INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 8)

 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!

ACROSS CANADA …

Just before we moved to Cobourg, we traveled across Canada for almost two months. This was a trip designed to promote Buckhorn Publishing products and the wildlife artist, Michael Dumas. Buckhorn Publishing had been working with the Federal Government and its national parks volunteers, the Canadian Parks Partnership. Edwin Matthews, owner of Buckhorn Publishing had developed a number of Michael Dumas fine art products for the “Partnership” to sell at their stores in each of the National Parks. It was Judi’s and my job to travel across Canada and visit as many National Parks as possible. Along the way we were to try to find other sales and marketing opportunities. This took us to all sorts of fascinating attractions and events. In the course of our travels, we met all kinds of interesting people! Our journey included visiting National Parks such as Riding Mountain in Manitoba, Waterton-Lakes in Alberta and Pacific Rim in British Columbia. Along the way we also visited zoos, museums and wildlife societies. It was an eye-opening trip, full of adventure, fun and some danger. Over the next few articles, I hope to give you a sense of the things we saw and experienced, including being stopped at the USA/Canadian border, running out of gas in the middle of nowhere, being chased by a buffalo, standing 10 feet from Queen Elizabeth II, being pulled over by the RCMP and watching sea otters play in the setting sun!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 7)

 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 Destiny Show

Judi and I were exhibiting at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show when we were approached by Henry Kole. He asked us if we were familiar with the Buckhorn Wildlife Festival (now the Buckhorn Fine Art Festival). I told him that we were and that, in fact, I worked with the founder of the Festival, Edwin Matthews. With that he proceeded to tell me about an idea he had. He explained it briefly. I was intrigued. I suggested that he and I go and talk about it in greater detail. We walked to one of the coliseum-show arenas and sat down. We must have talked for an hour or more (poor Judi manning the booth alone). At the end of our conversation, Henry said “So, why don’t you move to Cobourg and help me?” It just so happened that Judi and I were thinking about moving and were considering Cobourg as one of the possibilities. I said to Henry “If you can find us a placed to live and perhaps Art Gallery space to rent, we might consider it!” Two days after the show, Henry called me to say that he had a townhouse for us to move to. Judi and I drove to Cobourg to take a look. We loved it! Our destiny was sealed! We rented the townhouse and moved in three months later. Three months you ask! Well, that’s another story!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 6)

 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! While, perhaps this one show!

Our Most Boring Show

Most of the shows we participated in were 2 or 3 day shows, a few times 5 days. The Royal Winter Fair, however, back then, was an 11-day show! It ran, each day, from early morning to late at night. This wouldn’t be so bad if we had had a large staff to man the booth. That, unfortunately, was not our reality! Ainsley and Ed (my daughter and son-in-law) agreed to help us out, which was great, but it was still a long and exhausting show! To make matters worse, Judi and I got sick (Judi more than me) (extremely high fevers), and we took turns sleeping. I slept in a chair pretending to watch one of the shows in the show ring. Judi squished herself in a narrow passageway behind our booth lying on top of our winter coats! We were quite the pair! Judi, when i tell the story, adds here, that she was lying with the gigantic “rats” in the horse coliseum! I'm not sure how true this part of the story is! We lived in Cobourg, so going home for a rest, was out of the question! As a kid I had always loved visiting "The Royal”. There was so much to see and do! However, over 11 days, there are only so many pigs, cows, goats, horse, etc., that you can experience before getting bored! Perhaps Judi and I got the best of it because we was too sick too care! But Ainsley and Ed really bore the brunt of this boredom! We persevered but the boredom continued! The only really high point came, I am told, (I was behind the booth sick) came one evening! During the evenings at the Royal they hold the “Equestrian Shows and Competitions”. This is where the world’s top equestrian riders compete. The evening in question was the last Saturday, the BIG EVENT! Everyone attending the event wore "evening gowns and tuxedos". To get to the stadium the attendees had to pass by the booths where we were located. One group that passed by us contained none other than "Princess Fergi, Duchess of York". She stopped at a number of booths and even made a purchase at one (not ours!) It was all very exciting! At least I am sure it would have been for ME, if I had had been awake!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 5)

 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 Worst Show

Our Worst Show, by far, was the Metro Home Show held in the Toronto Metro Centre. The show started off like most shows, pack the truck with framed art and our booth, drive to the show site, get in line for set-up, set-up and then participate in the show. All very routine! This was our first time (and last) participating at this show. We didn’t know what to expect in terms of the number of visitors, but we were hopeful. It was Toronto after all, drawing from millions of people. We were so confident that the show would be busy that we asked Judi’s Mom and Dad to help out at the show. The day started began slowly, but we weren’t worried. This was the normal for these types of show. The afternoon wore on and then became early evening, dinner time for most people. Still no worries! Then came 7:00 pm, 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm. There were no people and I mean NO people! I told Judi and her parents that I would go to the other parts of the show to see how they were doing. NOTHING! The halls were empty! I walked to the main lobby. There were people there, but the room was very quiet. It was Thursday, August 2nd, 1990, “Operation Desert Storm” was in full swing! Bombs were dropping on Iraq! All eyes were glued to the lobby’s television sets! I went back to the booth to let the others know what was happening. Judi and her mother decided to take advantage of the quiet time and sat alone in the entertainment area listening to the small orchestra. They were there to entertain show “visitors” (no visitors there at all).  The weekend never recovered. No-one was interested in attending a consumer show! This was, by far, our worst show and, as a result, we and other exhibitors lost a lot of money! This was not a great time in the world. Troubling to say the least!