Festival Setups!

Very nice tutu. I have always been surrounded by boys, my husband and I have 6 sons. BUT, now I have a granddaughter that lives nearby and I get to be girly with her! Yeah! We will definitely have to make these this summer.

Walela wrote:Very nice tutu. I have always been surrounded by boys, my husband and I have 6 sons. BUT, now I have a granddaughter that lives nearby and I get to be girly with her! Yeah! We will definitely have to make these this summer.

I have a long way(and not rushing to be one) till grand kids!! WOW!! 6 boys..I have 4..how did you do it??

Super cute and colorful! Love the pirate flag to catch the pirate fans' attention too. I don't charge sales tax on face painting. The first real gig I did on my own was a county fair and at the time they told me I did not have to charge sales tax because it is considered artwork, which is not taxable. So that's been the story I've stuck to ever since! ;-) Service...artwork...entertainment...it's a fuzzy line! I do of course charge sales tax for the paints and supplies I sell online though, but only have to for customers who purchase within my same state. Not sure how long that loophole will last but for now it makes things easy.

I love looking at all the setup pics Makes me want to spend money on banners and all sorts of advertising goodies! LOL I just have to remind myself that I just do 2-3 festivals a yr. Is it really worth it?

I do mostly birthday parties, booked almost every weekend No need for a fancy banner.

my banner was like $8 from vista print, just wait till they give them away for free, and all you have to pay is shipping, just sign up on their email list, I have gotten so many free things from them, I have NO idea how they are still in business! It must be all the custom stuff that brings it in for them.

Really?! I remember playing around with their banner and it came out to nearly $50, but I was adding pictures to it so that's probably why. I'll have to give it another go now

I do buy their biz cards though

Finished up a festival today and finally had a chance to take some pics of the new setup.



HOWEVER, this isn't the complete setup... the winds were too strong this weekend to use the upper portion of the banner frames so we hung the large banner at the back of the tent instead of up high over the tent. There is another section of pvc that attaches above the sections you see here, that holds more large pics and the large banner up high over the entrance of the tent. We were setup next to a tree with immense roots, so everything is not straight, either, but you do the best with what you're given LOL

We weighted the bases of the banner frames with concrete and bungied them to the legs of the tent which helped keep it on the ground. The winds were gusting up to 40 mph this weekend so the extra weights really helped!

Our booth was squeezed in... we had a group directly behind us that kept throwing their chicken bones into our side! How rude... we were glad when we arrived this morning and they had packed up during the night and left. On Saturday our line snaked around all the other booths and the guy next to us was really upset that no one could get to his booth. I'm writing a letter to the organizers for next year and letting them know that they need to put us in a corner spot or somewhere where our line won't interfere with our neighboring booths. We were told repeatedly that we were the most popular booth at the festival.... my aching back and feet attest to that! On Saturday I didn't take a sip of water or bite of food for 9 hours straight But we did clear $1350 for the weekend so I'm pleased Everyone loved the large pictures and the clear displays... plus I painted up hubby like a tiger and that really attracted people!

Squiggle - Everything about your set-up and presentation (i.e. the painted husband! ) just says "Pro"! You were bound to succeed! Really really great great set-up! Awesome!

Joan

Squiggle, very impressive!

FANTASTIC!...don't need to say more!!!!

Thanks so much, ya'll! I worked sooo hard on those banner frames, and was so disappointed when we got there and couldn't use the whole display But it all worked out! I even hooked up with an entertainment agency who was very interested in having me work with them on events such as the Razorfest which I could never afford to have a booth in (she told me the booth fee was $4500!!--gulp!).

CottonKandyClown wrote:Really?! I remember playing around with their banner and it came out to nearly $50, but I was adding pictures to it so that's probably why. I'll have to give it another go now

I do buy their biz cards though

once you have an email for a free or 80% off banner with free uploads, then upload your stuff and get yourself one... I personally always pay the extra for the outdoor material so they are super heavy duty. Don't use their stick on "grommets" though... go to Michael's and get some metal grommets, they aren't hard to put on yourself.

squiggle....I just love ur setup! no wonder you were the most popular booth there - all the photos would really bring people in.... oh and the amount of money you made! wow!

Wow! It looks really nice! I like the larger banner holders you made.
Did you paint the Face & Body Art directly onto the tent or is that a separate banner as well?

Dawnie, how do you close yours up an night? are you worried about the dew on your photo displays or do you have them laminated? Do you leave your displays up as is or do you pull them inside your tent? I have yet to leave any photo displays or my fat max overnight at a festival. Just wonder if anyone else does.

I take my fatmax and glitter body art supplies home, but leave everything else. All the banners are fully waterproof (laminate, etc) so I don't have to worry about them if it rains overnight. We fold the tables and stools and my director's chairs and lay them down overnight. Every festival we've done so far has overnight security so I can leave those things but I would never leave my paints and glitters LOL!

Yes, I did paint the "Face and Body Art" directly on the canopy... I had taken the cover off and painted it on my back porch and thought I had it centered, but as you can see I was off a bit! I have that on all 4 sides.

We've always taken our supplies home with us. I need to be more trusting and leave signage as well. when it's windy, we lower the tent as far as possible and re-tie it down.

I had to leave a gig two weekends ago due to wind gusts. It was on the water there at the small craft harbor at Pass Christian and the gusts were so bad we each were holding a tent leg to keep it from launching into space, and all our stuff (chairs, etc.) was flying everywhere. I called it quits and packed up. Luckily it was still early and I could get my vehicle in. It would have been impossible to stay. I don't know how the others managed.

That's why I added concrete to all the bases- it's very windy here all the time! For example, today the wind is gusting to 50mph and that's a pretty common thing. I also made 2 more weights to use at the back of the tent, using 3" pvc cut 36" long, filled with concrete with an eye hook in the concrete on one end to clip a bungy to. With all the weights we have over 100 pounds holding the tent down. That should do on a normal day... however, if there are microbursts with a thunderstorm, I'm not sure anything would hold it down completely...

That's so cool how you painted right on there Squiggle! What did you use? Can you tell me about your tip banner...something about a $5 tip?

I just used regular acrylic paint for the canopy top. I've ordered some half-walls for the 2 sides that I'm going to paint on the outside and have the insides be space to hang more pictures.

The tip sign says "For your $5 tip receive a free thank you gift! Must hand tip to artist" We have hair clips, hair extensions, neon peace key chains, etc. that we got for under 30 cents each. When someone gives us a $5 tip, we let them choose from the tip gift box A good way to get better tips and doesn't cost me a lot .

Here is my set up. It looks a lot better when it is full of people I still feel like it needs something else....

I think it looks amazing, Daizy! I think you give JUST enough info without overwhelming the crowd. :-)

When I set up my festival tent, I place the legs of the tent in the middle of half cinder blocks that have nylon rope tied around them. Then I tie the rope to the tent legs for added stability. Most of my events that have required me to bring my own canopy are on paved surfaces, not grass, so the stakes that come with the canopy are basically useless!

This is a picture of my setup for my first ever street festival. That handsome man in the green is my hubby/cashier/PR guy. (I'm in the blue rain jacket in the photo) While I paint, he takes the money and talks up my parties! He also kept track of exactly WHICH designs I did that day on his iPad using the Square software so that I would know which ones were the most popular. ;-) I have a taller table now and would do several things to increase the "WOW" factor of my setup after seeing all the awesome things you guys do! You all inspire me! I hope the cinder blocks help all of you windy area folks though!



This is a closeup of me painting in the shot above.



And this is me with my one of my biggest fans! Her birthday party was the first one I ever painted at (other then my own kids) and she and her family follow me to many of my local public gigs. :-) Her mom even brought her and her brother to my house and paid me to paint them on Halloween for their trick or treating costumes!

Nice Becky.. good idea about the cinder blocks. I wonder if they can be spray painted?

You can prime the blocks first, they are very porous. Then paint. Home depot/ lowes can direct you to the proper paint Love these set ups.