This is one of the only two pictures I took at our last show... the first one in a year and a half.
It was crazy. We struggled to remember how to do it. We struggled to figure out ways to change our booth to limit contact and maintain some distance. We struggled with new ideas and new realities. But eventually we loaded the truck and were on our way.
Setting up was a delight. We love this show and the producers. They are helpful and friendly and work hard to make sure everything goes well. It is a fantastic show.
Our set up time was late in the day so we were almost the last to set up. To our surprise, we had an unexpected end of the row spot, giving us an open side which meant better air flow and a better ability for social distancing. Of course we struggled. It took awhile to figure out how to best arrange things to fit this space. While it took longer than normal, we were able to set up our tables, tablecloths, displays under our properly weighted tent.
I need to note that our tent has been solid for all of the years we have had it. We have the appropriate weights on each leg. We use two concrete weights each about 25 lbs on each leg. They hang and are secured to the poles. It has withstood heavy rains, high winds and a severe storm where all of the tents around us were damaged or destroyed. It is a good tent.
We did not stock the tent, We never do. Our products are light, easy to carry and easy to put in place. Our plan was to be up early, finish setting up and have leisurely breakfast while we waited for the show to open, We secured it for the night and went off to enjoy a wonderful meal with our hosts and get a good nights sleep.
At some point in the night I had a horrible dream where I was screaming at the show organizers for taking down my tent. It ended when I had to apologize because there was a very good reason for their actions. I woke up perplexed because the one thing I never do is scream at or berate show organizers or anyone for that matter.
While getting ready, my husband came up and said, "there was a big wind and our tent is gone." Not shifted, broken or bent. Gone. All I could think of was the potter in a nearby booth and pray that our tent had not damaged another vendor. Truly, I was more horrified at that thought than anything else. I did spare a thought for all of the year spent collecting unique display pieces that would never be replaced. I knew we had our stock secure and would be able to put together some sort of display. But all those artists with glass and ceramic and fragile.,,
I skipped my ridiculous show shirt in favor of a work shirt. I almost ran the block to the show. There was a tent on the end. I thought it was ours but as I got close, it was clear that there was a little pile of things beside it and our tent was, in deed, gone. It was 200 feet down the street behind the row of tents in an empty parking lot. Somehow, our tent with all its weights and sides and drapery moved that far without hitting or damaging anything. It was crumpled and two of its legs were completely sheared off. Almost like some one cut them off.
It most likely happened because we were on the end of the row and our tent took the brunt of the initial blast. All in all about half a dozen tents were destroyed and many more vendors either had damaged tents or damaged stock at the tents all shifted around. Even the fanciest, heaviest, super weighted tents moved 6 inches. It was a powerful gust.
The security crew was still on site and every single one of them came up and apologized that they were unable to stop it. They took the time and carefully gathered up everything they could find from our tent and piled it up in the space.
Remarkably they found everything but a few business cards that had scattered across the site. Every table, tablecloth, suitcase and shelf. It was amazing
My brother-in-law quickly brought us a tent from his business. My husband started salvaging the pieces of the old tent and both of the offered pieces to others in the hopes that could use them to make repairs to their damaged tents. I set about dumping sand out of my suitcases and setting up again.
There were many blessings in the situation. It happened at night when no one was there. It flew behind the row of tents and didn't damage other booths. It was wind without rain so there wasn't water damage to the booth. The security team was thoughtful and went above and beyond to gather the scattered booth together. We had a wonderful support team nearby to fill in and loan and help out. And somehow I got out all of my hysterical and unhelpful angst during a weird nightmare and was able to face the initial shock with a degree of calm and was able to quickly get into a solve the problem mode. So many blessings.
We were set up and open by the time the show opened. We did not get our leisurely breakfast. I did find time to change in to my ridiculous shirt. We had a few missteps as we started because we were so rusty from not doing shows for so long and because we were so frazzled. But we did settle down into our routine and had a good show.
The only real problem was I didn't take any pictures. No set up pictures. No booth pictures. No close ups of the new denizens or the new displays. Nothing.
Next show is indoors and we don't have any things else scheduled for the rest of the year.
