This has turned out to be my very busiest time of year. This last week I travelled to Rapid City SD for the Black Hills Fiber Arts Fair. It is just the second year for the fair. I went last year as a visitor and took a class with my mom; this year I taught 4 classes and had a vendor booth.
I do several fiber fairs that are structured like this one: vendors, classes, other events all packed in to one weekend. Figuring out what parts you want to do and what you realistically CAN do are two different things.
Classes
I realized quickly that I wouldn’t be able to take any classes. This event was set up to have a “classes day” for the vendors before the event was open to the public, so that you could go take a class without having to have someone watch your booth. But I was teaching a class then and the schedule worked out that I was overlapping with other classes and one of the events that evening (an opening reception) so I wasn’t able to do either of those things. It was a great class to teach, so that really worked out just fine. The rest of the weekend I was either teaching or needing to be in my booth, so no classes for me.
Events each have a personality. This fair had a pretty laid back policy about checking in for set up and teaching and those kinds of things. I needed to be a little pro-active about tracking down what I needed (extension cords), improvising name tags (masking tape) and adjusting some lights in the space we were in. The gallery staff for the venue was outstanding and really helpful. One of my classes had 2 or maybe 3 different times published which was a little confusing, so just being extra prepared and having a “make it work” attitude made the weekend that much nicer.
I packed all of the supplies for my classes into rolling suitcases, packed with big ziploc bags. I knew I needed to just be able to pop them out and be ready to go since I had limited set up time and more setup meant more time away from my booth. I stashed the suitcases under my table so I could just grab them and go.
Vendor Booth
I was super lucky to have my sister and husband who could be booth sitters while I taught the rest of my classes over the weekend. It really helped that they were both pretty familiar with my items for sale, but there were still lots of people with questions who stopped back to find me later when I was in the booth. Even a great booth sitter (which mine were) isn’t a substitution for being able to interact with the artist, so I felt a little sad that I was away from my booth for about 8 hours of the event. I might think next year about requesting that my classes happen during the “slow hours” of the event right at the end of the day.
I forgot my knitting! One thing I think is really helpful at a fair like this is to have something to do with your hands. I know how much I hate “pushy salespeople” in a shop and I feel like if I am occupied with a little something, then I make the customers more comfortable looking at things at my booth. And it gives a really easy start to a conversation with strangers – “Oh, what are you knitting?” You need a simple project that you can pick up and put down (no lace patterns to count) at any minute and especially something that you can look up and talk and be aware while you are doing it. I didn’t have a project ready to go and I was antsy without it.
Social & Social Media
I had really good intentions of taking lots of photos and writing up a whole post about the art and the vendors at the show. Oops. That didn’t happen! I have some photos of my booth, but only because my mom took a few. I really only got to walk around the show in the minutes before we opened to the public and I could chat with other vendors. I bought one skein of pretty yarn from the booth right across from mine. I love reading other people’s posts about their visits to events like this, but being able to write one fell down to the bottom of my list of things I needed to do.
I met some really cool people, but I never really had time to chat. We were each running to teach and then back to our booths and I think next time maybe I will plan an evening for going out for a drink or a meet up for coffee before the event opens.
Don’t underestimate the Power of Chocolate
A very dear friend surprised me by coming to the show to say hi and bringing me a little box of chocolate. I hadn’t had anything but a granola bar for lunch that day and I was feeling a little worn out after teaching for 4 hours. Chocolate was exactly what I needed. Sea salt caramels coated in chocolate can fix anything.
They had a really awesome food vendor at this show from what I heard, but sadly for me, she didn’t have any vegetarian options. I probably could have gotten a side of potato salad, but I wished that the taco salad option would have included beans instead of meat. I will put that in the evaluation that I turn in.
Overall…
It was an awesome show for me. I had 2 shops approach me about carrying my stuff. I met some awesome people. My classes all went great. I was invited back to teach again next year. Sales were even better for me than at a much bigger show I did last year. All in all, this one gets an A. Thanks to the staff and volunteers at both the BHFAF and the Dahl Arts Center. You do a great event!