Dog Shows?

Anyone ever been to one?

I doubt I'd get far with face paint, but glitter/mica tattoos might get me somewhere. Faketoos has I think 12 breeds on their site already. A friend seems pretty convinced those would go far, since she goes and would easily pay $5 for a temp tattoo of her dog on her arm, and says that a lot of the people going and showing their dogs are pretty quick to spend money at these events.

That being said, it's a $130 fee to set up for I think the whole three days, and I'm pretty new to this still. This would hopefully be my second pay-per event... by then, anyway. Paying vendor fees always gets me down, especially in an area far from my home where business cards don't do a ton of good, so I wanted to see if y'all had any thoughts on the matter.

If you have nothing else going on that's better, you could give it a try. Some of these events are pure unknowns till you try them. That's the nature of our business with public pay-per events. At times, I've hit it out of the park with some little jewel of an event that I took a chance on. At other times, it's been a waste of time and energy. If you think you can make the 130 back and have no problem with giving over three days of your time to it, and, if you make an eye-catching enough display, you may make some money. And maybe not. I know this answer went both ways, because there is no crystal ball. One thing, though, is that if you don't sell out on the tattoos, you might have left over stock that you can't do anything with. My own hunch would be to get more generic dog tattoos. And to present a range of other tattoos that are popular but have nothing to do with dogs. Good luck, however you decide.

JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ is right. Sometimes you just have to take a chance.
I've done great at some, and twiddled my thumbs at others.
Honestly, $130 isn't too bad for a three day event, but sometimes I will contact the organizer (okay, most of the time I do this) and ask if they've ever had a booth offer what I do. If not, I take the opportunity to ask them to give me a shot, as I give THEM a shot, and negotiate working for a percentage, rather than a vendor fee. That percentage is negotiable. Usually, I start out offering 10%, but am willing to do it for as much as 20%. I don't tell them that, lol.
Ask how many people they are expecting, how many vendors are signed up, and to be placed near the food vendors. You will do more business, if you are near the traffic.
PS. My percentage is calculated from my net, not my gross. Consider a small wage for yourself and your booth babe (if you have one), as well as a materials fee. Then turn over the negotiated percent of the rest of the loot.

I always ask if I can pay a percentage, not to exceed the vendor fee. I also start at 10%, but I’m fine with 20%. I don’t pay high vendor fees if I can’t find some evidence through pictures that the event draws a crowd. How well is the event being advertised? Is it the 1st year for this event? I do not like turning gigs away because I have committed to a pay-per-face gig (especially one that I have to pay to participate in) unless I KNOW it’s gonna be financially beneficial. You are also at the mercy of the weather. I would say you should offer both face painting AND glitter tattoos. If kids go, they are more attracted to the face painting. I would think lots would like you to paint them to look like their dog. Maybe offer a special “look like your dog for $10.” I wouldn’t spend too much money on dog stencils if you are not sure about how well they will do.