I just received an email from Special Events Management who are handling the Fountain Square Art Festival passing on information that the city wants everybody's tents tied down to water barrels, WTF??
Here's the body of what was sent:
I have been informed by the Evanston council chamber to inform participants attending the Fountain square arts festival that "For safety reasons, the city of Evanston is requiring all vendors/artists/merchants etc. erecting tents on their assigned spaces to properly secure their tents down with water barrel's"
Water barrells are available for rent for a fee of $12 a barrell through Special Events management. Those participants who erect tents, but do not weigh down their tents will be subject to a fine.
I don't know who dreamed this one up, but I feel more than slightly pissed. I've already returned an email tonight;
Dear xxxx;
What precipitated this action? In 22 years of doing shows, I've never ran into this requirement. I typically weight down each tent leg with 40 pound weights, and when doing shows around downtown Chicago I would add weights to the upper corners of 35 pounds to get a total of 75 pounds on each corner. I went through Hundred Year thunderstorms at the intersection of Stetson & Michigan Avenue which was notorious for being a wind tunnel and never had problems. To be blunt, this sounds like a load of crap and is aimed at neophytes who don't have their act together.
What size are the water barrels and how many are needed? I'm going to assume that these are large barrels and two should be enough with one on each side and ropes front and back tied to the barrel located in the middle. I trust these things are kept outside of the tent and not kluging up the inside of the tent. Please advise.
The show is expensive enough as it is, and if 4 barrels are required this is going to add $48 more bucks to the overhead and aggravation to get the damn things in place. If it's a done deal and the Chicago fix is in, does anyone have any experience in tie-downs to a freakin' big-assed blue barrel?. My hunch is that if they don't specify the number of barrels, just go for two, stick them midway between front and back on either side and tie down. I'm still taking my weights. If the fine is less than $48, I may go for the fine. This wasn't mentioned and appears to be something that the city dreamed up on short notice...maybe. It just smells funny to me but I'm not laughing right now.
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Update from the show today:
"...we welcome your individuality and ingenuity in your abilities to be sure that some type of weighting implementation of your choosing is used for securing your tents during the festival.
I must reiterate that;
• All tents must be secured by your choosing and that if you do not have accessibility to weights for your tent or a way of securing them, Special Events Management will have weights for rent.
• We will offer 22 gallon water barrels for $12 per barrel.
• (4) Will be needed per tent. "
Soooo I will continue to rely on my 50 pound weights on each leg, and if I am on Church st and/or the weather looks bad I'll add supplemental weight without spending another $48.
I think if they put a water barrel in front of my tent, I'd like to throw a tablecloth over it and put something on it! Make it part of you display. I'm not sure how they intend to fasten the tents to the barrels, but hopefully you can figure something out to make it look decent.
It's not a show I'm attending, but if I was I have several water barrels at home. I wonder if they'd let me bring my own? I make rain barrels out of them, and I'd be able to paint them or make them look better. I could also put eye bolts in them to secure my tent to. Actually, that's not a bad idea if I had a water source to fill them at some of our windier events.
Other shows do use big water barrels. Generally, they sit in the aisle or behind the tent, between two tents. They do restrict access to the tent somewhat, and you can't put a browse bin or a chair in front of your booth with the barrels blocking the poles.
Disney uses big concrete weights, which are slightly less cumbersome, but everyone has to use them. They don't charge for them, either. Charging for what is a show requirement seems somewhat egregious.
Thanks Jim. When you say in the aisle to you mean blocking part of the front of the booth? Mine is designed with very open shelving so that at any angle you can see what is on display. To have a 3 foot obstacle blocking even a foot or two will hurt the effect.
And, as you stated, it's really the charge that is putting this issue over the edge. Do not tell me that a show is $375 and then after you've taken my (only partially refundable) fee, tell me that I must spend another dollar (or $48) to participate.
Yes, in front of the booth. Usually the barrel splits two booths, so you only have 1.5' in front of each of your poles! LOL.
Definitely hurts my intended effect... now I have to consider whether it would hurt sales. Hopefully they are in back!
Into effect a few more inches between the booths to accommodate our much needed weights and minimum security.
I got the same notice and sent back a quick reply asking how many they expect me to rent. As I was considering this further (had a 4 hour flight to contemplate it) I came to the same questions that you put above but was waiting for a first response before I asked more. If you get and answer please share! I think they would have been better served to state what is acceptable for securing a tent and then do a quick inspection. I was wondering where they expect these barrels to go. Last year we didn't have ANY room between tents - so are they reducing the number of booths to accommodate the barrels?
I've never walked away from a show before, but this may do it. Since they have changed the rules I feel a full refund is in order if I decide to walk away, and I will fight to get it. It will be interesting to see what happens when all of the better artists protest or just don't show.
I did the show last year and I agree about b/s and too many tents that make EZ UP look sturdy, but for whatever reason I sold a TON of glass pieces, mostly small ones but it added up and made the weekend worth my while.
I called today to express my concerns about the show. I got an email back telling me that there will be a meeting held on May 9th to discuss alternative methods. I understand the need for weights at this show and I'm glad they are making sure everyone has them. I don't agree with the "water barrels". This will bring the image of the show down. Most artists have the weights. I was planning on bring extra because of what other artists have told me. Where would those "water barrels" go???.....inside the tents??........I don't think so. I have just enough room to display without adding the "water barrels". I really appreciate how quickly they got back to me and I hope something can be worked out. Let's see what happens before making any quick decisions.
No self-respecting artist should be at this show. It's a joke, especially on Church Street - which is a natural wind tunnel and known to be so for years. This show was full of buy/sell the last time I was there: ez-ups tied to fire hydrants, even a sprinkling of blue ez-ups. Booths are destroyed there every year - including the good, professional booths which appear to be scheduled to be demolished by the Mary Poppins pop-up tents that all take off at the same time every year - usually in the middle of the night on Saturday. The crowd doesn't buy art. They prefer to wait to go to the Custer show the following weekend. Plus, it's a pain in the ass to get to Evanston from anywhere other than Wisconsin or maybe if you can bring a boat in from the east. Security is laughable. The staff run around and bitch if you aren't packed up and out on time on Friday night so they can put up their barricades and go home. Parking is horrid.
Why are you there? Take a loss on the booth fee and stay home - unless you are selling crap or copies or both - it's not worth it unless you are maybe driving up from . . . maybe Skokie. There is no way I would give them one red cent extra for anything up there.
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