What a week! This is a little late in coming, since the Keuka Arts Festivals was two weekends ago. But here I am finally writing it down. Who knew there were so many birthdays to celebrate and baby nieces to play with and old friends to reconnect with? So many good things happened over the last two weeks, I’ve been slacking. So let’s get back to business:
** This post may contain affiliate links. That means if you click on a link I may earn a small commission at no cost to you! To see the full disclosure, click here.
The Keuka Arts Festival in Penn Yan, NY
After doing so well at the Fingerlakes Celtic Festival, I had the itch to find more events to participate in this year. I came across the Keuka Arts Festival. Everything I read about this festival sounded perfect for me and my yarn creations. So I emailed the director and asked if there were still openings. Lucky me, there were.
Honestly, not sure if that’s a good or bad sign that festivals have openings after their application deadline has past. But I figured I’d give it a shot, why not? What is the worst that can happen? I sell nothing?
I really should have knocked on some wood for thinking that one…
Before we head into the tale of my weekend at the Keuka Arts Festival, here’s a few stats:
Keuka Arts Festival Stats
Festival: Keuka Arts Festival
Location: Keuka Lake Trail in Penn Yan, NY
Dates: Saturday, June 8th – Sunday June 9th
Times: Saturday 10am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm
Admission: FREE to public
Vendor Types: Handmade, Direct Sales, Commercial
Booth: This show is unique, in that they offer 3 different booth sizes: 10×10, 10×15, and 20×20. I went with the 10×15 so I’d have room for loom demos. In hindsight, I should have just gone with the 10×10.
Booth Fee: There is a non-refundable jury/application fee of $25. Booth fee’s are average.
Application Due Date: May ?
Set up: Set up begins Friday, 10am-5pm. Booths must be fully set up by 9am Saturday morning.
Parking: There’s a small parking lot you can park in for set up. Once the show begins, staff ask that vendors park a short walk through the woods at the baseball field. *More on this below*
Friday Night Set up
If you can, I HIGHLY recommend setting up for this show the night before. The booths are set up along the Keuka Lake Trail which is a small path along the canal through the main part of Penn Yan. While beautiful, vehicle space is limited.
When we (me and my amazing husband) arrived, there was a fantastic Head Quarters tent set up. It was well marked and right where you pull into a small parking lot next to the trail. The staff are super friendly and helpful. Everything was going great until I learned my booth location.
I was located in Area B.
Don’t get me wrong, I thought it was fantastic at first because Area B connects areas A and C together so I figured we’d have a lot of traffic. And there were not that many vendors located in Area B so traffic would be able to focus on the few of us there, instead of being overwhelmed. I also had the added bonus of having a wine tent located just behind me. I hoped wine tasters would meander towards my booth, and they did.
Then we go to get the car and start unloading only to find out, the town of Penn Yan has forbidden any vehicles from being on the grass due to the large amounts of rain this spring. *This was unusual so this doesn’t always happen. Sounds like normally you can drive right up to your booth to set up, we just didn’t have the opportunity in 2019.
My booth, from the parking lot, was up then down a hill. I don’t know about you, but I have some heavy display items. Thank goodness for my blue wagon! It took several hard trips, but we managed to get everything up and down the hill in a reasonable amount of time.
It was only when we were finished making trips to the car that we discovered a volunteer driving a golf cart helping other vendors with their displays. You mean to tell me we could have had him drive the heavy, large, awkward stuff down the hill? Darn it.
In the end, we got everything down to my spot, got 80% set up, and satisfied, we drove home.
Saturday’s Experience
Saturday I was bright eyed, and ready for a super successful day! Maybe that’s what jinxed it.
Customers started arriving as early as 9am when the show did not technically start until 10am. Great stuff! The traffic remained steady all day. The weather was beautiful with a great wind off the water, and sales were… 0. I made a few small quick sales in the morning, but after 11am I did not sell a single thing the rest of the day.
I did manage to finish weaving on my 5ft Triangle. But I really would have liked to see more sales. I tried rearranging my large space a few times, but that didn’t seem to help. Did I mention I had a 10×15 space, but it was more like a 20×20 space! All the booths were spaced out with a lot of room in-between, so I used it. It was nice not feeling crowded against other vendors.
I ended up going home so disappointed in the day, I almost didn’t want to return for Sunday, but I knew I would.
Sunday
Sunday was so much better than Saturday at this event. Who knew Sunday would bring out all the buyers? I had sales all day! Including some of my shawls!
At the end of the day I made back the vending fee plus a little. No where near what my goal was, but I was happy to have made a little at this show after Saturdays no sales.
At the end of the day, the volunteer driving the golf cart around, convinced the people in charge to let vendors drive their vehicles down the hill to load up. Thank goodness! It took so much less time to load up at the end than it did unloading one wagon full at a time. Yay!
Lessons Learned
No matter how many times I vend at events, I am always learning something new. Here’s what I learned this time:
- The little blue wagon that could!
Oh my gosh! I love my little blue wagon! I purchased my wagon off amazon to help me in the mornings and evenings at shows to haul in and out my cooler, cash box, and yarn bags. I figured pulling the wagon was easier on my knees than trying to carry everything from the parking lot.
Turns out, that wagon is so much more helpful than I ever thought! We managed to load 6, 6ft grid walls, two boxes of metal cubes and a few other things in it all at once! I thought for sure my little wagon was done for, that the weight was going to break a wheel while rolling down the hill. It didn’t! Bret was so impressed, he bought us a second wagon to help us with future shows where we cannot pull right up to my spot.
Here’s the wagon I got if you want to give it a shot:
2. Do not ever count on being able to pull up to your booth location
I always seem to assume I’ll be able to pull up to my spot, unload, go park the car so the next guy can get in and set up. What a surprise this weekend was when I couldn’t do that.
I’ve heard of other shows like that, but the only shows I’ve experienced where I can’t pull up are indoor shows. This being outdoors, I was just shocked. And then the vendor parking lot was almost 1/2 mile away from my booth! That meant I had a lot of walking in and out every day to do. It was a lot of work, but I managed. I’ll just have to remember for the future, that not all shows are equal when it comes to setting up.
3. Locate Bathrooms before the event starts!
So there I was, half-way through the day when I realized I didn’t see a bathroom anywhere nearby. I crept away from my booth for a minute to ask a fellow vendor. Lo and behold, the committee decided the one port-a-potty located in Area B did not get enough use the previous year, so they cut it!
The only other bathrooms available were over the hill and through the parking lot in Area A or over the bridge, through the woods in Area C. AHHH! When you’re vending alone, that is not happy news!
The only good thing was I was sweating as fast as I was drinking so I ended up not needing the bathroom until I was ready to go home. But still, that was a nightmare! Next time, I need to find the potty’s before the show starts, so I can create a bathroom time plan.
4. Not Everyone will like your merchandise
Sad day, I had so many compliments and then I had all the rude remarks too… A lot of them stick with me, let me share some gems:
“Looks too granny, take it off!”
“I don’t want anything with acrylic in it because it will pill!”
“Wool makes me itchy, do you have anything all acrylic?”
“Where’s the rest of it?” Me: “That’s a shawl, for your shoulders?” Customer: “Oh? It’ll never sell because it’s only half of a poncho.”
“I know this says $100, but can’t you just give it to me for $20? I can’t afford $100 and it’s only yarn anyway.” This one always kills me… $20 doesn’t even cover the cost of the yarn let alone all my time that went into making it. When I explain how long it took me to make it, sometimes customers realize their mistake. A lot of that time they still want a ‘deal’. No matter how desperate you are for a sale, DO NOT give in and sell yourself short!
It kills me that so many people want handmade but they do not want to pay for it. I had one customer, only one over the course of the weekend tell me my prices were WAY too low for the amount of work I must have put into them. I’m happy to say that customer is now a proud owner of a pair of gloves.
These comments always make me wonder at the person saying them. Don’t they know their comments hurt the artist? We put so much time and effort into our art form, we are proud of it, but then we start questioning ourselves when we hear these comments. The sad part is, we grin and bare it because we are afraid we will not make another sale if we don’t.
I just want all vendors out there to know they are not alone! Don’t let that one bad egg at a show ruin your confidence. There are good people out there too that truly appreciate your hard work and will proudly own it.
Recommendations
So this was probably not the right show for me. But I talked to several vendors while I was at the Keuka Arts Festival and I can tell you they did a lot better than me. Jewelers and other smaller craft people did very well.
Once again my price range kills me. I think if your products fall within the $5-$50 range you’d do very well at this event. Most of what I sold was in the $2-$30 range with a few larger sales in the $75-$100 range.
Though, there was a vendor selling wooden wine holders for out door patios and I can tell you I saw a lot of those being carried around. I think his price range was $50-$200. This just goes to show if you are selling more seasonal items, you’ll do better at this type of event.
With that, I will leave you until Webster Waterfront Arts Festival next month! I hope this helped you decided if this a good event for you or not! Take care!
Were you a part of this festival? Please tell me about your experience below in the comments 🙂 Remember, any thought can help a fellow vendor decide if this show is right for them. We are a community, let’s share and help each other!
Hello! I’m Ashli!
Fiber artist extraordinaire, soaper, and founder of Cobblestone Alpacas.
Here you’ll find information on weaving, knitting, crochet, sewing, felting, yarn dying, spinning, cold process soap making, candle making, and more.
I also provide helpful tips of the trade for creative business artisans and vendors to help grow your business where you want it to be!
I like this site because so much useful stuff on here : D.
Thank you! This makes me happy to have something think there is useful information on my blog 🙂 That has always been my goal, so thank you!
Comments are closed.