St. Demetrios Greek Festival Wrap-up
What happened at the Elmhurst, St. Demetrios Greek festival on Father's Day weekend a few weeks ago? It was my first show of the season and was excited to be there because I made improvements that I wanted share. Last year I had limited amount of space in the SUV but, this year was different. We bought a 2010 Honda minivan and it is so much easier to transport stuff and much more of it. More stuff equals more sales...maybe. I hoped. Also, new products were debuting such as the Yiayia Koutala, Greek coin and stamp coasters sets, Greek lapel pins, and the Greek name coffee mugs.
It was really more work to set up and to pack. I was able to bring the Greek name pencils, an extra metal vertical display rack, two extra white plastic trellis hanging display and a box of Ecclesia, Greek Orthodox Churches of the Chicago Metropolis poster. I arrived early and set to work. First the tables are arranged in an organized configuration. If all the products and carrying cases are organized at home, when I do arrive, setup is goes quickly and efficiently. Things started off wrong early on when I couldn't locate my blue tabletop cloths. When I did find them the unpacking begins.
The container is placed on the table, the top comes off. It's ready to be displayed and sold. When it's time to leave the tops go on and it's ready to go. That wasn't the case on Sunday. That day I spent an additional two hours hanging the oval signs. The signs are already in a plastic bag but they lacked a small stick tag that allows the signs to be displayed. You peel that adhesive stick on to the plastic bag and then it's ready to hang. That took two hours! I don't think it was even worth doing it because the sales weren't that great.
What did I like? Of course the transportation and how the drachma medallions looked in the back of the booth. They looked fantastic (see picture) and even someone asked to buy the Athena medallion, but, I didn't have them ready. And I don't think I'm going to be ready either. Sigh. In the next blog I'll talk about how the next festival went.
UPDATE
What have I learned since writing the blog sixty-five months ago? I remember how eager I was then to create, pack and set up. Looking back and looking at that picture I can see how hungry I was. Must have participated in seventy shows since then. Couple things have changed since...
- Large spaces as shown cost more to rent
- Too many items confuse people (don't know what to buy and often buying the cheapest item)
What I see. The Greek road signs that are shown near the left side have expanded dramatically. The drachma medallions will be recreated, made out of another material and sold online. Greek name pencils are on a shelf and have not been taken out and will probably be fazed out. The bottom line is today (2018) the booth would be smaller in size and less in products displayed.