We did our first craft fair last Sunday and it was fantastic. It was held in a little seaside town near us called Lancing. The fair was actually held in the theatre on the actual pier with stunning views out to sea and it was a beautiful sunny day.
Me and my mum got together on the Saturday to finish off a few things that's we thought would only take an hour or so..............well, it took a lot longer! So the first lesson we learnt is to prepare a little better and not leave the packaging until the last minute.
On the morning of the craft fair everything was running smoothly until I dropped a huge box of tiny seed beads on the pavement outside the venue.....we both saw the funny side, hunched over on all fours at 8am with everyone watching us whilst we picked up tiny beads! Lesson number 2....put lids on EVERYTHING
We had not set up a stall before but had lots of fab ideas and the stall next to us did not show up so their table was added to ours at no added cost which was fab. Lesson number 3, always bring extra material in case that happens again as only our first table had our lovely turquoise material on it.
We sold things from 3 of our shops.
The Weeping Willow's
House of Willow
Willow's Wool
anyway, here are some photos of our set up:
Overall we had a great day and it went well. We made quite a few sales but more importantly got out there, meeting people and getting a really good response. When you work so hard on your Etsy shops you don't get the experience of face to face sales and they really are amazing.
We feel confident now and have already made a booking for a second craft show in the same venue next week.......
top tip: Put everything into one of those soft suitcases on wheels because you can then just tip it up slightly and wheel all of your things in and out really easily instead of carrying box after box
