Can I start off by saying, WHAT A FESTIVAL!!!! If you are looking for the best organized, smoothest run festival look no further! Trish and her team at the Purple Painted Lady keep you informed every step of the way which makes for a fantastic weekend!
Stats
Festival: The Purple Painted Lady Festival
Location: 845 Yellow Mills Rd. Palmyra, NY
Dates: September 21-22nd *Third Weekend in September
Times: Saturday: 9-5pm, Sunday 10-4pm
Vendor Types: ONLY HANDMADE! No direct sales or commercial vendors are permitted at this event. Sorry.
Booth: 10×10, 10×20. I had a 10×10 this year which worked out well, but I am going for a 10×20 next year to spread out even more! With that said, there is a lot of room between rows of tents which allows you to put some displays just outside your tent if you choose to.
Booth Fee: The booth fees are very reasonable and with the amount of marketing Trish and staff do to promote the festival, you know where your money is going!
Set up: You can set up Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It looked like every spot was easy to pull right up to with your car and as long as everyone follows the unload then set up rule, there is no bottle-necking. *Saturday morning set-up is discouraged because the staff is trying to close in the festival so all festival goers pay the entrance fee at the front.
Parking: There is vendor parking with handicap parking. And you are allowed more than one parking pass if you need it! *Also, TPPLF crew are driving golf carts picking up guests from their cars to drive up to the festival entrance.
Set-up Wed-Fri
My normal day job kicked me in the royal behind this week. I had meant to set up my tent and large display items on Thursday and spend Friday afternoon setting up my product, but that didn’t happen.
With that said, I did manage to get over to Yellow Mills on Friday afternoon and had plenty of time to set everything up how I wanted it to make Saturday morning easy, breezy.
When you arrive, the Purple Painted Lady staff and husband (thanks Steve!) greet you at the driveway entrance where you receive your welcome packet, apron, name tag, parking pass, and a trash bag for the weekend. Then a staff member, or for us Steve, will literally walk you to your spot! How cool is that? There was no getting out the car, hunting for my spot, then racing back to Bret to direct him on the best route.
Instead we were taken immediately to our spot and asked to unload and park in vendor parking before setting up. We unloaded and Bret helped me get the tent up before he drove to vendor parking while I continued set up. By the time he got back I had the tent walls up and were ready for stakes and weights. *I was in an area where stakes were allowed. In some areas, NO STAKES are allowed due to this festival being held on a private property with leach lines. In that case, I’d suggest a poop-ton of leg weights, or dry wall buckets full of sand, dirt, concrete and racket straps to the top of your tent.
Bret helped me with all my heavy grid walls and then I sent him home since ‘home’ for us is approx a 10 min drive away (less then 7 miles). Without Bret pacing and waiting for me to finish, I was able to take my time and play around with my set up until I got it just right.
I wanted to make sure everything was ready to go in the morning. I’ll explain under Saturday what happened…. In any case, I set up all my merchandise just right. Both Macedon and Palmyra police were going to be patrolling the area so I felt secure leaving everything in my tent over night. They also helped with directing traffic all weekend.
*If you’re looking for the equipment I talk about, here are a few links to everything I use and love*
Eurmax 10 x 10 Pop up Canopy Commercial Pop Up Canopy TentSaturday
This was a day to be excited about. Instead I was so full of anxiety I’m pretty sure I made myself sick!
It all started about a week ago when I was told by my boss I couldn’t have this Saturday off due to no one available to cover me. I called nearly 20 different people to cover for me but alas, there was no one. Out of desperation, I told my boss, since the festival was only approx 15 min drive away, I’d come in early to work, work until 7am and leave. He agreed.
As promised, I rolled out of bed at 4am. Went to work by 5:30 am and did my job until 7am when Bret drove me to the festival for the day. I was exhausted both mentally and physically by the time I got there Saturday morning, but all was good as I had set up my booth the night before.
I was able to open up my tent, pull my glove display just outside my tent, tweak a few things and then relax until the mandatory morning meeting. I managed to walk around and visit with some vendors I’ve done shows with before. That was super nice.
There was everything imaginable under the sun available! The food looked fantastic! Every booth was unique and special in some way. And every vendor was friendly and willing to help! Super!
When you arrived for set-up, you’re given an apron to wear during the festival. I was totally skeptical. I honestly didn’t want to wear it. Like why? But after I put it on and started walking around, I found I really liked it! It unified all the vendors for the event. Yes, we are individuals, but we were united for the Purple Painted Lady Festival. Later, it helped customers know who was a vendor when looking for someone to pay.
Back to the festival. Saturday was spectacular! There was a HUGE crowd waiting to get in at 9am. And it didn’t take them long to make there way towards us in the blue section. The traffic never stopped. At the end, there were an estimated 14,000 festival goers! HOLY SMOKES!
As usual, the weather did not cooperate with me. It was so HOT! I managed to get sales, but nothing like I would have if it was just a few degrees cooler. I am sad it affected my sales, but I still managed to do well this weekend.
Speaking of sales! Oh my GOSH! I go to take my first sale of the day, and my bluetooth card reader decides to go offline! WHAT? I restart my phone, restart the app a few times, do the find a signal dance, and finally decide I’m going to switch to my magstripe reader that goes in the headphone jack. I go to make the switch and it’s not going in?
I look and sure enough, I must have broken my other headphone jack magstripe reader in the jack! I started panicking! I kept my cool and managed to get my bluetooth reader to go through. The rest of the day I was paranoid my reader wouldn’t work and I’d lose sales. All my customers were understanding, thank goodness, and allowed me to take a few extra minutes to get the card to go through.
Later that night, after the festival I bought a new phone. We attempted to get the broken piece out without any luck. *I talked to other vendors, apparently this is a normal occurrence with older square magstripe readers (I’d been using that reader for 6+ years now I think).
Sunday
Sunday started off just as amazing as Saturday! There was a huge crowd waiting to get in, and the traffic was steady all day. As with most festivals, traffic finally started to slow down towards the end of the festival. That’s to be expected.
I had the same problems connecting to wifi as I did on Saturday, but with my new phone I was able to use the magstripe and offline sales. In the end, all was well. I did not lose a sale. However, I did read later on the facebook group that several people lost sales due to customers not wanting to wait.
Trish (The Purple Painted Lady) has been made aware of this issue and is looking for a solution, including renting a cell tower for the event. *2021 Festival will have a verizon rental tower for the show so no lost sales!* Don’t be put off by this just yet. And if you had your own hotspot, those vendors did not have any trouble with their transactions.
With that said, it was another HOT, but good day.
Around 3:30pm Steve (The Purple Painted Lady’s Husband) and crew started to take down the snow fence. One less thing to do at 4pm, the end of the show. Some vendors took this as the okay to start break down. One vendor even pulled their vehicle in shortly after! I couldn’t believe it!
No worries, the culprit and others who broke down and loaded their vehicle at the same time have been tattled on and will most likely not be invited back. I waited until after Trish made her farewell speech before I even thought about starting to break down. I actually made a sale around 4:10 pm after the show ended!
Break down went super fast! Bret showed up with his younger brother and his girlfriend. I had everything folded, packed, and ready to go within 20 minutes. We released the kids to go home without us, and hung out until Bret could get the vehicle in to load. Didn’t take too long, but it was frustrating seeing people still breaking down with their vehicles blocking the aisles.
We packed the car quick and managed to weave our way out of there without much trouble. Traffic wasn’t bad and before we knew it, we were home! Another great festival weekend down, only 3 more to go for this festival season.
Lessons Learned
- Bring Extra Water!
On Saturday all the food vendors ran out of bottled water to sell! Customers were having a hard time with the heat. Later that night, the Purple Painted Lady (Trish) asked us vendors to bring extra water and sell it at our booths. What a great idea?
Anyone participating in HOT summer events should consider doing this, as long as it’s okay with the festival committee. I also offered my chair to older folks who needed a minute to collect themselves. Maybe I should keep my extra chair around just in case…
2. Snowmen
This is a weird lesson, but I’m excited about it and can’t wait to test it out. Normally this weekend in September is cooler, so I never thought I’d have to sell wool gloves in 90 degree weather! Someone *Cough* Eartherella’s Valerie and friends *Cough* suggested I make my booth a winter wonderland to remind people it’s coming.
WHAT A GREAT IDEA!!
I am going to find snowmen, and fake snow, and other wintery things to decorate my booth with. I had another suggestion that I get battery operated fans making my booth almost a wind tunnel to remind everyone and to stay cool too. I can’t wait to play with this idea at the next festival!
3. Invest in Battery Operated Fans!
Cordless fans? Who knew! And they’re rechargeable!!! CRAZY!?! This has got to be the best idea for summer events to make your tent more inviting to stay and look around.
4. Hotspot
As you may have heard, the PPLF is almost a dead zone when it comes to online sales. We have theorized since it’s in a very rural area, with over 300+ people using the cell tower, it couldn’t handle it. Solution? I talked to some of the vendors around me and those with hotspots had no problem all weekend. I am highly considering getting a hotspot for all my events as well, just in case.
Trish and her team are also working on this. There is a plan in the works to possibly rent a mobile cell tower just for that weekend or a hotspot for vendors to tap into. In the meantime, if you have square, offline mode works, or if you’re like me, you’ll find the ‘sweet spot’ and pray it works!
*Update, Trish got a mobile cell tower for 2021!!!
Recommendations
Everyone does well here! From food (honey, maple, etc), to soaps, to home decor, to even my shawls, you will do well.
This years weather was a fluke. It was hot, so people were not buying as much as previous years. But I have to tell you. I saw people arrive with empty wagons! They were there to shop and meant business with their wagons!
From my corner, I saw everything imaginable walk by my tent. I saw several other vendors restocking all day, both days! The furniture flip ladies next to me nearly sold out on day one! It was amazing! I saw collectable items selling, table runners, chalkboards, t-shirts, dog treats, tutu’s, art work, you name it and I saw it walk by my tent.
I honestly don’t know what wouldn’t sell at this event… okay, well maybe warm wool items… But even I sold a few shawls, gloves, and cowls over the 90 degree weekend.
Overall, this is one of the best organized, thought out festivals I have had the privilege of being a part of, ever. I can’t wait to do it again in 2020. I will be sending prayers and sacrifices to all the weather Gods and Goddesses that next year be cooler with no rain!
~Ashli
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 attended on Saturday. I took home your business card.
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