This past weekend I sold at the Darlington Apple Festival located in a beautiful VERY small town of Darlington, MD. This was my 3rd time selling there although I want to say I sold there 4 times, but can't really recall if I did or not. That is besides the point. I do look forward to this weekend as it usually occurs on one of the best Fall weekends we see - not too cold and rarely too hot, maybe temps reaching 75 degrees, and some of the best crowds any show has seen in the area. Vendors (and this time I am going to use the term vendors) have the option of setting up the day before (Friday starting at 5:00 p.m.) or early morning Saturday. It is an hour drive from home and decided this time I would set up on Friday and SOOO glad I did. I got to my spot just in time - same spot as in the past, where 1 minute later my neighbors brought their big trucks and tractor trailers with barely enough room to maneuver around. There are other reasons why setting up early at this show is wise. 1) It takes place throughout the whole town - not just on the main street. Spaces can be found in parking lots where churches are, all around the elementary school and in the park as well as a few other little outlets. The main street is about 5-6 blocks long and driving through the area with many willing to cause accidents getting around other people who are simply trying to find their spaces, it is not a pretty site. This occurs throughout all of set up time and then all over again in the a.m. only there are more people set up with more canopies and cars blocking aisles. 2) The show takes place both on grass and pavement and the sooner you set up the less likely you will have to contend with mud. Mud everywhere as the who drive the "big wheels" are not considerate of where they drive creating huge ruts in the grass and carrying it all over. 3) Spaces are super tight not one inch can be spared on all three sides of one booth. In the past, there was a few inches, but even this year people who buy 2 spaces couldn't put up two canopies - each space, where I was, was expected to fit in a parking space width with another behind you. When I got there in the morning to finish setting up my work, I couldn't get my sides down as I couldn't get behind my canopy or on the sides - it angered many of us. I would hate to think how I could have gotten my trimline up with all the others set up first. So, the rest of the show. After setting up many of us were thankful the sun came out - it rained that night and the forecast claimed it would be a wash out day. It was a beautiful day. The crowds showed up too. I learned, from a police officer, that last year's "gate" count was 65,000 and I believed it. I want to think it was about 60,000 this year as it seemed the crowds thinned out early. Sales for everyone were all over the place and attribute it to two things - location of your booth at the show and what you sell. A majority of the booths were geared towards country craft like stuff with berry vines, country portraits, flower arrangements, wooden toys (and if I hear another pop gun I will "shoot" someone), all kinds of jewelry, handmade kids clothes (not the crocheted stuff, but NICE clothes), alpaca fabric wearable art, mixed with some watercolors and other 2D art. All in all, I liked the variety. There is always buy/sell at this place including the pan flute players, but the Amish mums and whoopie pies as well as other nice handmade items drowned out the other "stuff" nicely - there were 250 exhibitors. The area I was in many didn't make much although it seems those of us at least made our booth. I made 2 times my booth and that isn't wonderful, but hey it could have been worse, and did have quite a bit of lookers and new fans too add to my list. One friend - Gus who is on there - did well, selling out of her table runners, place mats and the like! In the past I did quite well, and attribute this year to people not spending as much yet still come out to want to support the event. I can't fault that. So, would I do the show again? This for me is tough. I have done it years in the past (not 10 or 15 times) but want to think yes as long as the economy bounces back. The area has suffered some set backs as it is near Aberdeen Proving Ground and they had major layoffs recently and other businesses in the area closing or closed. There isn't much in the area there - no gas station or McDonalds, a few shops, one main one closed and if the economy doesn't pick up, I could see it become a ghost town despite some historic/farming attributes the town contributes to the area. At least it is close to Rt. 95 and another popular area, Havre de Grace (a sailing town with historical nautical museums and art places too). I want to add the photos are ones I took at the beginning of the day (first five mins. of it being open). The one is an aisle shot from my booth (my booth is the one with the chair on the left side) and the other is from the aisle looking down the Main Street. I do not have any special food or drink type things to report - when to the Cracker Barrel both Friday and Saturday and have to say their trout is like butter and love their service.
Read more…
