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!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 4)

 The Ottawa Boat Show and the Hamilton Sportsmen’s Show, plus a couple of other smaller shows, were the prelude to the really “Big” Show! If we thought that these smaller shows were a challenge, they were “nothing” compared to the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show. Back when we first exhibited at the Toronto Sportsmen’s Show, it was being held in the old Coliseum Building at the Exhibition ground in downtown Toronto. The new Direct Energy Centre wasn’t, I don’t think, a gleam in some politician's eye! In order to set up in the Coliseum, you had to be given a time and day. If you wanted anything special (electricity, carpet, lights, etc.), you had to book days in advance. There was a lot more at stake, because all of the costs were a lot higher! 

The first year we started off with a small booth 10" X 10'. We had jammed the booth so full of framed art, that we could hardly move. This was a good thing, because people who visited the show, were really interested in our products. We were specializing in wildlife art by some of the best known Canadian Wildlife Artists. Because of the type of show, our booth was quite popular, especially with other exhibitors. This was our first really financially successful show and it “sucked” us in to doing more. In all, we participated in about four Toronto Sportsmen’s Shows. Each time we expanded a little until the final year we took four 10’ x 10’ booths. This turned out to be a mistake because interest in wildlife art had slowed down. Surprisingly, in all the Consumer Shows we did over the years, we never had any products stolen! 

Unfortunately, this record was broken in our last Sportsmen’s Show, when one of Michael Dumas’ originals was stolen. Although we had tried to take every precaution to protect the paintings, someone snipped the wire that attached the painting to the booth wall. The painting was never recovered. Once we started doing the bigger shows, our set-up and take down techniques seemed to improve. Each time seemed to become easier. There were still challenges, but all were small in comparison to our first shows. These shows were a wonderful experience. However, time eventually began to wear us out and it was time to find a permanent location. That’s when we discovered Cobourg!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (No. 3)

 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 Second Show

After surviving our first consumer show, Judi and I felt (well at least I did) that we were seasoned professionals! The second show was in Hamilton at their Sportsmen’s Show. Set-up was easy, because we were able to bring our vehicle right into the building, the Copps Coliseum. Set-up had the normal trials and tribulations, but we were able to work through them with few problems. Even the show, itself, went off without a hitch. By the end of the show we (me) were feeling pretty confident and perhaps a little cocky (me)! Like with the set up, we were allowed to bring our truck into the building for the take down! Even the take down went fairly well. Judi and I loaded up the truck and closed the rear doors. We were all ready to drive home! I climbed into the driver’s seat, turn the ignition key and "nothing happened"! NO sign of life in the engine, none what so ever! By this time other trucks were ready to leave! The only problem was, we were blocking the passage way! We tried everything to get the vehicle started, but nothing worked! By this time our fellow exhibitors were losing their patience! Horns started to blare and voices rose. Finally with the help of a few “angry” men, we were able to push the vehicle out the way. With a riot averted, we were able to calmly contact CAA and get the vehicle started. Sheepishly, we drove home, ready for our (gulp!) next adventure!

(To be continues in Part 4)

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!

INSIDE with the Festival Nomad (#1)

 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!

Organizing My First Event

I was in my early 20’s and I had never been involved in any kind of an event, let alone organized one! But that is what I was asked to do. I was a fairly new member of the Young Men’s Advertising Club of Toronto, when the President called me and asked ME to do him a favour! How could I refuse! He was OUR President, after all! So here I was, the new chairman of the YMASC Car Rally and I was “panicking”! Fortunately, I was able to “recruit” a couple of “green” (that’s inexperienced, not earth conscious!) to join my committee. Together we worked with the previous committee’s notes (very complete), and started planning our event. I think the most fun was choosing the “rally” route! The three of us climbed into my car and we started off. Never having planned a route before, we didn’t have any pre-conceived restrictions. We knew our start and our destination, so we just drove! As we twisted and turned my fellow “newbie's”, wrote down directions, turns and landmarks! We also searched for items (unusual trees, interesting buildings and funny signs) for rally participants to identify along the way. The idea was for them to "find" these items to earn additional points. Back then, being ambitious young men, we were able to obtain some really great prizes. So, doing well in the Car, Rally was a priority amongst rally participants!

Those were great days! I can’t tell you how much fun we had in the planning and then the execution of the event, but it was a lot! The dinner parties, the laughter and the “secrecy” all added to our excitement. Even though we were very inexperienced, everyone at the rally enjoyed themselves and, we, the organizers, thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. We were the hit of the club, at least for the moment. This event, more than any other, sent me on the road for a life-long fascinate with festivals and events!