top cover was catching a lot of the wind.  I was going to attempt to take down the cover, but that could be pretty tricky.  I pictured the top going up in the air and sailing away or landing up in a nearby tree or even blowing down the street entangling itself around people walking around.  I talked to one guy across the street.  I was trying to figure out how to get it up and over the center part, which extends about 6-8 feet above the roof of the canopy.  He told me that he just unattached it and used a stick to push it and allow it to drop to the back.  However, that was something I couldn't do because of the direction of the wind.  So, I left well-enough alone and hoped for the best.  Fortunately, the wind did die down when we pulled down, but it was still kind of hairy.

 

HERE'S ONE OF THOSE INSTANCES where you need to grab your camera quickly and take a shot.  See the canopy off to the right.  It went airborne and fortunately it was still standing.  Notice everybody holding on to their canopies for dear life?

 

 

 

IT WAS A COMPLETELY different crowd on Sunday.  They were late in coming and few in arriving.  Perhaps they went to Lodi for the Street Fair or went to something they had in Livermore.  Don't know.  There were bunches of kids; mostly teenagers along with the local Riff-Raff.  Bad crowd and a cheap one at that.  Loads of families on Saturday, but you had some trash out there on Sunday.  Perhaps all those decent people we had there the day before went to church on Sunday or went picnic-ing on Sunday.  Or maybe they all got blown away to Kansas or something.

 

RIFF RAFF.  I had a couple items stolen and I am pissed.  Damm punks.  I really had been taking things for granted for many shows but now I have to heighten my security during the day.  A couple kids ripped oft two items....  only $8 and $12, but those little #*$#&(@ ers got me.  So that means that I have to catch two of them in my next big event and get them thrown in the pokie for a few hours while they wait for their parents to come pick them up.   Or maybe the police will take them to the corner and let them go when they are out of my sight.  Haven't caught anybody shoplifting since I was in Tillamook last August.  Read my review.  Nabbed this one teenybopper really good and perhaps put a scare into her.  Or maybe she was just unscareable.  Cute young lady but her pleads for forgiveness went unheard.

 

KID COMES OVER and asks me if I have any balls that are attached together (Martial Arts).  If he was an adult you could only imagine what I would have said.  However, I would never subject a pre-teen to that kind of comment.

 

MY SALES ON SUNDAY were lower than 1/2 what it was on Saturday. I really had my hopes up on this.  Gosh I hate that.  Have gone through many days over the past year like that.  I was satisfied with my sales on Saturday and came into Sunday thinking that I could do close to that, but no way.

 

HAD LUNCH.  Went over to three different food vendor's and picked up our lunch.  Got a cheeseburger meal thing from one.  Included the burger, drink and a mini-bag of chips for $6.00.  You know, I saw one of these non-profits selling soda for $2.00.  You have to be kidding me.  Everybody else had it at $1.00.  What the hell do they think; this is the Stockton Asparagus Festival.  (I have no idea how much over there because I will not pay them $600 for a space there) but I just wanted to throw their name out.  I also picked up a dog ($2.00) and some fries which were similar to In-and-out Burger.  Not bad for $2.00.

 

I'LL BE BACK THERE NEXT YEAR FOR the 16th consecutive year.  My longest running event.  However, things have changed and they are down around 30 vendor's from a few year's ago.  Booth fees are $300, which is too high for such a small show.  A&C spaces are $200; not bad.  There was a time that I would get two spaces there, but not worth it nowadays.  I have a very nice location and I am able to spread out somewhat and sell from 3 sides.

 

THE PEOPLE RUNNING THE SHOW are very organized and some of the best around.  Excellent. 

 

A LADY GRABS ONE OF MY SHOULDER BAGS AND WALKS over to pay me.  She looks at me.  "Can I get this for five dollars."  Whoa.  "Oh no.  I'm sorry that's ten dollars."  She laughs.  "I just thought I would ask."  I then responded to this by saying "Why don't you ask me if you can have it for eight?"  She smiled.  "Can I have it for eight dollars?" she then asked me.  I shook my head.  "No.  If I'm not going to give it to you for eight, most definitely I am not going to give it to you for five."  We laughed together.  Her question deserved that kind of response.  Everybody wants a bargain.

 

MY  'MYSTERY SHOPPER" TECHNIQUE.  I only tried this a couple times this weekend, but it worked.  A guy was buying something for $15.  I spotted something else that he might like and it was selling for $7.  I saw him pull out a $20 bill and told him I would give him these two particular items for $20 and he went for it.  I want that entire $20. I tried this later on with a lady and it worked again.  It's a struggle trying to get them to pull out their money but they are easier to manipulate once they are flashing that green stuff and it's really not that much harder to get them to buy something else at a bargain price.  You want that entire $20 bill (or a 10-spot or whatever) and with little effort, you can get that entire $20 from them.  Try it sometime.  Quite often when these people are buying something, I'll tell them that I'll give them two for xx-dollars.  Works around 1/4 of the time.  If there is a threesome. etc.. I'll always give them a discount if they buy three or whatever number the group is. I've had it work for groups of five. Works quite a bit.  They all get a good deal.  If you can get that one person in a group to buy something, it's quite simple to wrangle similar sales from the other's.  I have actually had other groups of people standing around overhearing me and then asking for the same deal.

 

I WISH THAT VENDOR'S WOULD think before dumping water-filled coolers alongside the curb.  A local civic organization dumped their's and it flowed down into my booth, getting several of my sacks wet.  Wasn't as bad as what these idiots at the Pittsburg (Seafood Festival) did a couple years ago.  Got a lot of my things wet and when I went over to tell them about it they were quite sarcastic.  Real smart asses.  People, when you want to dump your water-filled containers and chests, please find your nearest tree or shrubbery.  That's a real no-brainer for people with no brains, okay?  When you dump your cooler alongside the curb, just where in hell do you think the water is going to go?

 

WILL BE ADDING PICTURES shortly, but I wasn't able to take very many pictures.  My memory card filled up on Saturday after 6-7 pictures and on Sunday, I didn't walk around as much because of the wind and having to baby-sit those little shits.

 

Join me again next week at the same time when I will present to you my next review of a  BBQ Cook-off in Morgan Hill, CA.