Friday.  Drove down there and set up canopy, grids and covers.  Left merchandise inside.  Took Highway 86 from Salinas on 101.  Entered the Raceway area and it was a long drive up and down hills until we reached the paddock area.  Other vendors setting up also at 12:30 pm.  Nice track and we saw a number of cars whizzing by on the track behind the booths.

To read history of event:  Cherry's Jubilee Motorsports Festival, Laguna Seca Raceway, Salinas, CA

Saturday, Sept 26.  Left Hayward and arrived at Laguna Seca around 7:15.  I was told yesterday that there could be a long line of cars waiting to get in.  Yah right.  We zoomed up the zig-zag road up and over the hills and on to the paddock area where the show was being held.  No cars yet for the show.  Pulled up alongside our space and emptied out a couple things from the van and had my son drive it up to the vendor parking area.  The first thing I did was to take down our covers, which surrounded our canopy and folded them up.  We then proceeded to put up our merchandise as other vendors arrived and did the same.

THE REVIEW
Vendor area located near gate.  Most of the people just walked past, heading for the cars.  There were perhaps 10 merchandise vendors and I don't think any of them did exceptionally well; bordering on the fringes of mediocrity.   Looks like at least 4 of us packed up Saturday night and left.  People just not buying and booths did not attract very many people.  Not interested.  Didn't see very many adolescents there either (no dogs?) and I was hoping to get some of their spending money.  Absolutely zilch.  Perhaps 5-6 food booths and I don't think they did any good.  The race track is beautiful, but for this weekend, the only activity you see is the cars taking a lap.  Also, they charged people $30 to take a ride in a Porsche around the track.  I don't see these people shelling out thirty bucks a pop for this.  Show was supposed to end at 6:00 according to the vendor application, but I guess the fat lady sang at 2:15 and 95 percent of the cars were gone by 2:30.  That's a no-no and don't expect to see me here next year.  Even the dumb ass announcers went on saying that the show ended at 4:00pm.  What gives?  Definitely do not have it together for this.  Want to give me your thoughts on this one?  Use the hotline on the left and tell me what you think.

It was already getting warm around this time with no breeze.  The weather report was saying temps around 83 and it was already getting close to that.  We finished setting up around 9:30, but we were actually open for business long before that.  People were entering the area and I saw them parking up on the hill, just before the entrance.

WE HAD SOME GOOD SALES before 11:00, but it slacked off considerably.  Few people vendured into the vendor's area.  The show was quite spread out and a huge majority proceeded over to the area where they had some 500 cars displayed.  I didn't go up and down the rows, as I have been to many car shows and these cars all look the same to me. 

THE FOOD AREA was located quite far from us and there really weren't very many booths selling food.  Maybe they had better places to go.....  Pacifica Fog Fest.... uh not too sure about that one because I think that the food there might be non-profits.  Taste of Morgan Hill?  Perhaps a good number of food vendors went there.  Certainly they would do much better.  This show had one Mexican Food Stand, another selling excellent Baked Potatoes, which I bought for $5.00 and it was good.  Another booth with burgers and dogs and another with garlic fries, which were decent.  There was another booth selling smoothies and frozen latte's and that was pretty decent.  There was a kettle Korn there, but I really think that they wished they had gone someplace else.




Click here to read the application for the event.  Where in hell do you see the show ending at 3:00 pm on Saturday.  It says 3:00 on Sunday and that's fine with me.  But the paperwork says 6:00 and I was expecting the car show to be going on and for people to be milling around. 

THE CROWD PRETTY MUCH DIED around 1:30 and people were exiting en masse.  Hardly anybody walking around the booths. Just making a beeline for that exit. When I did a walk around the place at 2:30, 95 percent of the cars had departed and there were just tiny handfuls of people there.  WE WERE SOLD SHORT on this show.  I had to make a decision about coming back on Sunday or packing up and getting out of there.  I talked to some people who were contemplating leaving and I realized that they must have had a terrible show; much worse than I did.  We made some money, but not an impressive amount.  Based upon expectations of a small, cheap, late crowd on Sunday, I decided to pack up and get out of there.  There were several merchandise vendors that did leave.  I think maybe 2 out of the 6 vendors around me are coming back on Sunday.




  


    

    

    

I HAD EXPECTATIONS THAT this might be a half-way decent show, but no way.  I did a car show over in Pinole during Mother's Day weekend and I had 50 times the crowd that I had walk around my booth.  A beautiful set up here was ruined.  There were this guy and lady making ridiculous comments on the loudspeaker all day long and they seemed to be the only people enjoying themselves.  Their loud announcements were more of a nuisance as they interrupted many of my few sales throughout the short day.  I brought my son with me because I thought that he would really enjoy the car show and to help me out.  Of course, he did a great job and I appreciated his help...  especially packing it up at the end of the day.

I TALKED TO SOME VENDORS and they said it really wasn't too bad last year.  But then again, I don't know what 'not too bad' really means as far as they are concerned.

I FIND IT QUITE INTERESTING THAT I did not see a single dog all day long.  What gives?  Not like I want to see them or have them pee on my stuff, but I didn't see a single one.  Of course, I did not walk up and down the rows upon rows of cars and perhaps some of the owners could have had their dogs guarding their cars.  Just don't know and we leave it like that. 

 

 

 

REALITY IS BEGINNING TO SET IN.  I have gotten a number of new products that have  been selling and have pretty much saved me in my events.  However, I now realize that there is a new norm in many of these shows and sales for me or anybody else are not going to be very high anymore.  Virtually all vendors are struggling out there and it's going to be awhile before this thing turns around.  We have to keep plugging away and taking what we can get.  Dog eat dog world out there.

 

      

 

 
                                                                  THE LIGHTER SIDE
A not-so-serious way to look at this week's festival and not to be taken seriously.
 

 

Mayor Morsel Graspalski says that he was responsive to a number of vendors who voiced their complaints about large amounts of dogs peeing inside their booths at events in the Salinas area.  He contracted the Services of Leguna Sickum Animal Control to rid the area of all dogs.  The mayor was faced with a huge swarm of vendors who congregated in from of City Hall Offices earlier in the week.  "Wow," said sunglass seller, Santana Obama, "he do great job.  I was at Sherry's Jubilee car show this past weekend and I no spot  single dog."

 

When Promoter's of Sherry's Jubilee Car Show announced that Michael Vick would be appearing at the event they didn't realize how dramatically this would affect attendance which was down by 40 percent since owners of dogs refused to come to the event with their dogs and were also fearful of Mayor Morsel Graspalski's threats to confiscate their dogs if seen at the event.  Agents for football player and dog fighting specialist, Michael Vick are not commenting at the present time.  Vendors were overjoyed with this news.







           OTHER ACTIVITES IN SALINAS AREA

Obviously, people were someplace else engaging in other activities.  So, here's what was going on in the Lighter Side of Salinas.