What a weekend! Because I was doing this show on my own, I decided to set up the tent and walls on Friday night. We NEVER leave inventory in the tent over night, NEVER! Am I glad we have that policy. The weather predicted rain over night and rain on Saturday morning. So I figured it was better to have the tent up and waiting for me on Saturday morning, when I arrived. Nothing worse than setting a tent up in the rain.
Everything was fine on Friday night. The tent was up, the walls were good, I put an extra tarp over the entire tent for good measure. I brought extra weights (totally 175 lb). About midnight the rain started. It rained hard, but apparently my tent did just fine, as nothing in the tent was wet. Then at about 2:30 am (according to the airport) there was a 50 MPH gust of wind. Based on the location of my tent around other building, it was just too much and down went my tent.
When I arrived at 6:00 am, my tent and walls were twisted every-which-way. The tent is broken in 6 different spots. The mess walls (from Flourish) did survive.
One other neighbor had their tent damaged too, but were able to save it. In all, 28 tents were damaged over Friday night. Most were able to repair and remain in the show. The show tried to find extra tents, but only found 2 tents. So, after an hour or so of being in shock and with all the support of my artists-neighbors, I decided to stay, with out a tent. The woman on one side of me offered her outside wall, an other offered their huge umbrella, someone else handed me a tarp. The 7 artists-neighbors around me were incredible. I would not have stayed, if they had not helped.
At the end of the show, I ended up with decent sales ... I can only image how strong my sales would have been, if I had a full set up. I was only able to put out about 25% of my regular setup.
This is a very good show. The people from Spring Green are very supportive of the artists. Many people come from Madison, WI as well.
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