The 2006 Festival of the Song, Greenbelt, Maryland
July 15, 2006

(Originally written on July 16, 2006)

Yesterday I worked at the fifth annual Festival of the Song that was held in the same location where the Greenbelt Green Man Festival was held a few months ago. The major differences were that the weather was far hotter and more humid and there weren't as many vendors present this time around. Yes, I was totally hot most of the day and I'll admit that I should've known better than to work at a festival that was held during the time of the year when the heat and the humidity are usually at their highest. But the festival was located close to my home, it was only held for one day, and the hours were even shorter. (The Greenbelt Green Man Festival went from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. both days while the Festival of the Song ran from noon to 6 p.m.) I did prepare to the hot day by buying a portable battery-operated fan for $4 at Five Below and that fan had the added bonus of providing a continuous laser light show (which is far more impressive to see indoors than outdoors).

Yesterday was also the first day that I debuted some new portable tables that I purchased at Wal-Mart prior to my recent trip to Ocean City. The tables are lightweight and can be set up in a minute or less, which is perfect for those times when, for whatever reason, my husband can't help me set up. The tables are made out of resin, the same substance that is used in making so many Asian ball-jointed dolls, yet the tables only cost $25 each. With a couple of tablecloths (which I purchased at Target for $1 each) and some bandannas (one that I got for free from a conference and the other that I purchased at Target for $1), the general public was fooled into believing that I was using one long table to sell my wares instead of two smaller tables.

The full display.

A display of some of the Barbie fairy dolls and 1/6 Asian dolls.

Two of the dolls were sitting on top of an old camera bag that I attempted to sell at the festival for $10 (just so I could get rid of it because my new Canon Digital Rebel doesn't fit in that bag). I was unsuccessful in selling my bag mainly because most of the browsers at my table were either not into photography at all or they already owned a camera bag.

Some more dolls available for sale.

Here's a shot of my Volks Dollfie Dream standing among the smaller dolls. She was used once again as an attention-getting device and she was the only doll that wasn't for sale.

Here are the polymer clay necklaces that I had for sale.

Here's the good news: I finally sold my first polymer clay necklace. After dropping the prices further to $6 each, I finally made a sale. (I started with $15 per necklace at the Greenbelt Green Man Festival, dropped it to $12 at the Maryland Faerie Festival, then dropped it to $10 at the Takoma Park Jazz Festival before I dropped it further to $6 for this festival.) I also sold two of the Barbie fairy doll. Now for the bad news: They were the only sales that I made. I think the weather was the main culprit. The festival was held outside in soaring 90+ degree weather with high humidity. The festival was initially tolerable because it was cloudy when I first set up but then the clouds gave way for a few hours of bright hot sunshine before it alternated between clouds and bright hot sunshine.

There were not too many people who attended the festival. In fact, the only time I saw groups of people was when the nearby movie theater was starting the next showing of the film The Devil Wears Prada. I got visitors when people were coming to and from the movie theater. But once the film started, there were very few people aside from the vendors and the musicians. (It's too bad that the movie theater isn't a multiplex because we could've gotten lots of people coming to and from various movies.) The only consolation is that the vendor space had cost me only $10 so I made enough money to cover that cost but not much in the way of profit.

I was able to walk around the festival whenever The Devil Wears Prada was still running and I took a few shots of this guy who spent his time painting outside in the heat and humidity.

Then there was this would-be aspiring filmmaker who is the brother of the guy who organized the festival. He stopped by my table in the morning with his big videocamera and he looked at my dolls and immediately focused on one of the Barbie fairies. He asked if he could borrow her for a few minutes because he wanted to film the doll "dancing" in front of the musicians. I normally wouldn't do this for an average customer but I said yes mainly because of who his brother is. So he did his thing with the Barbie fairy doll for a few minutes then returned her to my table. He said that he really loved that doll and I offered to sell her to him for $10 (which is how much I charged for the thrift store Barbies). He said that he was too broke to buy her and he thanked me then he walked off.

So I worked the table while I was getting overheated. If it weren't for my supply of drinks and my portable fan, I don't think I would've lasted the whole day. In fact I saw one vendor near me pack up her stuff and leave around 1:30 and there was another vendor who also left around 2.

By the end of the day, the aspiring filmmaker came back with his videocamera and he said that he fell in love with the doll that he borrowed earlier and he wanted to use the same doll to do some more filming. Even though it was nearly the end of the day, I said yes again since he's the brother of the festival organizer. So he left with the doll and he had her much longer than the first time. In the meantime, I began to pack away the 1/6 Asian dolls since they didn't sell well. I began to wonder what the hell he was doing with that doll. I took a few photos of the filmmaker with the doll from a far away distance. Man, I could run a caption contest with these photos if I wanted to.

The filmmaker eventually gave the doll back to me just in time for me for the official 6 p.m. closing time for the craft part of the festival. (The music performances continued in the evening until 10 p.m.) He said that he's going to create a film around the doll and debut it somewhere in public in the fall. I don't know how good this film will be since he had never seen that doll until the day of the festival. I wasn't able to get him to buy that doll even though he seemed to love her. (Heck, I only charged $10 since she was a thrift store Barbie.) If that movie ever becomes enough of a surprise hit to get a Hollywood distributor, I would definitely put that doll up for auction on eBay and see the bidding go through the roof. But I'm not holding my breath on that one.

Back to Adventures With Dolls Index

Back to Dolls Index

Back to Home

Copyright 2009 Kimberly Keyes Stark. All Rights Reserved. None of the content on this site may be reproduced anywhere else (including eBay auctions, Etsy stores, or other auctions/sales sites) without written permission.