Festival help?

Hey y'all, so I'm really trying to put myself out there more and have been looking for festivals to charge ppf and start putting my name out there more, as I have been having little to no bussiness. The problem is I can't find any festivals! How do you track down festivals to buy a booth at? Thanks!

I'm pretty much in the same boat. Festival sites are not helping. So I'm am actually looking up specific events that I can remember ie: fruit events, rodeos. My next issue with this is writting the correct format of email to introduce myself and my business.

I'm sure a more experienced person will be along soon so I'm going to follow this story:)

in my area, I look in at the chamber of commerce website to see whats going on and go from there.

Try city and township websites under their recreation page. Or even look at local facebook pages. I have found some good ones by connecting on facebook with local moms groups and such.
Good Luck Silly Izzy!

www.festing.com

www.eventlister.com

sign up for free and they show you 30 days of upcoming events. Subscribe and you can get info on events a year from now.

Festing.com even let's you list yourself as a vendor for the festival organizers to consider...  

local newspaper. some weeklies. parents magazines. often list events. look every week, and save them, too. also look at papers for the ads that the fests themselves use to advertise to the public. even if it's too late for this, year, you will have them all in a binder and be able to plan early to try for next year.

local newspaper. some weeklies. parents magazines. often list events. look every week, and save them, too. also look at papers for the ads that the fests themselves use to advertise to the public. even if it's too late for this, year, you will have them all in a binder and be able to plan early to try for next year.

http://festivalnet.com/

"Liking" every town and school facebook page in the area.

Chamber of commerce websites.

Local newspaper facebook pages.

Google searches for events in every nearby town.

Once I find an event or festival I am interested in trying, I look for info on the organizer and email them something like this:

"My name is Diane Thomas, and I am a professional face painter in the Memphis area.
I know you are busy gearing up for the festival in a few weeks, but I wondered if you have a face painter lined up for your children's area. I use only FDA compliant, cosmetic grade products, with designs that delight all ages. I am the face painter of the Memphis Airshow, Monster Truck Mania, Flag City Freedom Celebration, Batesville SpringFest, Overton Square Crawfish Festival and many more events. I would love to be part of the Memphis Music Heritage Festival, as well.
I have several options for set up at festivals such as yours, and I hope we can find a situation that works for us both.
My hourly rates are $80, with a minimum of two hours. I have a day rate of $600 for eight hours, which is a savings of $40, or half an hour for free. If this suits you, I would display a sign stating that my services are courtesy the Center for Southern Folklore.
Or I could set up and charge customers individually, and be there at no cost to you.
Or I could set up, charge the customers, and donate 10% of my profits to the Center for Southern Folklore. In this case, I would display a sign stating that 10% of my profits go to the Center for Southern Folklore.
I would need to be set up in a well traveled area, preferably near the children's activities or food.
I will bring my full service professional festival booth with full signage.
If you would like premium face painting available to your guests, please contact me and we can work out the details. You may visit my website by clicking the link below my signature to see the quality of my work.
Thank you for your consideration, and I hope you have a lovely evening."

It doesn't always get me in, but I have a pretty good rate of return on this communication.

I can't add much more to the suggestions as they are all good...but I'd highly recommend only applying for festivals that you have personally attended and therefore know will have plenty of kids (and no other painters)...especially if you are paying for a booth.

rthling, that is awesome advice. I try to negotiate booth fees also, but your example is so well written and detailed.

Liz, I've never had any luck trying to negotiate booth fees. What's your strategy?

If anyone read about the hot n humid day w/stampeding calf (on the thread..."You KNOW the Face Painter is unhappy"), we can add persistence & perseverance to this list. The organizers just emailed me to be a vendor @ their annual Rodeo & Pageant. HOORAY!!! Seriously, I just opened my notebook, wrote down all this info & am going to start right now. Thank you all for the wonderful resource you have been for me & so many others!

Woohoo! I got the festival that letter was for!!

Good luck, everyone! Thanks, Liz.