TEN SHOWS I WILL NEVER DO AGAIN. For
various reasons, I have not intention of participating in these events.
The first five were truly bad events for us (and others) and treatment
and respect of vendors was very bad. The bottom five represent
mostly dis-interest from the buying public. The last one just had
plain old lousy hours and terribly hot.
1, Jackson County Fair, Medford, OR
2. Chandler Ostrich Festival, Chandler, AZ
3. Almond Blossom Festival, Quartz Hill, CA
4. Daly City Fil-Am Festival, Daly City, CA
5. Almond Blossom Festival, Ripon, CA
6. Douglas County Fair, Roseburg, OR
7. International Festival of the Winds, Marina. CA
8. Tucson 4th Avenue Street Fair, Tucson, AZ
9. Central Valley Pizza Festival, Lemoore, CA
10. Cornfest, Brentwood, CA
Oakland Chinatown Street Festival. Held during
the third weekend of August along Franklin and surrounding numbered
streets (8th-11th?). We achieved much success here back in the
1990's and was a very good event for us as we had two spaces here for
many years. However, we had declining sales at this show and one
of the main problems was that we were placed on a different street every
year and return customers had a hard time finding us. 90 percent
of my customers were white and Chinese didn't buy from us.
They do get over 100,000 for this and the streets are indeed packed.
The promoters of the show have done a number of things wrong over the
year's that lead to an overall decline. One year they allowed a
couple blocks of new car dealers to set up right in the middle of the
event. You had two blocks on vendors on Franklin, 2 block of car
dealers and another 2-3 block of vendors. The section with the
cars theoretically cut the show in half, as people just weren't walking
two blocks just to get to the other side.
I am not too crazy about any show where I see Safeway constructions a
1/4th block long tent and give away a lot of it's products FOR FREE.
Creates long lines and when people get so many thing for free, they just
don't buy from vendors AND we have inflated crowd counts.
A huge problem had to do with a number of non-profits who were doing
giveaways. I just can not understand why we could have a line of
50 people waiting half an hour to get one sick-ass orange, etc.
We've had non-profits next to us and their lines for 'for freebies'
would extend in front of our booth.
This is a nice event for people (if you can find a place to park) and
there are many activities and things to see. You can get a good
deal on socks here. Also, this event is in downtown Oakland.
What do you suppose people do with their products at night? That
was real big pain in the *#($# to take down at night and set up in the
morning.
Mountain Mandarin Festival, Auburn, CA. Show
located in proximity of Highway 80, 40 miles north of Sacramento
at the fairgrounds. New England-type setting with the trees and
the colors. We have done this show 5 times and really haven't done
quite well. Outside 4 times and indoors once. In 2007, our
booth was located in a completely-out-of-the-main-traffic-flow area
along with 4-5 other vendors. Near the food area and all people
did in this area was grab their food, sit down and eat. Foot
traffic was very light except for maybe an hour on Sunday. I found
a better location and wanted to move, but they wouldn't let me.
There were a couple vendors who stretched over to open spaces next to
their booths and I guess that they were members of KAA (Kiss-asses-of
America). I got into a heated argument with the promoter's, as
every year, I had a poor location. The weather was really great
there the past couple years, but sales slow for a lot of people.
You might want to try this one, but you have to google-it yourself.
I'm not supporting these helpless bastards. Since we are from the
Bay Area, we have high expenses and do not plan on doing this event.
We've said this a number of times, but there really isn't anything of
notable interest during this week.
Hughson Fruit & Nut Festival is held during the third weekend
of May and we did it for many years. It was one of our first
events back in 1994 and we did it for 6 years from 2002-2007, phasing it
out for the Oakdale Chocolate Festival.
This was a decent event to do a number of years ago and the number of
booths was increasing yearly. However, the promoters had a helping
hand in allowing this event to decline now, losing dozens upon dozens of
vendors these past couple years, including us.
Why did we drop this show? They gave you a designated time to set
up on Friday. So, ALL vendors have to go out of their way to make
themselves available to drive there and set up. We came from the
Bay Area and several times we were stuck in traffic for hours on 238 and
580 and beyond. At that time, I would have rather come early Saturday AM
and not waste many hours of my time and gas.
One year, because the traffic was so bad, we decided not t come on
Friday. We arrived on Saturday and had a hell of a time getting
our space assignment that morning, as they did not make themselves
available until 9:00 and that is intentionally done. We are paying
over $300 for a space and they are treating vendors like that.
There are at least 4 other decent quality events that same weekend.
Our booth location was decent, as long as we weren't on the sun
side....temps rose to around 95-105 degree yearly. We were set up
in quads and that was great. However, there was a stage located
close by and we had to put up with them playing very loudly and both my
wife and I were hoarse by the end of each day.
We did not do the show in 2008 and we will not be returning here.
This year, they fenced off the area and began charging these people to
get in. Think of the shock that these people had when they found
out they now had to pay. Actually...uhhh...what people? We
got reports from there that the place was like a ghost town on Saturday
afternoon with a lot of vendors closing up. We were in Oakdale and
temps were at least 105 degrees there, so you know people were suffering
from the heat. I do expect to see (actually won't see because I
will not be there) another exodus of vendors in 2009 from Hughson as the
show will continue to decline. I'm not going to give you a link to
this event because it is now a bad show and there are other festivals to
do that weekend and these promoters play games.
When we did this show for the last time in 2006, the weather was bad, a
surprise for May and it rained a bit on Saturday. On Sunday, it
started off very overcast and began drizzling. Just before
noontime, a number of vendors started to packup, including us and left.
And that was the end of our days at the Hughson Fruit and Nut Festival!!
