Memorial Park, Stevens Creek Blvd.,
Cupertino, CA (just across from DeAnza College). Sat/Sun April 25-26.
The city of Cupertino will be hosting it's
annual Cherry Blossom Festival on April 25-26 at Memorial Park. This
event draws large crowds and is promoted by
Festival Productions
We have particpated in the event for many years.
People come to hear and see them play the large drums, which is one of
the highlights of this event.Majority of the food booths are volunteers
and serve up various Japanese foods, in line with the theme of the
festival.
Saturday, Apr 25. We had set up our canopy and grids the day
before. We arrived at 6:40 and set up the remainder of our
display. The show was held in a park, so vehicles were not allowed
to drive in. Vendors had to cart their stuff in from the parking
lot. The show is quite spread out, extending around the lagoon
closest to Steven's Creek Blvd. Perhaps 40 booths altogether.
There's another lagoon in the middle of the park on the opposite side of
where the vendors are. An entertainment stage was set up and
people watched an array of performances throughout the day. They
usually converged upon the booths during breaks in the entertainment.
However, they definitely were not buying very much.
In past years, I would be 'deluged' with groups of 15-20 people in a
hurry to buy and I would get quite a good number of sales.
However, this year, we were swarmed with people on occasion, but a lot
of those times, we were left with absolutely nothing in sales. The
economy is in trouble and this area has been hit hard by the recession
since it is located along the edges of Silicon Valley and many people
have lost their jobs and homes.
There are food booths located on the other side of the stage and you
have a small variety. Drinks, tempura, hot dogs, hamburgers (sold
out), smoothies, cabbage chicken salad (which my wife loves),
potstickers (they were okay, I got a plate of 5.
There were no booths behind the food area, as in past years (before last
year) there were about 30 vendors located there also, but no more.
The weather was decent with temps in the mid-60's. Out in the sun,
it was very nice and we had a breeze throughout the day. Our booth
was beneath a tree and we froze, to tell you the truth, especially when
the wind blew.
Sunday, April 26. Even better weather today. Seemed like
less people today during the early hours and then picked up around
1-3PM. A little better for us today, but I am not sure about the
other vendors. People just not spending their money, period.
Kettle Korn continuously had lines of 15 or more people long most of the
day. I got mine around 11:00AM when there was no line and not too
many at the event.
Today, the chamber came around and passed out free bagels, which were
okay, but you have to supply your own cream cheese, etc. Yesterday
they passed out free oranges and apples. That was very nice of
them. Today, Jerry came around with the mimosa, which is always
great and yesterday we got the muffins from him.
I spoke to quite a number of vendors and they feel that the promoter's
are charging too much. A number of people seem to think that the
show is too spread out and we have a good argument for that, especially
since it looks like they lost another 15-20 vendors for this show.
The show might be better if contained within one area of the park.
Good argument for the 'Steven's Creek' side because it's closer to the
parking area at DeAnza and better viewed from the street. However,
if on the other side, loading in and out might be difficult and I think
that a lot of people visit their historical center or whatever it is.
Value of show? With a large share of vendors not making very much
money along with the quality of sales from the buying public, which
wasn't I have assesed the value of vendors spaces to be between
$150-$175.
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