Maybe Next Year

Well, the Conyers Cherry Blossom Festival just didn’t live up to its reputation this year. It rained so hard on Friday that most of us couldn’t set up. Saturday was even worse with the day completely rained out. I didn’t show back up until about 6AM Sunday. It was about 62 degrees and you could see the stars so I thought this would be a great day to recover. I had my booth set up and ready to go by 9AM, just about the time the clouds came rolling in. The temperature dropped about 10 degrees and the wind started howling making it feel like it was in the 40s. I started out in a short sleeve t-shirt, added a hooded sweatshirt by 10AM, and then a polar tech fleece on top of that by noon. I told the guy in the booth next to me that my next step was to fire up the propane heater I had sitting in my trailer.

There were a surprising number of people that turned out for the show, but they just were not buying. The show extended its hours until 7PM, but by 5PM there were very few people and most crafters were closing up shop. I held on until about 5:30 and decided to pack it in also. I was one of the lucky ones in that I did make a slight profit. Many of the crafters in my area didn’t even recover their booth fee. I talked to a lot of crafters that had done this show for many years and they were very surprised since this has always been a very good show for them.

I can’t blame the weather on the show however. The promoters were very organized and this was the easiest show to load in/out that I have experienced. The venue at the International Horse Park is perfect for this type of event. Everything is level and most sites have space to park your trailer behind your tent. Oh well, we’ll see what next year brings on this one. With good weather, this show can be spectacular.

My new shelving system worked great.  Even with the wind howling through the tent and shaking it back and forth, the shelves never moved.  They are pretty sturdy!