Displays for booth for festivals and fairs

were you some sort of design major in a past life?

In my 'regular" life, I design houses to the new stringent coastal building codes since Hurricane Katrina

WOW ! You have the skills to pay the bills. Nice setup !

Love the castle design, very eye catching!
Just a thought I had...... last show I was at we were working with an airbrush tattoo artist, he had pull up banners with all his designs out the front of the booth, I noticed the booths that had the designs all displayed up the back of the booth/tent (where you had to go in to see) were empty. People were noticing the designs as they walked past and then deciding to come in.
It also allowed the others waiting to pick their designs while the booth was full of people being painted.
I prefer to work with the designs in my view - my memory is not by friend - so I usually double up, I have pics on display and in a book.
I also think it's really important to put a sign up or somewhere on your photo display that says they can have anything they can imagine, so they know they are not limited to the designs you put up....... stops you painting the same spider man, tiger and butterfly all day.
I must say I saved the picture of Lone's display that is on her website because I thought it looked really professional, it wasn't to big (granted she didn't have a tent set up) and it looked easy to manage.

While I'm hear can I just say to Wildcatfin - I love your website, and your work, I have learnt a lot from your posts and information on your site so THANKYOU! I'm just starting to get into airbrushing and I have a gig this weekend doing a masquerade in a club so all your advice on working in clubs has been priceless. Hope I'm as good as you and as successful as you one day, you've given me something to aspire too.

Dawn, your design Rocks!! Loving it and no I don't think your crazy! But you and I are two pees in a pod, and just have to go all the way with stuff, lol! And then you thought of me!! I must admit, I looked at the date to see when you posted to see if it was before or after we spoke. Then I was like yikes, where will she put me? Can't beleive I even doubted ya, I so sorry!

It is important to really stand out and I know that will work like a charm! I do want to warn ya tho, it can get windy. I know you wouldn't have thunk it but it does. And especially if you ever do anything close to the beach. Ya get that good seabreeze going and your flying with the seaguls! I did one show last fall where we was set up in a parking lot, therefor nothing to anchor to. Several times our tent wanted to take flight! The promoters anticipated the problem and had sand bags for us but it still wanted to fly! There was one lady there with $200-$500 paintings and one of them fell over and the frame of the canvas broke. Needless to say she packed up and went home. Just a little heads up so you can get that design mind of your's going! The set up is too good to let a little wind bring ya down.

Wow, I'm just so excited!! Just to fill in the rest of ya'll on how sweet Dawn is, she is letting me come in and work with her at a street fair. It will be the first big gig that I do. I've worked at a really small school and I think the most kids i've painted at an event has been like 15 give or take. And I've only done it voluntarely cuz it gives me experience. I think I've done 4 sporting events and 2class parties. So not much experience at all!! On top of that she and I are the only facepainters in our area that are using the correct products, so she is directly training, helping etc the competition. Now of course I will look like one of her employees and not doing anything stupid like handing out my business cards, I don't even have any yet, ha ha. But that experience is worth bocou(french for alot) to me!! Thank you Dawn for being so fantabulous(MeLisa for amazing, lol)!!!!! YAY again!!!

You are very welcome, MeLisa!! The only way to get experience is to just dive in there and do it, and goodness knows, I'm gonna need your help! BTW, are you busy on March 20? Just booked something in Mobile! LOL!!

Yeah, I'm still working on making sure this castle thingy won't blow away...I'm thinking of cutting small holes throughout the castle to let the wind blow through. I was thinking of painting "stone work" on it and just cutting out some of the stones throughout. Do you think that would help? I think when it's all put together the castle facade will be pretty heavy, but I'm definitely going to need something to anchor the tent legs down.

I love the wings too!

Question, where did you buy the banner. The one in the second pic. With the stand. I would love to get one.

Wow.... great set up and ideas. Just a thought..... when I want to try out something new or a new set up, I arrange to do it at a low key or free event just to work out the quirks before I use it at a bigger gig. I try and go over every possible negative outcome before hand.... ya know.... proactive rather than reactive.

Hey.... while you're cutting holes for stones, why not cut them the size of faces and the kids can poke their heads through to get a pic.... paint a princess dress and crown to the hole and you've got a great pic (not to mention more work for you!)lol Just trying to add to the insanity!

That's exactly what I was thinking too Judy, bout the pictures.

Well, my supplier didn't work out for the plastic... he couldn't cut the arch and so I cancelled the order.
So I went looking, and I think I've found something that I can do that I won't have to build at all. I can buy a wire frame archway, (even has mini-lights in it) and then buy some vinyl sheeting that has the look of stones. The archway is set up in 2 parts that i can just hook together in the middle on-site and then wrap in the vinyl. We could even plug in the lights and they would light up the interior of the "columns" and the lantern lights on top. I could put the containers of concrete in the bottom of the columns to weight them down, and poke some small holes in the vinyl and attach my picture displays with cable ties to the wire frame of the archway and hang my banner from the top of the lanterns. The ONLY thing I really worry about is, it's not flat like the other set up and the columns are about 12" wide, which I might get dinged at festivals since I'll be sticking out a bit further than my booth... what do ya'll think?

Anyway, here's a rendering I put together... might not look exactly like this but it'll be close...



I won't be able to cut holes in this unless they're miniscule so it won't rip the vinyl.

I like the idea of having a photo op place but for now I don't really have anyone who can take pics, unless I just set it up for parents to use to take pics.

Personally, if you are going to use the metal archway, I wouldn't even use the vinyl wrap. It really won't add much in terms of a draw since it is stone printed. You might consider running colorful ribbons and streamers through the column legs instead. It would be much more bright and eye-catching, and you wouldn't have to worry about putting holes in the vinyl and taking the chance of tearing it.
I know you were kinda going for a castle look, so I haven't really helped you there, but I think brighter colors would attract more people to your booth.

Yeah, I was disappointed that it ended up being so dark... here is the metal archway:



They have the vinyl in just plain colors, such as gold, in rolls of 5' x 200' so if it tears, it's not that big of a deal, I can just use a little more on the roll Or I could go with streamers to match my banner. The reason I like the vinyl covering, is to hide my concrete weights that will go in the center of each column to hold the thing down

Is there maybe a way to "dress up" the weights or camouflage them instead so they aren't so unattractive? What kind do you use?

I guess I could cover them in the gold vinyl LOL! I'm going to make them myself out of empty bleach containers and ready-mix concrete. You cut the top of the container off, leaving the handle, and pour the concrete in the bottom half, then attach the handle to whatever it is you want to hold down.
I've seen some done by a friend of mine and they look very useful for weigting things down!

I have seen really cool concrete weights made by using a 4" PVC pipe cut to 2-3 feet long with a cap on one end, then filled with cement and allowed to harden then mounting an eye bolt through another cap and securing that on the top of the pipe. You run a rope or cable through the eye bolt and secure it to the top of the tent poles, then you can zip tie or bungee the long vertical weights to your tent legs. They are tall and thin rather than short and squat, so they don't pose a trip hazard, and they are easy to store when not in use.

I have sand bags that I use that came with my EZ Up. But if they ever give out, I plan to make some of these bollard style weights.

I've seen those that your talking about! I had forgotten about that, they are very nice. The fact that they are up and not a trip hazard was wonderful! And so much the more with little feet coming your way more than a reg craft booth!

MeLisa

I ordered everything today...the wire arch and the stone vinyl, but also some gold foil curtains that I'm going to dress up the castle with and draw attention. My friend also has some gold and black fleur de lis flags we can fly from the "turrets" that will probably bring some attention, too

I bought my laminator and the rest of the stuff to make the displays... they're going to look like tapestries on rods like in a castle... I hope they turn out like I see them in my head!

Ordered 2 tall director's chairs today and the last 2 tables I need.

I'm also going to take your advice, Lisa... I really like the idea of the weights being up and out of the way, so I'm going tomorrow and buy the supplies to do that.

I have one week to get the displays and everything done before my first festival on March 13!!!

Mine?
It was a pop up banner- you can get loads on ebay etc - but I waited till we got back to HK to order that as its super lightweight compared to the banner stands I was used to, and has a thing so it can have a banner on the front AND the back.
They mucked up the body one it was supposed to be a black background so the pic crops wouldn't show, but hey, it was a rush job...



Um I think it was http://www.pop-china.com/
They do international but I expect you can find local.

Cat x

Well, we had our first event today with the new booth "castle" set up and it was a hit... but the event was, let's say, confusing! We arrived and we couldn't find the lady in charge of the event. We finally walked over to the zoo and found someone who would know if there was an event scheduled and this person knew nothing about it - it wasn't even on their scheduled events board (?)! So we went back and waited a little longer. Finally, we went back to the zoo, found the person in charge, and asked if we could go ahead and set up in the playground area ourselves. We were able to show her my brochure and she wanted to book us on the spot for their 60th anniversary event! But we were already booked for a street festival for that date. But she's definitely going to keep my brochure and call us for their next event. She wants to pay us our regular hourly rate and let the zoo visitors have their face painting for free

Anyway, we went and started hauling everything out of the van to set up and we were mobbed by kids LOL The wind was soooooo bad (thanks, ya'll for warning me!) but we set up next to a chain-link fence and were able to tie down one side of the tent to that, and had our weights on the other end.

The castle setup was a hit! I'm afraid we were so busy I never had a chance to take any pictures, and by the time we told everyone we absolutely had to stop to be able to break down before it got dark, I was too exhausted to remember. We have another event next Saturday with more help, so maybe I'll have more of a chance to take pics.

So, what could have turned into a disaster, turned out to be a great experience. And my friend, who went to help me by running the register and managing the line, had to jump in and help me paint and is hooked now! She's now wanting to go to LaFete this week LOL!

I'm loving the pop-up banner, Kat. I went to the site, and was surprised at how inexpensive they are, but was confused about how to order (not ready yet anyway). I'll be looking for locals who do it! Thanks!

That's awesome news squiggle!
Glad it worked out for you after you put so much thought and effort into to it.
Still hanging out to see the finished result.

Yeah REALLY cheap here as everyone uses them - most shops are stalls or very temporary so is big banner industry!
Watch out for postage costs tho.

Fairly simple to order and all are about the same in their industry; design your banner in Adobe, etc - to be safe use the biggest pics you have and make your documwnt the SAME SIZE as the real banner so you don't have tiny pixellated pics. Save it as a jpeg or whatever they ask for, and usually you need to use some sort of ftp uploader to upload to their server. Along with a thumbnail pic showing how it SHOULD look incase its scrambled. They email a confirmation and off you go...

YAY!!!! I'm so happy it went well!! So happy you where able to prepair for the wind, it was moving! And it is an addicting thing, glad your friend had a good time too! Is she gonna try to go?

I ordered some blendy cakes here. I got the large and mini neon rainbows and the mini fire and girly(pinks/purle). Much to learn with those! But looking forward to figuring them out!

Later Gator!

I finally got a picture of the booth!



This was my daughter, Savannah, and I outside our booth at the Picayune Street fair this past weekend.



And this was me on the inside.

We're doing a crawfish festival this weekend at night so I'll have some night time pics on Monday for you

We did the Crawfish Festival in Biloxi on the beach for the last 4 days with MeLisa. We couldn't set up our castle tent because the first day the wind was like a hurricane coming off the water, and we were under the pavilion in case of rain, so we just set up the frame and turrets and lots of Christmas lights.



All in all, I love the setup! The vinyl displays have held up very well and it's easy to change pictures or prices at the drop of a hat, or even pull off a pic to use as a reference when painting, then stick it back on the display.