There's a local Christmas fair here which happens the last weekend in October that all the girls in the family usually go to. It's on a historic plantation and the vendors dress up in colonial costumes, Christmas music plays in the background and the vendors are generally high quality artisans who have lovely handmade wares available. There are usually woodworkers, painters, leather workers, soap makers, candle makers, glass blowers, metal workers, potters and musicians. They sell cute and festive home decorations, old fashioned candy, all natural soaps and lotions, beeswax candles, hand carved toys, jewelry and hammered belts. There's some pricey stuff, but just going to look at all the beautiful things is worth it. These aren't crafters trying to sell their products just to support their hobby. They are trained craftsmen with full-time businesses and solid investments in their crafting. You can always here music from at least one booth wherever you are and there are a couple roaming minstrels. They have amazing food as well, the sweet potato fries and apple dumplings are our favorites. Going to this festival sortof kicks off the Christmas season for us.
Last Christmas they didn't have it because there weren't enough vendors. I'm not really sure what happened because the two years prior were very well attended and it seemed to be growing. I guess even though there were alot of people there many of them weren't buying the higher end items and the vendors had to cut shows that weren't as profitable. Then this year they brought it back. They changed the name. (newsflash: putting 'extravaganza' in the name doesn't make something larger and more awesome, it makes it sound like you're downgrading a previously high-class event) They got almost all new vendors apparently and from what I could see they didn't advertise it well at all. We were excited that it was back, hoping to see some of our favorite vendors again, but we went without really knowing what to expect.
It was a huge disappointment. There were only about 18 vendor booths there, and several of them were just resellers. We only saw two booths that we recognized from years past and I would only classify a couple of them as artisans. There were also two booths that weren't actually selling anything, they were handing out pamphlets on tax relief and saving energy costs...not really sure what place they had at a Christmas craft festival. Someone told us that a few vendors decided not to come because the weather wasn't looking so good, but we only saw two booth spaces that were empty. When it started drizzling while we were there several booths packed up. As in, tents down, driving away with everything, not just packing away their products with the intent of getting it back out later. There were only about 20-30 people there during the 2-3 hours we were there. We very slowly went through every tent, talking to people as we went and it still only took about 2 hours. In the past we skip over tents that don't jump out to us and we still take all day to go to the tents we want to see. We've gone all day Saturday and then returned on Sunday because we didn't have enough time.
At two booths I asked questions and the vendors gave me vague, non-answers about their own products. If you're going to be selling things, you should know your product. Seriously, how stupid would it be if someone asked about one of my yarns and I was like '...well...it's wool...not sure what kind...don't know if you can wash it or not...' No, it doesn't work that way. If you make soap, you'd better know what is in that soap and the ingredients should be labeled clearly so that the customer doesn't have to ask what's in it. If you sell tea blends and you can't memorize what is in every blend that's fine, but have a sheet on hand that tells you what is in each one so that when someone asks you can tell them. Don't act surprised that a customer might expect you to know what is in a blend before they purchase it.
There was also a really lame band playing super loud the entire time. Where they playing Christmas music at this Christmas festival? No, of course not, they were playing a bunch of oldies which really helped to destroy any 'handmade Christmas' vibe that may have been lingering around.
I understand that the weather this weekend has kindof put a damper on things for them, but the event really seemed poorly put together and poorly advertised in the first place, so I don't think it would have been much better with good weather. The caliber of vendors was significantly lower than in previous years. I have nothing against craft fairs where people can sell the output of their hobby, but don't have a strong cohesive business put together because they really only sell at a couple events a year. There is a place for that, and you can find some nice, quality items at such events, but this was always so much more than a craft fair and that's what made it an enjoyable experience. Maybe I'm being overly critical and harsh, there were some very nice people there and I'm sure they put alot of care into their products, but it just didn't compare to what this event has been and I don't like to buy from someone who seems to know less about their product than I do.
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