Castro Valley Fall Festival

    2008 CASTRO VALLEY FALL FESTIVAL

September 13-14, 2008. Castro Valley, CA

To read about the 2009 show, please click here.

                                                             FORUM

VENDOR NEWS. Please visit our forum where you can read about other people's experiences with various shows, promoters, etc. I think you will enjoy reading about what many of us go through in our weekend rituals. Come on down and check us out. It doesn't cost anything and hopefully you will contribute with some of your own experiences.

Saturday, Sep 13. Setup went smoothly for us and most of the other vendors. Jeff, Jerry, etc., directing traffic in and out and they did a fantastic job as we have come to expect and do appreciate.   Other promoters...come on now, you need to grab a clipboard and take notes as you follow these guys around and watch the J&J Show for yourself. Not very many promoters out there that take care of vendors the way they do.

Looks like they have a 'full house' for this event. The crowd seemed to arrive a little later than usual (Saturday) for the event and sales do continue to be slow, even for this event. You can lead the horse to the water and you can stick his nose right in front of it, but if he is not thirsty then he will not drink. And that explains the crowd at this event and all the others.

The weather was great. Temps in the low 70's, no wind and some early-morning cloud cover, which cleared up by noon time. Wife and I had Italian Sausage Sandwiches and they were pretty good. Have eaten quite a number of them at events and these were among the best I have had. Very good. Went over to Philly Cheesteak Shop over in the Village and picked up some 15-inchers. They were okay, but you really have to read my food link about Philly Cheesesteak's and you can see how great these sandwiches can really be. My favorite.

This was the third year that the event has been out on the Boulevard. For many years, booths were clustered in and around the Village and I would tend to think a lot of visitors did not go to all the booths when the show was set up like that. For the show now, it's up and down the street providing better traffic flow. However, I did better in the Village because I had many return customers that knew where I was located and when you put the vendors on the street, it theoretically became a brand-new show.

Mimosa Day, Sep 14.   This is Sunday and is the day that they go around to all the vendors and serve up Mimosa's and provide 'mini-breakfasts' for all. Rolls, fruits, etc. Everybody needs their Orange Juice!! Don't see very many promoters doing that. And since Sunday mornings are always slow because of late (church-going, family outings, etc.) arrivals, you sometimes need a drink or two!

Not that I would ever expect Festival Productions to follow suit (because each show has many vendors) there is a promoter out there that does mostly car shows (Hot August Nights - Atlantis, etc) and ends the event by feeding the vendors with a Steak or BBQ chicken dinner. I did a few shows with him (Steve Maitland) several years ago and I thought that was impressive.

Crowds were down on Sunday and so were sales. Full moon, what do you expect? The weather was okay...partly cloudy in the AM and a pleasant afternoon.

Unfortunately for us, we have some very bad neighbors...the Pallen Karate School. They had a 10x10 space, but extended their activities outside their booth, halfways across the aisle. They were constantly in front of my booth blocking off customers from entering my booth. I spoke to them many times, but they would just say 'Oh I'm Sorry' and go on their way. Soon after, they would be in front of my booth again. Other vendors were aggravated by their activities and they were admonished by the show's promoters many times. This morning, one of them brought his dog over and had it sit down direclty in front of my booth, scaring off customers. I thought that in Martial Arts, you teach people self control, etc. That's a crock of baloney. These are very rude people and don't care about anybody else.