(hey, my Godzilla bowl! :)
It ended with a tornado...but more on that later!
It was such a gorgeous JULY weekend..sunny! Warm! Happy people everywhere....
a 3 day event is a long and tiring haul for a potter. Whenever I exercise and idly say to myself "why do I do this? This is pointless...." THEN, in the middle of the weekend fair I realize "THIS is why I exercise, so I can endure the long haul, the heavy lifting, the schmoozing with strangers". An endurance race!
But the most fun race you can imagine, especially with awesome rock and roll in the background. I LOVE events like this, but am so glad to be back to normal too.
I am a very early bird, and the early bird drives his car up onto the sidewalk because nobody is around, unloads and parks in the best spot, again, long before the sleepyheads arrive to unload. The earlybird also sells a lot of stuff early...
It is a city fair, and all kinds of people are around. Friday, office workers on break followed by rock and rollers for evening music and beers and Saturday families followed by more rock and rollers and Sunday the after church group followed by...more rock and rollers.
And characters. It was mid-80s Saturday afternoon, and there was an impossibly tall person who seemed one or two short of a six pack wearing a HEAVY BLACK WINTER COAT. And the guy Sunday morning asleep on the sidewalk who cheerfully woke up and found some more beer to enjoy amongst the artists and who, well, scared off some of the church people and even stretched out to sleep SOME MORE INSIDE the artist booth next to mine...before he wandered off....he was out of beer and needed more....
It was all over in a rush, a blur. We had a bad weather report for Sunday and that kept crowds down, after perfect Friday and Saturday . The weather, the crowd, and the music were nice until 2 something Sunday, not long before close--it is very unusual for artists to pack early and a fair to close, contracts forbid it--BUT we had notice of a monster storm arriving, and indeed, Binghamton had a tornado that did not touch down. Driving over Sunday I decided to pack up half my booth and make a system for a quick getaway later, and since I was early, I parked in the closest spot to the fair. When the rain started to fly I WAS GONE. One wet box, that was it :) I was lucky, my sales had been Superb until then, and I beat my target expectations for the weekend...by 14 dollars :)
After a couple hours setting up...below, arriving early ready to unload.
the artist view from the back!
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6 comments:
That's super. And you didn't have to put up the tent apparently. Whoo hoo! Glad you had a great weekend...we did too, without rain!
Smart man. Getting there early so you can set up with ease. Sounds like a good weekend. Glad you beat the storm.
Sounds like a great show, and the tents are already up for you. Yay!
It was so smart to be prepared for the storm. I had to leave one show because of a tornado in the area but it was simply a matter of vip up the tent and flee. Yikes. But all was well. Glad you were too.
Great to know your weekend was a success! I imagine you are old hat at the fast pack.
I counted once and had done nearly 1000 fairs with my own canopy: now I do not do ANY fairs where I have to bring a canopy. I am too old for that sh!t ;) I do inside or if they provide a circus tent. We have a tiny car at this point, and I think too much is at stake to schlep the canopy and setup, etc.
Lovely post! I am the early bird type, too. And a great packer. :-) Go figure! I'm glad you got out fast and that the tornado did not touch down. Wow!
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