PEDDLER’S VILLAGE APPLE FEST (2015)
Peddler’s Village
Routes 202 & 263
Lahaska (Bucks County), PA 18931
Web: www.peddlersvillage.com/festivals/apple-festival
When: First full weekend of November
Time: Saturday - 10am-6pm & Sunday – 10am-5pm
Cost: $225
Space: 12’ x 12’
Peddler’s Village is an outdoor shopping center with colonial-style buildings, dining, and lodging. Every year they host various festivals and events, some of which include artisans and crafters. The Apple Fest is held on an open grass field adjacent to one of the parking lots and retail stores. The spaces are not too tight so there is breathing room in between the (just under) 70 booths.
According to the guidelines, all items must be designed, created and assembled by the artist/crafter applicant. Despite the prohibition of commercially or mass produced items, we observed some questionable violations of this policy and definitely saw lots of embellishment crafts. They could have been there; however, we did not observe anyone checking the artisans/crafters for prohibited items.
The application process includes an artist statement (how the artisan/crafters work is created, list of materials used, etc.), three photos of the artist’s work and one of their display at a recent show. According to paperwork provided, “the Peddler’s Village Artisan Committee meets twice a year to jury in artists for the annual events”. In 2014, when we attempted to apply in September, we were told the committee met during the summer and it was too late - all spots were taken. This year we noticed the registration form indicated the deadline was October 23rd.
Prior to 2015, the registration fee was low and artisans/crafters paid a percentage of their sales. We prefer this type of set up – if the weather is bad or the buyers are not there for whatever reason, the exhibitor is not out a large sum of money. Now, it takes many sales to make up for the $225 registration fee.
The grounds staff insisted that each artisan/crafter cover any area they or their buyers would be standing. This was a first for us and required spending time researching the least expensive way to meet this requirement. One vendor spend $150 on a heavy-duty tarp. The artists we sat next to pulled up a heavy carpet from their basement. We purchased a plastic grass like 6’ x 10’ patio floor covering. The ironic part of having to cover our selling area is that when we lifted the ground cover, the grass was just as crushed as the general walking area! The ground cover was a waste of our time and money!
The show runs until 6pm Saturday night and 5pm Sunday night. Since it is totally dark by 5pm, it meant exhibitors were either selling or breaking down in the dark. There was no option for electric. The only lighting was around the perimeter of the field (in the parking lot) and one of those lights was out - none of the lights actually illuminated the booths to help much. If a seller was in a booth in the center of the field, the lights did not help at all. First time sellers in that venue literally found themselves in the dark trying to sell (and close up) on Saturday night. No matter how many lights a seller had, breaking down in the dark on Sunday night was dangerous.
Being able to set up on Friday was wonderful and thankfully, we took advantage of it. If we waited until Saturday, it would have been difficult getting our car and cargo trailer onto the field. Seeing this situation and thinking about breaking down, we took a hand truck with us on Sunday. We had to haul many very heavy boxes to our cargo trailer maneuvering in and out of rows of parked cars in the parking lot.
On Saturday, the music and entertainment was mostly in the retail area – we could barely hear anything. This did not encourage buyers to linger in the artisan/crafter area. On Sunday, we did have music and people did take advantage of the sunny warm day and linger on the grassy area a bit.
The food was expensive and lines were very long. Not just typically long, but very long. For many sellers this is an issue. There were no provisions for free coffee or bagels in the morning and no runners for lunch. By Sunday, we all knew to pack food and drinks.
Overnight security is not provided. Despite this, the only sellers we saw break down were those who could pack their things in one bag and leave. Even they left their tent, tables and chairs.
Parking a cargo trailer was fairly easy.
There were indoor public bathrooms as well as port-a-potties.
As with any show, there were artisans/crafters who were happy and those who were not. Despite the busloads of people, Saturday sales were less than half of what they were on Sunday. The consensus amongst experienced Apple Fest sellers is that this was typical. If the crowds on Saturday opened their wallets, this show might be a keeper for us; however, considering the cost of the show and some of the other issues, this show may just be a one-time experience for us. The Sunday crowd did buy, but not enough to make up for the non-buying Saturday crowd. I spoke to eight different sellers throughout the weekend, only one was happy with his Saturday sales (and he was one of the sellers we suspected was buy/sell). Including us, five sellers will be returning and four will not.
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