Vendor Review of Palmyra Canal Town Days 2019

Let me be honest, I participated in this festival on a whim. Why? Because I wasn’t sure I had been accepted to Canandaigua Christkindl Market yet (I was wait listed, but I’m in now yay). I was looking to fill my fall schedule as best as I could with as many festivals and Palmyra Canal Town Days kept coming up. I looked into it a little bit and was surprised to see the traffic at this event is fantastic! So I gave it a whirl. Here’s my complete and totally honest opinion about Palmyra Canal Town Days 2019.

Just a heads up, some of my links are associated with an affiliate program, which means if you click the link and purchase the item I can get a small commission. Feel free to read all the boring details here.

Stats

Festival: Palmyra Canal Town Days 2019

Location: Palmyra, NY – Main Street

Dates: September 14-15th

Times: Saturday: 10-6pm, Sunday 10-4pm

Admission: FREE to public

Booth: 10×10, 10×20. Honestly, go for the 10×10. I ended up having so much extra space due to my neighbor not showing up and I was on the end of a row which provided me with plenty of extra space to spread out. Also the booths are spaced well, leaving extra space between booths. Unless you really want a 10×20, a 10×10 will give you enough space and then some to stretch.

Booth Fee: $125

Application Due Date: August 30

Set up: You can set up Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. As it is a little difficult getting a vehicle near your space with road closures Saturday morning for parades, I recommend Friday evening set up.

Parking: There are a few different small parking lots vendors can park in, otherwise there is a larger parking lot with a shuttle.

Friday Set Up

I always enjoy Friday evening set ups because there is less stress the next day. This Friday evening set up, however, was stressful! HOLY WIND!

The festival is located on main street, far enough away from the actually canal, I thought we’d be ok with wind. But nope, the winds were ridiculous! It made for a very challenging set up. But we managed. We put our spiral stakes with racket straps to the test.

Be prepared to walk a little ways with your merchandise to set up. We could unload our vehicle a little ways away, and then use our handy dandy wagons to carry everything over to my space. It wasn’t far, but it would have been a lot if we had to carry everything individually over. Thank goodness for our wagons!

That evening I received a phone call from one or the committee members. She wanted to let me know one of my racks in my tent had fallen over. She and her staff picked up my merchandise (my gloves) and put them in one of my wooden crates on my chair for me. Can I tell you how grateful I was to hear someone was keeping an eye on the tents?

The relief I felt after that phone call was immense. I hadn’t even realized I was stressing over tents flying away in the wind and breaking my tent or my tent flying away. Just to know someone was keeping an eye on everything was HUGE! I actually slept like a baby that night after that phone call. Yes, I was sad my rack fell over, but hey that’s all that fell, so I was happy. As least my tent was alive!

Saturday

Saturday started off like any other festival. Get there, fix my glove display, finish any last minute set up, get my loom started, wander around a bit before it starts officially.

I was surprised by how it was set up. There were approximately 35+ vendors on the north side of main street where I was located. Across the street was split in two by a building. On one side there were approx 15 vendors and on the other maybe another 20? I read somewhere there used to me 200+ vendors at this event. Now there are maybe 70.

But even though there were not that many vendors I can tell you the traffic is enormous! There were multiple parades on Saturday and several displays of talent. I saw dancing, baton twirling, marching bands, karate, and more throughout the day. With all the activity came the crowds!

There was a steady amount of people coming through the festival all day.

As an open to the public festival it was amazing. The temperatures always effect my sales, but others were doing great. At the end of the day I had the booth fee back and then some, so I was happy.

Sunday

Sunday started out much the same. They ended up canceling a race that morning which I think led to smaller crowds, but the traffic was still steady.

Sunday I barely made any sales, but that’s alright. It was fun and to be completely honest here, I was worried I’d sell too much and have no inventory for the Purple Painted Lady Festival the following weekend. I was happy with what I sold and what I didn’t.

Packing up was the same as unpacking. We had to put everything in our wagons and pull them to the parking lot where my car was located. However, they did have the entire Pal-Mac football team there helping vendors carry items to your vehicle. That was HUGE! It turned our 20 trips into 2. So helpful.

Here’s where it got scary. After everything was packed up and I was ready to leave, I was directed to leave the parking lot through a back exit, not the front to the main road. The back exit is not paved. It is almost a 90 degree angle down to a side road. It rained while we were packing up….

Do you see where this is going?

I managed to get half way down the hill when my all-wheel drive slipped in the mud! My car slid down the hill and into the road where a sedan was passing. My brakes just managed to grip the pavement on the road before I hit an old lady (who gave me a lot of attitude about it). I apologized and proceeded with caution. I also sent a prayer that no one was coming down the hill behind me.

My recommendation, DO NOT park in the back parking lot for vendors unless you’re 100% sure you can get down that hill without trouble. I nearly killed myself and an old lady and I feel terrible about it. Don’t be like me, plan your parking and exit before an accident happens.

To the Palmyra Canal Town Days Committee, I’d love it if you placed a human at that exit to help with traffic. If there had been someone there to stop traffic, I would not have almost killed that old lady.

Lessons Learned

1.Do not attempt large unpaved hills after it has rained.

Even though I had all-wheel drive I slipped in the wet mud. That can happen to you too! For your safety and others around you be sure to inspect you exit plan. If you find it is not safe, perhaps talk to someone in charge and explain your concern before attempting it and nearly dying in the process.

2. Always prepare for the Weather!

I am so so so so glad I purchased those spiral stakes and racket straps! My tent would not have survived if they were not attached to the corners. They kept my tent safely on the ground and my product where it needed to be. The reason why my glove display fell was because I didn’t attach it to my tent like I always do. I don’t know what I was thinking, but now I know it has to be attached over night too.

3. 4 opens sides is WAY too much!

My neighbor moved to a different location and I was left as an island onto myself. I had already planned to have 2 sides open. 3 sides was hard to figure out, but I managed. But 4 sides? Holy frick that was too much! I could only handle having people enter my booth from 3 directions, not 4! Now I know for future shows not to complain when I only have 2 or even 1 side open to traffic.

Recommendations

Food vendors! Honey, Maple syrup, pies, cakes, etc. I saw a lot of these vendors there and I can say, they always had crowds! Soaps and jewelry of course do well too.

Everyone else, unless your items are priced below $30, you may or may not do well. Most of the traffic is parents and family supporting kids in all the events taking place throughout the day. They are not there to shop. That means they are not expecting to spend more than $30 on the entire day, maybe more if they were planning food.

After talking with a potter and sign maker, they agree. I’m pretty sure each may have just made the booth fee back or were negative from this event. That sucks. I am happy to say both days were cooler, so I managed to sell enough to make over the booth fee. Granted, my smaller (lower price) items were what sold, but it’s something.

If you’re thinking about participating in the event next year, be aware it is scheduled for the same weekend as the Purple Painted Lady Festival, also in Palmyra. This may or may not affect traffic and sales next year at both events.

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As always, I hope this review helps you with your festival decision making process! I look forward to the next review, which is the Purple Painted Lady Festival.

See you next time

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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!

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