INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 2)

 Over the years I have attended, worked with and organized hundreds of festivals and events. With this new series, "INSIDE with the Festival Nomad", I want to give you an "inside" look at some of the festivals and events that I have been involved with or that I have visited. Along the way, I have had a lot of fun and sometimes frustration, but I have never been bored!

Our First Show

Edwin Matthews had made us an offer we couldn’t refuse! He would supply us with framed art and Judi and I would sell it. Simple, right? The problem was, we didn’t have a physical premise to house and show the art. The solution was to show and sell the art at consumer shows. Our first consumer show was in Ottawa at the Ottawa Boat and Sportsmen’s Show. We didn’t have a clue what we were doing! Fortunately, Edwin had a lot of experience and provided us with the “tools” (booth, screws, signs, etc.) necessary to set up and display. All we had to do was provide the manpower and the seed money! Everything went fairly smoothly during the set-up and the show. We sold enough to cover our costs and to make a small profit. The real “fun” came during “take down”! “Takedown” is actually a very appropriate name for the process! As the show ended, there was a mad scramble to secure “moving dollies”, “loading docks” and the "physical corridors" of the show! Since this was our first time, we didn’t realize that we needed to “scramble to survive"! We did survive, but just barely! I think the scariest moment came when one of the boat exhibitors decided to try to “squeeze” a large boat through a smaller space! They were knocking over everything in sight! We saw them coming towards our area in horror! The pictures, on loan to us, were in their pathway! We moved quickly to get everything out of the way! We did just in time! We thought we were home free! We had moved everything but the booth! You guessed it! Just as the boat reached our area, it started to tip! It rocked back and forth with “all” the boat movers trying to “save” it! They were certainly more worried about their boat then they were about our booth! Unfortunately, disaster was not averted and the large boat actually fell off its trailer and smashed onto the cement ground! It missed our booth, but it blocked the entire passageway and ramp exit! So much for hurrying! It was clear that it would take time to “fix” this problem. We and the other exhibitors in our area had to make long diversions to the other exits in order to "get out"!. This was our first, and certainly not our last experience with “take downs”. It did, however, teach us a valuable lesson, “Protect the prints at all costs”! A lesson that became invaluable on numerous occasions!