Before I get started on this detailed account of our first festival, I need to preface.... the festival was a great learning experience, great fun, and allowed me an entire weekend with one of my favorite people on the planet. BUT...the truth of the matter is..... it rained the entire weekend. Not only was it rainy, but it was extremely cold. I don't know about you, but an outdoor festival isn't exactly the first thing on my mind under those conditions. Even though the forecast predicted gloom & doom, I packed the wagon to the gills & hit the road Friday with a positive attitude (thanks to the husband's pep talk). Wendy met me at my parent's house for a trial run. We had never put our work together, had to figure out how we wanted our tables, and had a new tent to put up. The run went smoothly & we felt pretty good about things. Wendy ordered our tent a good while back & wanted to order side walls. I ensured her that they weren't necessary. And they wouldn't be on a lovely spring day. After we did the breakdown we hit the store for 7 plastic shower curtains, a ball of twine, sandbags, large garbage bags, and lots of snacks.
Saturday morning we headed to Forsyth right before 6 am. The 'real setup' took a bit longer than the trail because of the shower curtain rig, but by opening time the place was looking pretty good. Though more people than I actually expected, there was by no means a crowd. We made a few sales here & there, but the folks in camo & the teenagers with those oddly tight pants & big shoes didn't seem too interested in what we had to offer. The Lions club next door sold the heck out of their boiled p-nuts & the guy who made leather belts across from us was surely the top seller. It seemed as though he was stamping people's names into their new purchases nonstop. As some point during the day he managed to get a break long enough to suggest that we apply for some home & garden shows. He said that tons of ladies go to them & love to buy things like handmade candles. His next line, verbatim, was "these rednecks don't know what your stuff is. Hell, I don't know what it is". We got a good laugh out of that & enjoyed meeting all of our neighbors. We got lots of great tips from them & I was simply intrigued by their lifestyles. Most of them hit the craft circuit for a living. They travel to festivals every weekend & make their crafts during the weeks. The ones around us had been doing this for 20-30 YEARS. Someone needs to make a reality show about this... its a really odd subculture that I had no idea existed. When my grandpa was alive he often referred to 'carnies' and this would be my closest encounter to that. Don't get me wrong, these people were GREAT. I almost wish we had an RV just so we could hang out with them at night.
The festival closed down after a few hours today. The rain just never let up & no one came out. By the time we got everything loaded up there wasn't a single stitch of our clothes that was dry. I'm happy to now be dry & armed with experience for our next venture. We're heading to St. Simons Island the first weekend in April... I can't wait to see what it has in store for us.
(the booth looks a lot cuter in person than it photographs)
All smiles... even though we were soaked to the bone.
