Art in the Park

I've done this show since its beginning. My friend Kate Kehoe organizes it and the table fee is basically a fund raiser for the senior center where the show is held. She does one in the fall and one in the spring. Every show I wait and wait to see if I want to spend the table fee to get myself in. Every time I miss the deadline and Kate drops me an e-mail, "Are you interested? You've got a table if you want one!" So I send in my table fee. My proceeds from the spring show barely covered the table fee and gas to get over there (it's about 40 minutes from my house). 


With a sense of impending doom this morning, I got the girls up, we packed the car, and drove over there. We were an hour early - for some reason I thought it started at 10! We drank some bad hot chocolate and ate some bad donuts and muffins to kill a little time before we could set up. I was annoyed and irritated at every little thing and I think it was because we had done all this work and I wasn't expecting anything from the show. I always say, "even if it's a bad show, I get to spin for a whole day, uninterrupted and that's good enough". But if I'm honest with myself, it's not enough. The time spent to dye and package all my wares, hauling it all over and setting up a booth in addition to smiling and being pleasant for an entire day is kind of a lot of work. Pleasant isn't really my nature and I'm quite solitary so making small talk (with other vendors as well as customers) is hard for me. 


Turns out, it was worth it. I took Erica's advice and made sure to greet everyone and actually talk to them. I looked for something to compliment (great sweaters, cool boots, interesting necklace), asked if they were knitters and/or spinners, told them they couldn't just look - they had to touch, etc. It was fun - if I can make a sort of game out of it I enjoy it a lot more. Now, while my fellow vendors were my best customers, I did manage to sell a couple of skeins of handspun and that ALWAYS makes me happy. I managed to make back the booth fee, buy a tank of gas, and have $$ left over!


I do like doing this show. It's in a very supportive neighborhood, my sister always brings me a latte, and the other vendors are amazing. However, this is one of the shows that I have to think about really hard for 2012. Is it really worth my time and effort if I'm aiming to do larger shows? I love supporting Kate and the seniors, but how valuable is it for me?