Late night web-surfing is a bad habit of mine-I start looking at stuff around 9:45 pm, and the next thing I know it's after 2 am and I've signed up for membership in The Original Twinkie Fanciers Society! This past summer I found myself applying to the Funky Ferndale Art Show in Ferndale, Michigan, at five minutes to midnight just because it was The Deadline. Actually my thinking ran along the lines of "It sounds good, my art is funky, and I can stay at Mom's house to keep costs down." Bam! The application was sent!
Only later did I remember that I had applied for another show The Same Weekend! Argh! No problem, I figured, I wouldn't be accepted to Ferndale anyway. Wrong!! I was accepted. I talked it over with my business partner, and we came up with a plan that allowed us, through the abuse and coercion of one husband and one daughter, to be in both places. Hooray!
Now you know this not going to turn out well, right? Right. Funky Ferndale happens on the west side of Woodward Avenue on Nine Mile Road. I will say that Ferndale has metamorphosed since the misspent days of my youth and is now a pretty cool place with some great pizza and a library with a green roof (green with vegetation, no less!). The downside of this art fair is that on the east side of Woodward on Nine Mile Road the DIY Detroit Festival is running concurrently! Booo! DIY Detroit has, among other features, approximately one thousand beer tents, tens of dozens of crafters, at least two music stages, a sideshow, and . . . (wait for it) . . . .A Ferris Wheel! Yay!
The Daughter and I persevered, and sold enough to buy a pizza, cover the booth costs, and bank a little bit, but the number of people who were Just Passing Through to get to DIY was depressing, and the number of drunks who were Just Passing Through to go home again was unpleasant. Then everything went to the dark side.
Saturday night, as we began to pack up for the night, the Daughter discovered that someone Just Passing Through had reached under the back of the tent and purloined her bag and her laptop. I will leave the ensuing tumult and clamor to your imaginations, but I will say that the show management was most sympathetic as were the kindly officers of Ferndale 's Finest who came to take the report.
The next morning found us still susceptible to sudden outbursts of weeping, and that is when we were overwhelmed by the kindness of our fellow funky artists! On one side of our booth were Jason Thomas and Jennifer Teeter with their hysterically dark Cartoons For Total Strangers, who give the greatest hugs (Jason and Jennifer do the hugging, no hugs from the cartoons!), and on the other was another AFIer, Linda, who has great and funky paintings, prints, and jewelry. I cannot say enough about how welcome their sympathy, outrage, and support was to The Daughter and me! We finished the fair in reasonably good humor, although the sales were not responsible for much of that, and headed home to Ohio, sadder but wiser.
From this experience I have drawn several conclusions. First, don't let your guard down! Second, artists are really good people to have around you in a crisis. Third, don't apply for Funky Ferndale unless the DIY show's dates don't coincide with it. Fourth, never apply for a show five minutes before The Deadline!
As a footnote, and to end with a semblance of Joy and Rapture, the following week we got calls from two people up in Michigan. One had found The Daughter's laptop, the other had found her purse with all its contents intact! Good people do rule the universe after all!
Comments
Glad there was a happy ending, but maybe not making up for the additional gray hairs acquired from the experience. At least you have a good story/memory, as it will surely become after a time.
Oh dear Patricia, it all happened to you over the week or so. Glad it all turned out in the end. (Got to agree, those late night decisions aren't always wise!)
I am happy to hear that others have had a lot of success at Ferndale! It seems like a great venue, and Mark and Mary were terrific throughout. I think the DIY show is a real problem, though. It doesn't seem to draw more customers to Funky Ferndale. On Sunday we parked next to a DIY vendor and commented that we wished we were in that show as the crowds seemed much larger. He replied that the crowd was mostly there for the music and the beer, and the vendors were there as entertainment-not many folks were buying! I would be happy to apply for FF again, maybe I'd get some repeat customers, and another nice visit with my mom!
I am so sorry to read about your bad experience. I've done this show for two years now and it is by far one of my best both in show sales and after show business. Mark and Mary are great to work with and the event is a lot of fun. In both years, we did not experience any of the issues you mentioned. The crowd, the artists, and surrounding businesses all make this a worthwhile event to include on your schedule as either a shopper or a vendor.
Steven & I have done this show for years & hope to do it again. We sold well, especially on Sunday (weird for us!) I'm glad your laptop & bag were returned. I don't know of anyone else having any problems in all the yrs. we were there. I would NEVER want to be across woodward by DIY~no way! It is indeed a funky & good quality show that Mark directs, & we really enjoy the crowd. You need to know that this is NOT a stuffy crowd~most of them are full of fun, & truly appreciate ART! They may not buy the 1st day, but believe me, they're BACK to buy, & SO thankful that what they wanted was still there. It's one of our best shows in Michigan! Enjoy each day~people & dog watch~between sales, go with the flow on this one, & you will sell & come out fine! This is also a show where people come back for more of your ART~they LOOK for you as most ARTISTS have done it before~you will get regular buying customers at this one. Mark advertises more than most promoters, & he is a great guy!
Why can't those shows be on different weekends? It would seem like that would be a good move on FF's part for its artists.
Glad your daughter had her things returned. I thought the same thing Patricia. What a good writer you are.
What a good story teller you are, Patricia. Why didn't I know this before?
Thanks for all the warnings. I know Mark Loeb who runs the Funky Ferndale show, a good guy as you found out and am wondering if this is on purpose that these two events run concurrently, as from your description, one does not enhance the other.
That is amazing that you got it all back and I'm so pleased for you!
I am SO glad the laptop and bag were found!!! And thanks for the warnings. And hooray for kind artists!
Glad everything turned out okay. If I had read some earlier reports on FF, I wouldn't have gone. I did go and left a blog report saying much the same thing. You may want to look it up and commisserate with me on doing the show. The DIY show is killing off FF, and there's nothing they can do about it. I had reports of artists going over there and doing better.