Here I am preparing for my next show, the second to last one for this year. It is expected to be a very busy one, and I a thrilled to not having to drive for more than 5 minutes to get there… The season started intensely in August and only a hurricane (Sandy actually, I am not joking) stopped me for 2 weeks.
The best show of the season was a Green Fest in Connecticut. I don’t think Connecticut had too much to do with the success, but the instead a combination of the right crowd for my product and a well advertised event.
The worse show of the season was in Philadelphia. Again, I am sure Philly was not the problem because I’ve had some great shows in the area, neither were the organizers who did a great job in the past. My suspicion is that the theme was a bit off. Here’s how it went: people came over after buying a $20 ticket to wait until a cow pooped on the grass. Yes, you are not misreading, people spent something like 2 hours staring at a cow’s ass waiting for her to shit ont he grass. The grass fence was divided in squares, squares were numbered and the lucky winner would be the one whose square the cow shit on. That crowd was not clearly interested in handmade jewelry, or any handmade nothing, for that matters. The only stand that had some traffic was the funnel cake truck. Good for them and for the pro-diabetes community. Bad for me.
Now it’s time to sum it up. Here’s a few things (which will translate in rules for next year) I am taking home from 6 months on the road:
1) Never go to shows involving animal activities.
2) Never go to shows involving poop, of any sort. Also vegetables, fruit and other edible things are banned.
3) Foodies food trucks are good; junk food food trucks are bad.
4) Never go to shows that cost less than $70/day. That typically means that the shows was not advertised AT ALL.
5) Last but not least: Never go to shows involving children activities. Their behavior typically ranges from disruptive to destructive and parents can’t focus on shopping if kids are insistently asking for candy.
Now, these rules wont apply for everybody. If you are selling hot dogs or funnel cake, you should probably ignore all the rules stated above.
And you? What was your experience with shows this past season?