The 2008 Crazy Quilt Festival,
Greenbelt, Maryland, April 19, 2008

(Originally written on April 20, 2008)

Yesterday was a make-up date for the craft show that was supposed to take place at the New Deal Cafe on April 5 but was cancelled because the restaurant portion of the place has been taken over my new management and the new owners needed to improve the kitchen in order to serve the kind of food that they wish to serve. (The music and arts program part of the cafe will still remain a non-profit cooperative.) The renovations were originally supposed to end around April 12 but, as with many other major renovation projects, this one is taking longer than expected.

So a decision was made to reschedule the craft fair to coincide with the annual Crazy Quilt Festival while the fair was moved from an indoor event to an outdoor event. Unfortunately, due to the schedules of the other vendors, I was one of only five vendors that took part in this. (The annual Greenbelt Green Man Festival takes place in the same location and it typically draws at least 20 vendors.) Despite that, I thought it would be a promising location because this festival was mentioned in the Style section of Friday's Washington Post. Granted it was a paragraph-long write-up that was listed among the things to do this weekend but I thought that a mention in The Post along with a nice weather forecast would encourage crowds to come out.

Well, I thought wrong. That event didn't have a large crowd turnout and business was slow for me. I know that the festival was in a disarray for a while stemming from the New Deal Cafe's sudden closing and there were some squabbles on the direction of this festival, which is sponsored by the New Deal Cafe, that I really don't want to go into because it would take several more paragraphs to explain it all and I'm feeling a bit lazy. (If you're really that curious, go to the New Deal Cafe's Yahoo! Group and read the back entries. Hell, if you read the archived messages from the past year, you'll read all kinds of wankerage as people were accusing each other of all kinds of stuff regarding the management and mismanagement of the New Deal Cafe. The mailing list got so bitter and hostile that it was recently placed on moderator status and it's now moderated by a couple of people who are not alligned with either side of the two warring factions responsible for the online wankerage.) I did manage to sell a few dolls, jewelry, and even a box and business was much better than when I did the New Deal Cafe last month (which didn't get much advertising beyond postings on a few e-mailing lists). But there were still long periods when I just sat there and twiddled my thumbs and I just couldn't wait until the official 5 p.m. closing time of the craft fair. (The music part of the festival continued until 11 p.m.)

Considering the current state of my own health, I did okay. My big mistake was that I forgot to bring sunscreen so I now have two sunburned arms. I did wear a hat yesterday so my face and hair part are in pretty good shape. I took a few photos of my vending area early in the morning. (Click on any of the photos to see a larger version open in a new window.)

I decided to forgo the canopy this time around because I wasn't sure about the temperature high and I didn't want to get too cold in the shade. Well, the temperature did get pretty warm and I later heard that it got as high as the 80's. If I had to do this all over again, I would use the canopy.

When I went to the Artomatic orientation last Saturday, the organizers asked us to take at least one stack of promotional postcards and distribute them. I brought them to this show and I gave plenty of them away to people.

All in all I managed to make enough money to pay the $10 vendor fee that I originally paid when it was scheduled for April 5.

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