Craft Show September 2023

Highlights from my first craft show.

St. Catherine’s Fall Festival

The 2023 Fall Festival will be held in McGivney Hall of St. Catherine’s Church Friday, September 8th Saturday, September 9th

This was a return of the festival after 4 years. The majority of vendors worked the festival in previous years and said the crowds were no way near what they used to be so traffic was sporadic and I guessed correctly; mostly elderly. The majority of sales were to those under 50 and there were very few children in attendance. Most were there to eat, get out and enjoy the day (not the weather) and play the basket raffle. There were many donated baskets and raffle items. Since I was also on the committee we’ll be having a meeting to discuss the overall success of this year’s festival as compared to other years.

I doubt I will do a table again unless I manage to create a large inventory before the sign up as it was so much work, I did offer to volunteer for next year.

There were visitors in various art businesses who offered suggestions as to vendors who would take my work if I wanted to continue to sell. Others volunteer to give cards and the like and since this was a crafty group I listened to all of their experiences and passed them on to others. Most of these would require a commitment to continue to stocking items on a regular basis. I will consider it and it might be a good idea in the future.

Overall I was happy to have had the experience and I really enjoyed the festival and the people I met. One very nice crafter de-stashed and gave me a huge haul of die cuts. It was a family affair and my daughter also enjoyed it. My husband did a great job on the committee as well and was able to secure many basket donations from local businesses. The basket raffle was a huge success. They didn’t sell all available craft tables. There was food, some items sold out. I’m not sure about the flower/mum sale but I think it was down from previous years, the flowers were huge baskets and very good quality, one of their previous best draws for the festival.

I sold out my journals within the first hour. My junk journal was for display and conversation starter only. I was going to take it home that night and finish the signature threads but the customer seemed to really like it so I just suggested he make an offer and that was fine with me.

I sold some items after the festival.

My table at the venue. I wanted natural baskets but in the end it saved time to just purchase what I needed at once. I did find one small tree at Goodwill and bought another similar one rather than a large metal tree. I chose black and gray to bring out the variety of colors since there was no overall theme to my items.