Oh Cohocton… This is my second year vending at this event and I will start this conversation by saying, I LOVE THE VENDORS! These last two years I have met some amazing vendors who have been so fun, polite, knowledgeable, and just plain awesome to be next to. And as long as nothing conflicts, I will be participating this one again next year.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Once again I have collected my thoughts on the Cohocton Fall Foliage Festival as a whole to share with you. If this is your first time reading one of my reviews, welcome! My hope is that you come away with some new knowledge to help you in the future. If you’re returning, welcome back! I’m glad you have enjoyed my reviews in the past and continue to read them.
Without further ado, let’s get to the good stuff!
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Stats
Festival: Cohocton Fall Foliage Festival 2019 (Click the link for more up to date information)
Location: Cohocton, NY – Main Street
Dates: October 5-6th
Times: Saturday: 10-6pm, Sunday 10-4pm
Admission: Free to Public
Vendor Types: Handmade, Direct Sales, Commercial, flea market
Booth: 10×15, 10×30
Booth Fee: $125
Application Due Date: Sept 15
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 for Saturday morning parades, I recommend Friday evening set up. ** There is a strict no driving on the grass policy at this festival which makes setting up and breaking down a pain.
Parking: To set up you can park on the road. All parking for the event for both vendors and customers is located at the school in the field. You read that right, in the field. It rains every year, so beware you may need to be pulled out by a tractor by the end of the weekend.
Set up
Set up is a challenge. I always opt to set up Friday night before the festival if that is an option. Luckily, Cohocton Fall Foliage has that option. After struggling to fit everything in my SUV (I’ve just about out grown my car… guess we will be switching to renting a uhaul for the weekends soon), we made the beautiful drive south to Cohocton.
Arriving, there is chaos like most shows. I have Bret find a parking spot along the main road while I hop out and find the check in tent. At check in you get your booth packet and your booth number and are shown a map. The map is a little confusing, but this being my second year, I recognized I was in the same area as last year.
There is a strict NO DRIVING ON THE GRASS rule. This means you have to park on the street and carry everything in and out. This is why Bret and I invested in wagons that fold up when not in use. I love my wagons! They are pretty amazing with the amount of weight I’ve put in them.
Click here to see the Wagon we Purchased!We made several trips, but it’s not as bad as it would have been without our trustee wagons.
The spots are marked with booth numbers and outlined. And they are HUGE! 10×15 is more than enough room to spread out and still have room to spare. I love it. I set up my tent on one side, and my loom demonstration area outside to the side. I also open up my booth to allow customers to enter and exit on two sides.
We got everything set up and ready to go in no time. There is security over night, so I don’t mind leaving my merchandise over night.
Saturday
Saturday mornings are always interesting for me. I run around the house like a crazy person talking to myself, asking myself what did you forget? I literally go room to room looking around like I’m playing ‘I Spy’ to make sure I literally have everything.
This time I forgot my rubber mat in case of mud and rain like last year, my loom and stand for demonstrations, my clip board for newsletter sign-ups, a few other miscellaneous things and of course food and water for the day.
I always pack more water than I will drink just in case there is a thirsty dog, I need water for some odd reason other than drinking, or for helpers. I also bring all my own food. Why? I vend by myself so it is very hard to leave my booth unattended and wait in line to buy food.
There’s one other reason, buying food. I’d rather make money at festivals, not spend it all. So I pack snack food. Cheese, crackers, pepperoni, chips, cookies (for my epic sweet tooth), and a PB&J sandwich. I usually don’t eat everything on the list, but I do munch throughout the event when my booth is not busy. Find what works for you, this is just how I manage food.
Arriving at the festival for the day on Saturday is interesting. There is no parking on main street because of the parade. That means driving down to Mill Street and parking at the school, then walking a block or two over to my booth as I am on the edge of the festival. It’s not that far, but when you’re carrying a loom and stand, and trying to drive a wagon full of stuff it gets a little tedious.
Settling in and opening for the day, I noticed several empty spots. These spots eventually filled in closer to 10am and most were direct sales. I was surrounded by direct sales (Essential Living, Simple Living, etc.) and can I say, the women running these booths were VERY kind and wonderful to be next to. They did not push their products, and I feel like that made them more approachable. It also made my booth approachable. So thank you ladies if you’re reading this! You were great neighbors!
I also had a lovely young couple set up across from me selling handmade wreaths and large scrabble tiles. Throughout the event I started talking with them to find this was there first event ever! NEWBIES! 🙂
Me, being my ever crazy friendly self, took them under my wing all weekend helping them with their booth set up (we’ve all been there with one table, no different heights, etc), and overall encouraging them to join facebook groups for help with everything from pricing, to booth ideas, to shows that will be a good fit. I’m proud to say, I’m pretty sure they are hooked and will be joining the ranks of vendors indefinitely.
Ok enough of the story telling, let’s get to what you want to know. How are sales?
The traffic was great! There was a steady flow of people all day. I have to say, it was either up from last year, or because there was an actual full row of vendors this year (last year we had a row facing the port-potties and no one in between), or there were more people were willing to venture farther away from the food vendors.
I like this show in the fact that they keep flea market, commercial, and farm market vendors over in front of the town hall with food vendors in the middle and finally direct sales, and handmade vendors on the other side. It creates a nice space for customers and I feel it did not bring down the value of my products.
I did very well on Saturday. In fact, I nearly made what I made for the entire weekend the previous year in that first day. Crazy, right? People were buying and enjoying themselves. I was a little surprised by the amount of sales I made because there were a lot of activities going on. There’s the parade, tractor pull, car show, BBQ, and sports events happening all weekend.
Overall it was perfect first day of a festival.
Sunday
Sunday starts with a race to main street. Without a parade, parking is once again allowed along main street and most vendors will take advantage. I managed to find a spot close to where I’d need to carry all my things out later which was a relief.
Last year, I didn’t know you could park on the street so I parked in the field at the school. It was a mud pit! So many people were already stuck Sunday morning before the show started, I was worried I’d get stuck. Luckily, I managed to not get stuck and later had no problem getting out. All wheel drive maybe? Or just luck?
Sunday was slower than Saturday but there were still sales. I’m thinking it was slower because the weather forecast said some rain (it showered lightly here and there) and there was a Buffalo Bills game.
At the end of the day, vendors were packing up as early as 4pm! The show goes to 5pm but honestly, there was hardly any traffic, everyone wanted to beat the rain (supposed to start at 6pm) and as far as I can tell, the festival committee doesn’t pay attention or care if you break down early.
I waited until 4:45 before I started to leisurely start packing things that had not sold all weekend. Little things, until Bret showed up to help me break down. Then I was like ‘Let’s do this!’
We had everything broken down and packed in the car by 5:45! New record! Go us! I’m glad we broke down so quickly because I felt guilty being parked on the street while breaking down. I wanted to make room for the next person ready to load. I was totally that jerk who gets their car before completely broken down. I’m sorry!
Another show down, another success, and on to the next one!
Lessons Learned
No matter how many shows to you do, you will always learn something new. Here’s a few things I learned this trip around!
Purchase a tent with an awning
I love this event, but it always seems to rain one of the days. If I had an awning, I could theoretically keep all my merchandise up outside the tent without it getting wet. Definitely want one in the future.
UPDATE: I got my tent with an awning!! And I LOVE IT! I got an Euromax 10×10 tent with an awning. It works wonderfully.
Uhaul’s are amazing
I had never thought to rent a Uhaul until Eartherella’s owner Valerie suggested it. WHAT AN EYE OPENER! We looked into prices and found it is not as expensive as I was thinking to rent a uhaul for the weekend to transport all my merchandise. Who knew? So for those of you, like me, who are out growing your vehicle, consider a uhaul instead of a new vehicle in the short run. Way off in the future, Bret and my step-dad, John, are already discussing a trailer since my car has a hitch option. We will see boys.
Zip ties are a must!
If you haven’t discovered the amazingness of zip ties, please do. I believe every vendor out there should keep a bag or two in their display kit. You never know when you may need to zip tie your tent to your display, or product to the tent, or looms to stands. You just never know how useful they are!
Have a Plan in place for when a dog and small child pees on your display
I have been vending for several years now. I like to think of myself as a veteran, that I’ve just about seen it all. Well… I feel after this weekend I have finally seen it all.
I stood in my booth in complete shock, deer in the headlights, frozen shocked as a dog lifted it’s leg to pee on my wooden craft crate with my mannequin head wearing a hat and scarf. What would I do if a dog pees on my wooden display? The pee will seep in, I will have to trash it and never use it again. Every dog at this festival will now use my booth as a potty. And what if that dog has a high aim and get’s my mannequin head with my product on it?
Luckily, I didn’t have to answer that question that instant. The owner quickly pulled on the leash, knocking the dog off balance and away from my display before any pee was released. But Holy Frick!
I started asking fellow vendors what they would do in that instant. All said make the owner pay for the display and the ruined product. They are responsible for their dogs actions especially when the festival does not allow dogs!
One vendor I talked to, however, lived this horror story. She said at one of her early indoor shows she had a family in her booth. The approximately 5-7 year old boy, dropped his pants and proceeded to pee in her booth. The parents did nothing and walked away with said child. WTF? I’d have lost it. Not only did this kid pee on the lower part her her table cloth, the vendor was forced to clean the puddle on the floor up. (This happen at an indoor event in a school gym)
A food vendor nearby saw and raced over with gloves and paper towel. YAY community! What kills me about this story is after she got it all cleaned up, the festival committee refused to let her throw out the paper towels in their trash cans. She was forced to take it home with her to dispose of. HOW RUDE! I get that it’s a bio hazard, but no one should have to put a strangers pee in their own car. *She ended up sneaking it into one of their trash cans in case you were wondering.*
Moral of this story, anything can happen at events. Be prepared for the craziest things to happen to you. Make a plan to deal with people smoking in your tent when you’re a non-smoker, a child or dog peeing in your booth, or even open drinks being placed on your tables. Make a plan. What will you do? What will you say? How will you deal with the situation if the worst happens? (i.e. alcoholic beverage spilled on merchandise, etc).
It is NOT rude to ask someone to not smoke in your tent
As you all know by now, I sell items made of fiber. Fiber absorbs smells very easily. I am not a smoker, nor do I live with smokers. I do share my space with cats, but the room where I keep my merchandise is off limits to them and their litter boxes are 2 floors away. I work hard at keeping my merchandise smelling fresh.
Then someone walks into my booth smoking… Or I am placed next to popcorn/kettle corn… I can handle popcorn/kettle corn. After a few weeks of smelling nothing but corn in my home, the smell fades. Smoking, however, takes forever to go away.
I had a problem this weekend with a chain smoker continuously coming into my booth to talk to me and smoke. I don’t care that he smokes, I do care that he came into my booth near my merchandise to do it. I am too nice to say get out, so I’d wander out of my booth and sure enough, he’d follow much to my relief. I didn’t know what to do, so when all else fails, I get other vendor opinions. And the unanimous opinion I got was to tell said person to please not smoke in or near my booth. I was assured this is not rude, the smoker is the rude one.
What is your opinion? I’m accepting that I need to grow a pair, and stand up for myself and my booth. Perhaps I need a no smoking sign for my booth? We will see how this goes in the future.
Recommendations
I can’t speak for the commercial, flea market, farm market people, but I do believe direct sales and handmade do well here.
Many customers were appreciative of my handmade items. It was a nice change from the rolled eyes I usually receive at free to public events over my prices. And believe it or not, I had several “we just got here, but we have to come through here when we are ready to go, so we will be back”‘s and they actually came back to buy from me on their way out of the festival! Crazy, right?
Since I was on the opposite side of the festival than the main parking, I did not get to see what people were walking away with like I usually do. But I did go around on Saturday night to ask the vendors how they were doing. Everyone returning said their sales were up.
This included glass, soap, jewelry, clothing, paintings, wood workers, fiber, and more. I myself did well (Selling gloves in 50 degree weather is a lot easier than 90!).
My recommended price range is anywhere from $1-$50. Higher prices could sell, (I saw an $85 sculpture sell in a booth across from me!) but not as many as the lower range items.
Honestly, the booth fee is reasonable, and if you’re free that weekend (sometimes falls on the same weekend as Hilton Apple Festival) I recommend it. It’s a nice festival, full of friendly people and customers who buy. It is a well established, well attended event. Don’t expect to make hundreds of thousands, but you’ll make a decent amount for the weekend and have fun doing it.
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!