Festival Setups!

Perry Noia wrote:this is a pic from last year when Glitterfly and I worked the Rib Fest here together, some of the signs will be changing this year, but you get the idea anyway:


This is when I am setting up by myself at the market, though again, some of the banners are changing this year to match my new branding:

Hey Perry, What size are your menu board banners?

those are small banners from vistaprint

I finally have a tent, and I couldn't be happier. I've been in business almost 12 months and for most of that time I've been using a market umbrella at festivals and market events. I am yet to settle on a 'set up' but here's my tent's first appearance at a market last weekend. I love the fact that I don't have to move it to stay in the shade, and it covers my whole 'space' and makes me feel like a real stall holder. I'm hoping it's also better at standing up to the wind... my umbrella has been, as you'd expect, useless once a strong breeze enters the equation. The tent has sides, but I haven't tried them yet. And credit where credit's due... scgilland of princesses and pirates is to blame for the tutus. I'm on the other side of the world so I hope she doesn't mind I borrowed her idea ;P
I use a camp kitchen for a table, which is great for displaying my new 'branding banner.
I'm working on updating my menu board and will make a long banner to hang across the front/top of my tent, which reminds me... I should be working on that now. Oh well...

Wow! Your set up looks great! Where did you get your tent? Kuddos to you and happy painting & money making!!

Thanks! Bought the tent on ebay for $170, delivered to my door.

Nice setups, everyone! I'm now paid and applied for 12 festivals, with 5 more still to go, but they should be paid and applied for by June 1. I've never done that many in a year before (well, it'll actually be 8 months) but since I'm new to the area, I figure the best way to get the word out is doing festivals... plus, they're FUN! My daughter told me she much prefers festivals to birthday parties, so I'm taking her at her word and I'm applying for everything in the area LOL!

Wow Dawnie! Congrats! Vendor Application fees for 12 festivals, Way to Go!

Yep... there went this year's tax refund

Fun2Play I love how your camp kitchen setup gives you a great place to display a banner...and I guess it protects your paint from miscellaneous hands too!

Quick question...does your GazePro take one or two people to set up??

I have only set it up once, with someone who knew what they were doing to show me the way. It didn't take long between the two of us (5 minutes or so), but while I think it may be possible to tackle solo, I might look for another solo stall holder who I can help me in return for some help with theirs...
Coral, I love it too. Might make a curtain for the base of it though.

I am totally fine with it! I think its great that my idea actually inspired someone!! I had a great day the other day with my tutu totes! Gives me something to do when I can't paint in my down time! Good luck to you darling!

Fun2Play wrote:I finally have a tent, and I couldn't be happier. I've been in business almost 12 months and for most of that time I've been using a market umbrella at festivals and market events. I am yet to settle on a 'set up' but here's my tent's first appearance at a market last weekend. I love the fact that I don't have to move it to stay in the shade, and it covers my whole 'space' and makes me feel like a real stall holder. I'm hoping it's also better at standing up to the wind... my umbrella has been, as you'd expect, useless once a strong breeze enters the equation. The tent has sides, but I haven't tried them yet. And credit where credit's due... scgilland of princesses and pirates is to blame for the tutus. I'm on the other side of the world so I hope she doesn't mind I borrowed her idea ;P
I use a camp kitchen for a table, which is great for displaying my new 'branding banner.
I'm working on updating my menu board and will make a long banner to hang across the front/top of my tent, which reminds me... I should be working on that now. Oh well...

Dawnie-
What are your picture displays made from? I see the colored dots have different pricing, but did you make them yourself?
It looks awesome!
Well everyone's looks awesome!
I'm gathering ideas for my first "big" fest in June.

thanks for sharing everybody!!

Angela, I bought some blank vinyl banners (hemmed and grommetted) from ebay, and then I put velcro on the banners. That makes them flexible as far as how I want the display to look for each festival or event.

I laminate and then put velcro on the back of every photo, and also add a dot with the number of the design on the photo after laminating. I bought the dots at Walmart- I think they're normally used for garage sales. On my "pricing" sign I have the color key- "orange dots" are $5, "yellow" dots are $10 and "green" dots are $15 The photos on the outside banners are 5x7 or 8x10 (a few are even larger- the designs I really want to push

I also have a banner inside the tent near me, with copies of the photos from the banner outside, but done with 4x6 photos. Those have the matching sticker from outside, so if they get in the tent and can't remember which design they wanted, they can still find it inside the tent

Thank you Dawnie! I like how you are able to swap them out!

Yes, that's the main reason I haven't had design menus printed... I wanted the flexibility to change my display, remove designs I didn't want to do or wasn't selling well, and add new ones. For example, at the last festival there was a couple of designs I've really wanted to try, but my daughter is adamant about what kinds of designs I can paint on her and I can't use her for a model for every picture. So I printed out the designs and offered a couple of very pretty little girls a deal- let me try this design on you and take pics for my board and my website, and I'll do it for free.... of course, they both jumped at that deal! You have to make sure their parents are there to give permission for using the photos... but I've never had a parent turn down the deal

So... at this festival coming up, I can now add those new pics to my board, and remove designs that didn't do well. My displays couldn't be so flexible without the velcro LOL!

I use a black foam board for smaller events and a black tri fold display both with velcro and then I have laminated pictures that I use for those. I printed two set of my pictures, one with a price on them and one without.

We'll see how that goes at the bigger even I have coming up.

I really like your big banner with the velcro on it, it would fit in with my other displays I already use!

I have to admit, I kinda stalk your webpage and you are often a source of inspiration for me!

Thank you! I'm very flattered I feel like I'm still in the learning stages myself though! LOL

here is my banner i can change out my pictures depending on the event....[img][/img]

Love your sign Barb!

Here is the first festival I debuted as a face painter,before that I only have painted my daugther and her friends for halloween. I was so bored (no body was buying paintings) so I asked my husband to go home and get the face painting kit I used for my daughter's birthday parties full of palmer's paints , I painted 100 faces and I made $100 I felt in love with face painting' it was May 2010 and I thought that it was a lot of money, I decided to change mediums and go pro as a FP[img][/img]

August 2010 my second festival and I was ready with profesional paints, having my paintings around was a hit, people thought that if they couldn't paid for one of them at least they can have a piece of my art.
[img][/img]
This is me last summer, I feel so lonely without paintings to show.
[img][/img]

love the progression girl!

Arty Faces...love the clean lines, neat appearance...you got me right away. It is so hard when we have so much to display, but I can't take clutter in a setup.
Which is crazy for my studio is full of what other's would call clutter!!!

Fun2Play that is the cutest idea and eye catcher to have that little bouquet of flower balloons! I bet those are gone so fast! Does anyone know...so face painting is a service in most places and we don't have to pay sales tax right? Well do balloons artists? Because they are technically making a product and selling it right? So those of you who paint and do balloons do you have to pay sales tax?

Had my first festival ever on Saturday. Thanks to everyone sharing what's worked for them! I came off like a real pro because of you all! Even being sort of hidden away from the majority of the crowd I did well and was able to nicely pay my helper for glitter tattoos. Glitter tattoos were a big hit, btw, I charged $5 for one or 2for $8, my helper got to keep half of what she sold, but I promised her a minimum of 10 per hour ( including set up/break down), I was still able to make a profit off of glitter tattoos and keep lines down and parents and kids happy while I was busy face painting. Now I have a nice festival set up so no more scrambling until one o'clock the morning before the event putting finishing touches on my display board!
Thanks everyone, you all rock!