Disasters do happen
Well, the arts and crafts festival that I am director of had an interesting beginning last October. The event runs Thursday thru Saturday. Set up days are Tuesday and Wednesday. Our Wednesday was a bit overcast, and even had a tornado warning in the afternoon. That was nothing to compare to the surprise that came through about 10 pm. A straight line wind, estimated at 70 mph., hit the site. One very large tent was totally knocked over. Four other tents were damaged. And we had about three inches of rain. Baaad!
The press was contacted and told we would be closed Thursday, but open Friday and Saturday. At daylight, the mess looked even worse than the night before. Porta-potties turned over, individual tents collapsed, - a real mess. However, my tent company was called, and had people there by 8:30 am to start repairing the mess. Porta-pottie people were there by 9 am and had every unit upright again in about 30 minutes. The site electrician, who had cut power the evening before due to downed power lines, was there early, and as each tent was re-set, the electrical crew went in and reset up poles, put new lightbulbs in where broken ones had been.
And the most magical experience of all: the wonderful cooperation between all of the exhibitors. After I explained to the group that we would be closed on Thursday and re-open on Friday, everyone jumped in and helped those that needed help. And this went on all day long! Of course, the weather cooperated, too. It was sunny and slightly warm, not hot. Just beautiful weather.
We did loose a few exhibitors. Two potters lost everything; they were in the tent that collapsed. One jewelry person lost her display due to a rip in a tent top that allowed water to drown her booth. A couple of outside exhibitors had their tents blown over, and they chose to leave. But, out of 250 exhibitors, only 6 left.
I called apress conference for 11 am, and did individual interviews with three TV stations, and three print media. After running our picitures and my interviews on the Thursday night news spots, on Fridy we had a record crowd. Although the food vendors could not make up for lost revenue for Thursday, everyone on Friday and Saturday had great sales. The ground was still a bit soggy, especially inside the big tents where the gound could not dry out fast. But, all together, the week-end turned into a great success.
So, now I've taken on one more year as director (this is a volunteer job!). This will be the 40th year of our event, and I really would like to have a few special things happen to draw people and exhibitors to our fantastic festival. I already have an almost-full staff, and things are already starting to happen. About 60 percent of the exhibitors re-applied for this year already.
We'll see how this year goes. I'll be posting more info as we go along.
The press was contacted and told we would be closed Thursday, but open Friday and Saturday. At daylight, the mess looked even worse than the night before. Porta-potties turned over, individual tents collapsed, - a real mess. However, my tent company was called, and had people there by 8:30 am to start repairing the mess. Porta-pottie people were there by 9 am and had every unit upright again in about 30 minutes. The site electrician, who had cut power the evening before due to downed power lines, was there early, and as each tent was re-set, the electrical crew went in and reset up poles, put new lightbulbs in where broken ones had been.
And the most magical experience of all: the wonderful cooperation between all of the exhibitors. After I explained to the group that we would be closed on Thursday and re-open on Friday, everyone jumped in and helped those that needed help. And this went on all day long! Of course, the weather cooperated, too. It was sunny and slightly warm, not hot. Just beautiful weather.
We did loose a few exhibitors. Two potters lost everything; they were in the tent that collapsed. One jewelry person lost her display due to a rip in a tent top that allowed water to drown her booth. A couple of outside exhibitors had their tents blown over, and they chose to leave. But, out of 250 exhibitors, only 6 left.
I called apress conference for 11 am, and did individual interviews with three TV stations, and three print media. After running our picitures and my interviews on the Thursday night news spots, on Fridy we had a record crowd. Although the food vendors could not make up for lost revenue for Thursday, everyone on Friday and Saturday had great sales. The ground was still a bit soggy, especially inside the big tents where the gound could not dry out fast. But, all together, the week-end turned into a great success.
So, now I've taken on one more year as director (this is a volunteer job!). This will be the 40th year of our event, and I really would like to have a few special things happen to draw people and exhibitors to our fantastic festival. I already have an almost-full staff, and things are already starting to happen. About 60 percent of the exhibitors re-applied for this year already.
We'll see how this year goes. I'll be posting more info as we go along.