The 2006 Crafty Bastards Festival, Washington, DC
September 24, 2006

(Originally written on October 2, 2006)

Yesterday was the big day and it was totally exhilarating. Of all the festivals I've worked at as a vendor, this one was the biggest and most successful one to date. It was smaller than the space for the Maryland Faerie Festival but it got much more foot traffic than the other one due to its urban location, the fact that it was heavily publicized, and it's located near public transportation. The fact that I was so busy that I didn't get to take as many photos as the other festivals says it all. (I had more time on my hands at the other festivals that were either smaller in size, more sparsely attended, or both.)

I was glad the weather forecast was wrong about the rain. When my husband and I woke up, I could still hear the rain hit the roof but by the time we headed out to Washington, DC, the rain had stopped but the ground was wet. By the time we set up our vendor booth, the sun had come out full blast and the ground was totally dry.

The day started out totally stressful because I was using a canopy that I had purchased only the day before and my husband and I, along with a few workers that the festival organizers had hired to help people load and unload, struggled to figure out how to work the thing. Well we all got the canopy up and I managed to set stuff up while my husband moved the car from the loading dock to the designated parking spot.

This is what the front of my booth looked like throughout the day. There were constantly a bunch of people who stopped by my booth, took a look at what I had to offer, and even purchased some of my stuff. Not only did I make back what I originally paid to take part in this festival but I even made a profit as well. I also had plenty of people take my business cards as well.

At one point some people had these giant puppets (which were at least seven feet tall) that they walked about the festival. One of them actually stopped by my booth and pretended to "shop". It was too bad that the puppet was so tall that I wasn't able to get a photo of the head.

The most unique vending area had to be this one. While most other vendors used canopies, this vendor opted to use a pup tent instead with a table in front of it.

The Washington City Paper, which was the main organizer/sponsor of The Crafty Bastards Festival, had this special box where people who saw and got an instant crush on another festival attendee can write about his/her "Crafty Crush" on a small piece of paper then put it in the box. The Washington City Paper is going to publish all the Crafty Crushes for free in its classified ads section next Thursday.

Here's the Cake Love booth. Cake Love is a bakery located in Washington, DC that was started by a burned-out lawyer and it became such a success that the founder was even interviewed on Oprah Winfrey's show. Then the founder was given his own show on The Food Network called Sugar Rush which was all about desserts. The guy wasn't there at the festival but there were plenty of yummy treats for sale.

The most interesting thing I saw at another vendor booth was this diorama. The price was $700 but it had so many details in it that I could see why the artist set his price so high.

This shot shows the wall-to-wall people that crowded the festival throughout the day. It helped that the rain had stopped before the festival officially began, the sun came out, and the temperature was in the low 70's with little humidity.

The lower level of the festival grounds had live entertainment, which was also very popular, as these photos show.

I was so happy that people kept on buying my things. While I had inventory left over at the end of the day, I had far less to take home than at previous festivals. I spent the whole day being happy. My husband and I did get tired about halfway through the festival but our happiness and enjoyment of the day gave us an incentive to stay awake. We were invited to a post-festival party at a nearby nightclub but we were too exhausted to party. Instead we drove back to the suburbs where we decided to celebrate our success at a local Olive Garden. I drank so much wine that I got drunk but I didn't care. I had just went through the most successful festival to date.

Today I'm still exhausted from the festival but I am still happy. The good news is that during one of my few breaks, I discovered a local indies crafts group that has its own website and meetups and stuff like that. I got the group's business card and I put myself on the mailing list. I would love to take part in other indie craft shows in the future, especially if they are in good locations with lots of foot traffic.

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