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offcntrIf I had to choose one word to describe the UVAA Summer Arts Festival, it would be relaxed. Particularly as compared to Edmonds, last weekend.
Where Edmonds has regimented load-in and -out, complete with legions of volunteers with walkie-talkies, Roseburg simply blocks off the curb lane of Harvard Avenue from 7 to 11 am for vendors to drive up and offload. We time it perfectly: at 7:30 we park immediately behind our booth space, unload everything, and I take the van off to the elementary school parking lot and walk back.
Our space is mostly level, a minimal amount of shimming and blocking required, so set-up is fairly fast. Unlike most shows, they allow 11 feet square per booth space, with generous margins between, so we’re not bumping up against our neighbors, nor they us. We also have extra room behind the booth, so we can move our restock boxes back a bit, giving us some space to move around in.
Weather is gorgeous, cool and grey during setup, but the sun comes out around one, the customers even earlier—we make our first sale at 12:30. Some years the heat can be brutal—several times over 100°—but this year it’s predicted in the low 80s, and we have a breeze through our booth most of the time.
Sales are moderate to slow Friday, as expected, though I do sell both my. $70 serving bowls, which I hadn’t managed to do all last weekend. Saturday starts slow, and I go into my “I’m never selling anything again” funk, but things pick up in the afternoon, and we end up the day reasonably content.
Days are long—Friday and Saturday we close at 8—but Sunday’s a short day. Load out starts at 4 pm.
Memorable moments:
1. The customer who’s been buying a table setting a year for five years now (This year it’s a bear plate, bowl and mug). She’s apologetic about missing me last year, and I admit that I was gone too, back in Wisconsin for my 40 year high school reunion.
2. The family in to allow adolescent boy to pick a soup bowl to replace his favorite, sadly broken. While he’s deciding, I ask dad who autographed his straw hat; it turns out to be Asleep at the Wheel, when they played at the Stewart Park Band Shell. He’s the mandolinist for the local HotQua String Band, and we bond over my playing them on my radio show in years past. Incidentally, son Max eventually decides on a bear bowl.
3. The elephant keeper from Wildlife Safari who spends a long time in the booth before deciding to buy the happy baby elephant-patterned large pitcher.
Where Edmonds has regimented load-in and -out, complete with legions of volunteers with walkie-talkies, Roseburg simply blocks off the curb lane of Harvard Avenue from 7 to 11 am for vendors to drive up and offload. We time it perfectly: at 7:30 we park immediately behind our booth space, unload everything, and I take the van off to the elementary school parking lot and walk back.
Our space is mostly level, a minimal amount of shimming and blocking required, so set-up is fairly fast. Unlike most shows, they allow 11 feet square per booth space, with generous margins between, so we’re not bumping up against our neighbors, nor they us. We also have extra room behind the booth, so we can move our restock boxes back a bit, giving us some space to move around in.
Weather is gorgeous, cool and grey during setup, but the sun comes out around one, the customers even earlier—we make our first sale at 12:30. Some years the heat can be brutal—several times over 100°—but this year it’s predicted in the low 80s, and we have a breeze through our booth most of the time.
Sales are moderate to slow Friday, as expected, though I do sell both my. $70 serving bowls, which I hadn’t managed to do all last weekend. Saturday starts slow, and I go into my “I’m never selling anything again” funk, but things pick up in the afternoon, and we end up the day reasonably content.
Days are long—Friday and Saturday we close at 8—but Sunday’s a short day. Load out starts at 4 pm.
Memorable moments:
1. The customer who’s been buying a table setting a year for five years now (This year it’s a bear plate, bowl and mug). She’s apologetic about missing me last year, and I admit that I was gone too, back in Wisconsin for my 40 year high school reunion.
2. The family in to allow adolescent boy to pick a soup bowl to replace his favorite, sadly broken. While he’s deciding, I ask dad who autographed his straw hat; it turns out to be Asleep at the Wheel, when they played at the Stewart Park Band Shell. He’s the mandolinist for the local HotQua String Band, and we bond over my playing them on my radio show in years past. Incidentally, son Max eventually decides on a bear bowl.
3. The elephant keeper from Wildlife Safari who spends a long time in the booth before deciding to buy the happy baby elephant-patterned large pitcher.