Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival Report

Hey that was fun! I know that's what I always say... but really. A great festival, (nearly) perfect weather, gorgeous location, nice quality crafts & music and very well organized event. The show folks came by VERY regularly to see if we solo vendors needed breaks or food. That alone was quite impressive. We even got food vouchers, very nice.

I was pleasantly surprised at how many art friends I saw there. Always fun to catch up with my peeps. And Stu joined me on Sunday so I got a couple smooches too.


The van ran great, no problems there whatsoever. I did have one minor adventure during setup. Gale force winds were a-blowin when I arrived. Most other vendors chose to wait to set up in the morning... oh but I was sure I could do it. Once my booth is up it's very heavy, I never have wind troubles. So I stubbornly insisted on trying to set up my tent, as I watched my neighbor's tear right through the top. She and another neighbor held my frame as I tied tubs and racks to each corner... and the thing STILL moved along the ground. After a half hour of this, I said I could take it from there and relieved the troops. But I really couldn't. lol. A few minutes after my kind helpers left the scene, my friend Doug The Whale Guy and team 2 came over saying "can we help you take all this down?" I guess it was obvious to everyone but me that it just wasn't possible. Sigh. So I piled everything in my spot for the morning. (That's the stage tent in the background totally collapsed, they had to remove it the next day!)


Luckily the rest of the weekend was pretty mild. Here's a photo of some colorful kites flying over these guys playing jazz. Lovely.


They also had this cool wooden boat contest. There were teams who had an hour (I think) and set materials (including a sheet of plastic and duct tape) to built a little boat on site. I ran over to see them go into the bay, and saw one sink which was pretty exciting. They left them on the shore afterwards, so that night after some margaritas and calimari, we got to take a closer look. A couple even had time to paint theirs.


But Bekki, you may be asking, how were sales? Huh. Well some folks said they did great. But most of us agreed the crowd was pretty thin and not buying much. I heard tales of shows being down overall so far and some are being cancelled altogether. Bah... every year it's something. Last year it was gas, this year 'the economy'. Whatever. Sometimes you do well, sometimes not so well. Some folks have money to spend, some don't. All we can do is keep working, right?

And have fun. That doesn't hurt either.

Comments

  1. Hi,
    I saw you at the Fisherman's Festival! I live in Bodega Bay and blog at www.bodegabaylife.com. Thank you for writing about your experience at our event. I'm sorry sales weren't that high but we were thrilled with the attendance, we thought it would be lower. I think the fact that those crazy winds finally died down helped a lot. Hope to see you again next year!

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  2. Thanks Kathlene! I really had a great time... you'll be seeing me again next year for sure.

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