Friday, June 4.  We arrived there around 5:30pm and found our space.  We unloaded the van and began setting up our canopy and grids.  It was quite difficult putting up the canopy because it was quite windy, which is common here.  Had to actually stop what we were doing and just stand there holding the canopy until the winds subsided enough.

 

It took us around an hour and a half to put up the canopy and grids.  We tossed everything inside and covered it up, with expectations of getting there around 7:30am on Saturday to finish up.

 

Saturday, June 5.  It turned out to be one of the nicest days I have ever had in Foster City; as far as the weather goes.  Very little wind throughout the day and temps in the mid-70s.  However, sales continued to be rather sluggish for all of us.  Not a terrible day, but most definitely not a good day.

 

WE TOOK OUR TIME setting up and had around 3 1/2 hours to get our things up.  We finished just after 10:00 and was hoping to catch some 'early birds' since the show didn't officially start until 11:00.  However, there were very few 'early birds' and just about the only one's around were hovering about the carnival rides.

 

HAD A PHILLY CHEESESTEAK for lunch and I might just say it was 'blase.'  Not sure if that would describe one that was absolutely tasteless and having no flavor at all.  It wasn't terrible but it certainly was not one of the better one's around.  No taste and a bit sloppy.  What more can I say.  I have had worse - maybe 3 or 4 times.  The worst?  That was at the Zucchini Festival in Hayward and made by a Greek Food Stand.  Terrible.  Took one bite and tossed it?  Second worst?  In Antioch at the Holiday Craft Faire three year's ago.  Took 2 or 3 bites and dumped it.  Tasted like it had been sitting around for a couple weeks.  Probably was because I got food poisoning from it and suffered for 2-3 days running back and forth to the bathroom.  Maybe 60 times in some 30 hours?   I dare not ever eat any more food at that event and I recommend that to you also.  If you are a vendor and if for some reason, you do that sorry ass event, stay the hell away from that food place inside the first building. 

 

SEEMED TO BE A LOT OF EMPTY SPACES.  Where did the vendor's go?  That was a bad sign to start with.  Place wasn't that crowded much of the day and people seemed to be congregating in the food and carni' areas.  Saw few people carrying bags.  There were a couple booths that kicked butt, however the rest of us died a slow, tortuous death as the day progressed.  We were facing the 'wind' and we were quite fortunate that strong breezes did not pick up.  I ended up doing 'fair' but sales should have been at least 50 percent better.

 

COLLECTING NAMES.  Once again I saw a big canopy with a load of computer terminals.  Guys out front trying to sway visitors over to answer a 'questionaire' and possibly win a prize.  People, this is hogwash.  You are not going to win a car or whatever else they are offering.  They are getting your name, email address, etc., and selling it to other's.  They never tell you that.  They get in your face while you are walking down the aisle.  Think about it.  They are paying $100s of dollars for the space.  Do you think they are doing it just to ask you a bunch of questions?

 

Sunday, June 6.

 

As I headed over on the San Mateo Bridge, I could see 'mountains' of ugly clouds off in the distance and it was a bit breezy.  I arrived at the Festival around 9:45 and there were numerous booths open for business as a good number of the vendor's were hoping to be the 'worms that the early-birds' were coming out to catch.  However, there were no early birds flocking around and the only people there were the one's strolling through the carnival area.  There was a time when it made good sense to make it to these show's and open up an hour or more early.  But not now.  A good example was down in the Custom House Plaza in Monterey.  When we did shows there over the year's, we would see dozens upon dozens of tourists walking from their hotels down to the Wharf and we received good early sales from them, mainly Euro's.  However, that was year's ago and just doesn't happen anymore due to the lack of tourists, etc.  anywhere.

 

THERE WAS A PRETTY GOOD TURNOUT of people on Sunday, but they weren't buying much.  There was a small number of vendor's that did good and most of us would fall into the 'so-so' category.  So, you had the people there throughout the day, but just not spending.

 

DO WE HAVE A PRE-TEEN IDENTITY CRISIS HERE in Foster City.  Boy comes over and keeps playing with our fans, moving from one to another several times.  Then grabs one of our pink parasols?  Another kid comes over and grabs one of my AK-47 machine guns (toy) and asks how do you use it?  Twelve year's old and asking how do you use the gun?  Can you imagine that.  Just pull the damm trigger kid.  How hard is that?  Helloooooo. I guess if he gave me an I-phone or whatever, I wouldn't know what to do.  Can't afford this hi-tech gizmo's and gadgets. I can recall being a kid many year's ago watching Western's all the time. Time's have changed.  Well, maybe that's good because the kid might not be mixed up with violence.  I'll cut him some slack.

 

TWO KIDS COME OVER and are looking at my sets of police, etc., weapons in a package.  Punk number one tells P#2 that 'you can get that at a dollar store.'  I respond by telling him to go to the 'dollar store' then.   I then heard P#1 tell P#2 that he is 'impressed with his knowledge of guns.'  I then tell them 'yah, he's going to grow up to be a mass murderer.'

 

THE PROMOTER'S, FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS (aka Jeff & Jerry) did an excellent job once again and are the cream of the crop as far as promoter's go.  Very well organized and I really have no complaints about this event, even though getting in to load up was a bit difficult but I guess that they were just trying to avoid congestion.  They led the horse's to the water but we unable to stick their noses in it.  They led the Multitudes to the Promised Land, but they were non-believer's; they were doubter's.