Lessons from a Disappointing Festival Experience
Even the Queen of Positivity Can Feel Let Down
I’ve heard the only way you can be disappointed is by having expectations. And I had expectations for yesterday — high ones. Relatively new to Eastern North Carolina, I attended my first Black Bear Festival in Plymouth, NC — as a vendor. The marketing for the event was significant: radio ads on multiple stations, a big social media push, all the vendors — of which there were hundreds — talking it up. The promoters suggested attendance as high as 35,000.
So I went. With high hopes.
And I sold almost nothing. Had a very positive response to my pieces — I went out of my way to make a lot of really cute black bear merch — but sales were scanty. One piece I did sell made my day, though. It was a little high school gal from Greenville, the closest large-ish city to Plymouth. She was with her family, and told me she had come to the event specifically to see my art and buy this piece because she’d seen me on Instagram the night before. Wow! Won’t it be cool when that’s a more regular thing?
The result is that I learned a few things:
(1) Get enough sleep. NO. MATTER. WHAT. While I am getting better at overcoming procrastination, I’m not all the way there yet, and that showed up this week. I was in a bit of a last-minute push to get things done. The good news is that I got it all done. The bad news is that in order to do it, I sacrificed the most important night of sleep: the night before the event. I wouldn’t have sold any less if the booth had been even slightly less well-stocked or not quite as pretty.
(2) Talk to EVERYBODY. My challenge with this one goes back to point #1. I was really tired, and I wasn’t my usual high-energy self. So I committed the #1 cardinal sin at an event like this and sat down for a lot of the day. I did meet a few really nice people and collected a few email addresses, but it was an expensive lesson.
(3) Stay till the end of the event — even if you are tired as a dog. I had a couple friends come track me down, just as I was breaking down my booth. We had some SERIOUS wind in the late afternoon. I was tired, and I wasn’t selling anything. So I decided to commit the #2 cardinal sin of an event like this and follow my neighbors who broke down early. I was really thankful for my weights and four full sandbags I somehow managed to move out here from Phoenix (what, did I think they don’t have sand in North Carolina?). And in retrospect, I wish I’d stayed till the end. But, I was so tired, a bit cranky, frustrated by the wind flapping all my stuff around, and just ready to call it a day.
(4) Choose the right events. I could use the excuse that I’d never been to this event before — but if I’d done even a little research, I would have realized this was more of a state fair crowd. That means people who are there to eat, drink, entertain the family, watch the air show and the fireworks. They are not there to shop. Events where I will do better are art fairs, music festivals, and farmers markets because these are places people actually go with the intention of shopping.
(5) I have great friends. I already knew that, of course, but my friends came through with kind words of support and a few great ideas of other markets and events and ways to get my art out into the world.
So the Queen of Positivity had a little pity party this morning. And then, she dusted herself off, sold a couple prints online, signed up for a new market this weekend, wrote thank you notes to the people who did come out to support me, and got generally re-inspired.
I think the person who advised against having expectations is silly. We just need to know that sometimes things won’t go as we imagine they will. And in those instances, we all have a choice. It’s human to feel disappointed when you are let down for any reason. But after you feel it, do you choose to move through it? Or do you let it come in, take off its shoes, and stay awhile? It was one event. It was a bit of an expensive lesson, but I did learn a lot. And I took great photos — so now I have good shots to share for the next juried show I will participate in.
Bring on the next event!
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Laura Orsini is an artist, author, speaker, consultant, and creator of Fairy Positive, an antidote to the worries of the world. Please visit her website to purchase these images and Laura’s other collage art: FairyPositive.com. Find and follow her on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
