Is this the place to vent?

I am not sure if this is the right place to post, but, I had to vent for a minute. I booked this festival this weekend that I was invited to attend about 3 months ago. They advertised face painting, they told me at first 8,000 to 10,000 then advertised it as 15,000 people on some festival sites. When I get there the first morning on Friday they let a last minute person set up. They were supposedly renting cabins, and giving away FREE face painting. Granted, it was very simple cheek things that were not artistic. But, 80% of my sales are kids just wanting a little something. They put them in OUR ISLE!!! I was very upset.

This festival was very unorganized, unadvertised, I was lucky if there were 1000 people that came for the 3 days, and hardly any children. I cleared in 3 days, what I would have made in 1/2 day. They finally did make the free lady move after I pitched a nice one, although they tried to talk me into moving instead...I was livid. It was so unprofessional. It was the first year they hosted it, which is not what I was told by the person that asked me to come. It was so aggravating because I did lose some sales to the ugly face paint. I had some people that came back from Saturday to Sunday to bring other kids to me, but, still I lost out on a lot. Plus she sent over someone to see what paints I was using. That was annoying. She could have asked me. So, I think she took advantage of the fact that they advertised face paint and wants to get in the business rather than working at cabin rentals.

The guy running it said that he just didn't know if they could guarantee that we could be the only face painters for next year. WHAT??? Maybe if I booked two spaces, but it couldn't be guaranteed.

So this is my question. I have to call them today. Since it is a new fair I wonder if I should try again if they are willing to work this face paint deal out, but with a contract. I don't have to do this at any other festival I attend it is weird...There are several painters to compete with , I will kick myself in the rear if I quit and three years from now it is a big festival. What do you think?

This sounds like most festivals in my area. They are a sink or swim business. If I choose to do a festival I take it in areas I want to get marketed. I consider it an immediate financial loss, but a potential marketing gain. This way if I do make a good amount of money I'm happy. I promote, promote, promote & try to get bookings. I never pay full price for a booth. I know of some face painters that mostly do festivals & do very well at them. They like to travel & use them as an excuse to do that. I'm not big on it as I'm in a season where I need more sure money & will take a paying gig over an unsure PPF event. I've been working the Haunted House that is PPF for the last few weeks, but if I get a paid event in it's place, I go for it(and I made arrangements with the Haunted House that I would come when I didn't have other work & they were ok with that).

you said there weren't a lot of kids there... is it a kids' event? Are there rides and games and stuff to attract kids other than YOU? If it is geared towards kids, then I might give it another try. If it's something though that isn't really geared towards families and children, I wouldn't bother with it if you can get something else.

I try not to count on a lot from festivals either. All it takes is some crappy weather and the whole thing is sunk. BUT it is a good way to be seen and get your branding out there. I go to a local farmers' market every Saturday and if I didn't have my mother watching the kids for me, it would be a complete loss every week just paying a sitter. BUT I've been in the paper 3 or 4 times from there, booked 3 parties from there, met up with several organizations that are interested in my services and found out about other events going on too. I don't do a lot of festivals, but next summer I may do a couple more (Glitterfly and I are already planning to do the same one as we did last summer together as well as another one).

Yes, they advertised for kids. Supposedly they had a climbing wall, a puppet show, a petting zoo, pony rides, some games, then they advertised face painting. But there was not a kids section really like normal. There was no climbing wall, no puppet show, and no petting zoo. There was some one that had goats that you could feed and pony rides. There was one game person with a gold fish bowl toss game. We were in the middle isle with the food. They had like 7 people selling kettle corn which they were all mad about. It just wasn't as organized as some others that I have attended. But...it is local to me and the first year. I just don't really want to book two booths when I only made about $600 the entire weekend. Which is not terrible money, but not what I typically get without having to compete with FREE face paint.

The only events I do is festivals as I don't like doing parties. I don't really like to travel so I won't go more than 100 miles from my house. I understand your frustration as I have done festivals where they let someone in on the day of the event. I try not to do first year festivals as those are the biggest crap shoot because those are always the ones that are unorganized, the promoters let anyone in because they realize they don't have enough vendors to offset the cost of the festival, and they are truly clueless about what they are doing. But I understand that they didn't tell you this at first, which is why any festival I'm thinking of doing I do my own research about it. Honestly I wouldn't do the festival again and maybe give it a try in a few years just to give them a chance to get things together.
It's only once that I did a festival that I ever said anything about someone doing free face painting. The one was right behind me and using acrylic. The promoter went over and talked to them and she came to me and said that it was up to me if I really wanted them to stop. I said yes and not only did they stop but they came over and apologized. I took that moment to educate this woman on "real" face paint, she was a art teacher from the local high school and said she always did face painting for the school, and how harmful acrylic is. She thanked me and I had a great day afterwards.

I feel your pain.
I did a festival on Sunday - it was supposed to attract 50,000 people.
They told me the sponsor was going to do free face painting 20m from my booth - I said no they won't or on the day you are going to have a scene on you hands.
They talked the sponsor into doing balloons - fast forward to the day and the whole thing is a wash out - the weather is terrible - wind rain the works.
We spent the first two hours huddeling in our tent holding it down.
When the rain lessoned my partner and daughter went for a walk and found a church group doing free face painting - big signs and customers.
I found the event people and had a go at them - they said they gave them permission event though they told me right up untill the day there was no free face painting. They also said I could leave if I wanted!
Already half the booths hadn't shown up.... and now they didn't care who left!
We dropped our prices to everything for $5.
I also had some party dot flashing lights merchandise to hand out to the kids so it was obvious who painted them.
We ended up making $400 between us.
I'm trying to pretend that was us getting back what we paid out but in truth we paid out more then that.
I do know if the sun had shined it would have been a ridiculously productive day.... and after spending on signs and set ups there are more reasons to push ahead with festivals then to abandon them.
I will say the event organisers put us right next to all the free kids activities and put the one other face painter I said could come at the far other end of the festival - I don't know how they thought they were going to get away with the church group - but apart from that they did a great job at working with me to get me there where I was happy etc etc.
They have also offered me exclusivity at the next event in December... we'll see how that one goes....... doesn't help when you are working with councils.

Well, I sent in my questionnaire via email yesterday...no response as of yet. I plan to call them to see what they are going to do. I complained (again) about it and told them how it typically works at these things. I only have one other festival that I do that lets in another painter but, they are really more of an airbrush artist so, the style is different than mine and it doesn't effect my business.I had a few kids to come back on Sunday to let us paint them. We handed out balloons with our name on it so that people would not think the free lady was doing it. I like doing the PPF designs. I like the money that I can potentially make, I just have had really great luck so far I guess.

I did tell them too how I promote each festival that I attend and like you... spend out some bucks getting ready for it. I was not happy that I promoted a free painter with my money at all. I have an event this weekend for Saturday only and really hope that it goes great. If Saturday is good will stay on through Sunday. I AM the only painter there unless there is another last minute entry. LOL...my husband is so much more calm than I am. He was talking so nice to them and I was the haggy lady