INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 35)

 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!

Working the Show... (Part Four)

7.    Timing Is Everything!
Even if you have carefully planed everything, arrived at the show early and have plenty of time to set-up, don’t be too sure! As they say, what can go wrong, will go wrong! I can remember a number of shows where Judi and I were scrambling to finish setting up the booth before the start of the show. You just can’t predict what roadblocks are going to be thrown your way! Things like the electricity we had ordered and paid for, not being there! And then having to chase the show management and show electrician to solve the problem. How about other vendors using your space as storage as they set-up their booth! One time we forgot to pack some of our tools and had to scramble to borrow from other exhibitors. Probably the most common of delays is self inflicted, not acknowledging how much time it actually takes to set up a great booth! You always hope that you will learn by past mistakes, but!!!

8.    You Want Me to Park Where?!
Once a show set-up has been completed, the final challenge is finding a convenient parking spot. Not all events are parking friendly to vendors. This is especially true in some of the bigger shows! In many of the events we have participated in, we had our own booth, walls, backing, tables, etc. These needed to be assembled and set up first. Because of the possibilities of theft, we kept the art in the Van until we actually needed to hang it. This meant that we needed to keep the van near by until the initial work was completed. Because of this, we were one of the last ones to try to find a parking spot. By this time, all of the good ones were taken. This often made for challenging and sometimes, “creative” parking. But believe me, all of the forgoing was a dream as compared with the “TAKE DOWN”!!