After ten years doing shows my luck finally ran out..For the first time I lost a tent at the Amy Amdur show at the North Shore Festival near Chicago. Although I had plenty of weights it just couldn't withstand the 50 mph wind gust associated with the storm. I can't thank the staff enough for all their help.
One thing I want to point out to any artist who comments on someones loss by saying something stupid...I overheard an artist smirking and talking to another artist as they were walking past my booth on their way to check theirs "well he should have had it weighed down better" only to find that when they got to their booth their booth it had shifted and their inventory was on the ground.
Luckily I had enough weights to prevent it from blowing into a near by department store window. The sandbags and pcv pipes were still attached so it prevented further damage to other property. The two booths on both sides of me also went down. In some cases you can have all the weights in the world but the legs just buckled and bent and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. In any event Ill be making a call to RLI insurance for the first time and hopfully they will come through.
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I'm so sorry that this happened to you David. Good thing you have insurance. I'm looking into insurance cost as we speak. Currently I have none for my business. I know that I need to but I've been waiting to save up more money first!
Anyway, I have gotten quotes from my own home insurance broker, local State Farm agent, online quotes from American Craft Council, RLI and ACTInsurance and just talked to a person at ACT. After all the research, I feel the best price and coverage for me is ACT annual policy. Anything less than an annual policy with them would save some money but would only cover general liability and no personal stuff. I figure for $87 more per year, it's worth getting coverage year round, including my studio and business personal property!
ACT has supported this site for many years and they developed this policy specifically for our industry, Chau. If you search on this site you'll also see many satisfied users, not only for the initial price, but for their fulfillment of claims, promptly and fully.
David...that's awful about your tent. I have the Vitabri also and know that as good of a tent as it is...no tent whatsoever is indestructible.. Hopefully it is repairable with some replacement parts and a bit of elbow grease. Please keep us posted about what you end up doing...
Thanks Greg. Yes, I just ordered another one and I do love the Vitabri. I have RLI and they are working with me and looks as if they are going to cover the cost of the tent plus lost inventory.
David....a question about RLI insurance. What policy with RLI do you have?
I have had the ACT insurance annual policy and never had an occasion to use it. It just expired and I was waiting until just before my next group of shows start to renew. I don't even know if or how they would cover tent & merchandise damage.
Thanks...
It is great to hear that your tent and inventory will be covered. Was your tent larger than a 10x10? It appeared to be in the photo but was difficult to tell.
I really like my Vitabri also. I added the Vitabri awning and a custom double back door and have it set up to suit my needs. Even thought I have the vinyl top I have the other walls but I might add the vinyl walls before long. Never had a problem with walls leaking...but the whites of the vinyl don't exactly match the sides.
There is a plave about 10 minutes from my house that makes the big vinyl inflatable bouncy things that they rent to kids parties and they told me they can exactly duplicate my sidewalls in any weight of vinyl. I am thinking of a few changes I would like to make from the original walls and have them incorporate them into the new walls. I found a source of heavy duty marine zippers identical to those on my Trimline and would like to use them since they can be made to the exact length.
I also use the brackets for the Vitabri sta-bars but find them a bit bulky when placing them at the top. I am thinking that if i had my walls made about 1 inch longer they could wrap around the brackets
Awesome!
I'm sorry to hear of your damage. I guess we all have to go through it at least once. Lucky for me it took over 35 years before we lost it.
Setting up on concrete is tough, and I'm thankful only one show I do has it. The rest are on grass, but the show where we lost the canopy was on grass. Weights, dog stakes, etc just couldn't stand up to the wind clocked at 68 MPH coming off the ocean in Gloucester, MA.
So I now have a weather radar on my phone, and I keep an eye on it. If bad weather is imminent I lower the canopy to the lowest point and strap it down.
Hi Chris. Ill be in Gloucester in a couple weeks. I know that area of the show can be tough right along the ocean. Hopefully Ill have a new tent by then.
Sorry to hear about that. It seems fairly irresponsible of the show to not cancel in that type of condition. That wind is just barely lower than category 1 hurricane speed rating!
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