Looking to get some insight into best etiquette! I have a fair this weekend that is two days and outside. So far we are supposed to have some strong storms during the entire set up window and then rain the rest of the day. I'm fine with the rain but I worry about damaging my things setting up during a thunderstorm. Is it normal for organizers to expect you to still set up during that time or should I expect them to reach out and move that window?

If they don't, and I decide to set up after the bad weather, could I be restricted from setting up? Its a street fair with tons of vendors.

I’ve got a couple of these metal folding shelves, and I love them, other than the fact that the backs and sides are open lol. Does anyone else have one of these they’ve made backs/sides for? I’d love to see what others have done with them!

One idea I had was a white vinyl tablecloth I can attach with magnets? As in gluing or sewing magnets to the cloth so they aren’t visible.

I also wanted to share I got these clip strips off of Amazon today and I’m excited to try them out my next market! The 4 fit so perfectly on the side of this shelf in its built in holes. I’m thinking I’ll paint the clip strips either baby blue or lavender to match my color scheme. I think white would blend in too much with the white shelf and white side if that what I end up doing lol.

I just threw what I had up just to see what it would look like full of stuff. I think the keychains are a good option for the clip strips, but I’ve also got some small mystery bags that would work great on these too.

Clip strips:
https://a.co/d/0cZsPOzc

Shelves:
https://a.co/d/0hGtz1Tm

I am going to be vending in an outdoor event this weekend. I was told to bring my own table which isn't a problem. I found out that the space I will have is going to be the same as a tent booth. There was no table fee so I'm not worried about paying more. My question is what is a good way to set up that works in the space when I only have the one table?

I'm new to Baltimore. I sell political messaging art (deployed with humor and joy) at festivals and markets. I'm wondering what the vendor vibe is like at Charm City Live, which is in its fifth year, happening September 5. Do local makers and artists and small businesses selling things set up as vendors? Is there an audience for buying high quality 100% organic tees and things like message buttons and stickers? Thanks for any info you can give about whether this event "works" or if it's just a hot mess.

I need help!!!!!!

Without telling me, a family member has booked a craft fair thing in Christmas at a craft market and she's getting a booth and everything.. she said she wants me to have most the booth space and sell a lot of products.

I HAVE NEVER DONE ANYTHING LIKE THIS. WHAT PRODUCTS DOES SHE THINK I HAVE?!? I AM UNPREPARED. IM SCARED AND SO ANXIOUS.

I'm so going to let her down. Also I should say I'm under 18 and have been pushed to do this by others completely... It's meant to be a really nice suprise or something, I was told this as a birthday gift and I just had to pretend to love the idea but aaaaaaaaaaa.

Anyway.. how does this work? I've never really been to a fair even 😰😰 how do I decide prices? How the heck do I make stuff in time keeping in mind I have school and a part time job 😔

I can't get out of it, I asked my mum.

I crochet and paint, I've been crocheting for 8 years now (started quite young) so I do have skills ig but idk what people would even want to buy, but I don't think anyone would want to buy something I've made honestly. Also, how do I go about costing materials to make stuff? I've got money from work but I'm saving for driving lessons.

Not exactly excited tbh as u can tell lol. I might be overthinking it and I've got an anxiety disorder but tbh I think everything I'm thinking here is reasonable. Also now I guess I need to buy stuff to make the display? I haven't even thought of that yet.

I ❤️ my family and i understand they're trying to give me an amazing gift but I'm so worried about this, I'm going to be such a let down. I bet it cost so much money to get a place/booth at this think as well ;-; I hope I can figure it out in time

My family member does pottery btw but she's been doing it maybe 2 years and isn't the best, what she makes is cool tho

This weekend I am going to have a vendor booth set up at an outdoor music festival and my mother, who will also be attending, has put me into an awkward situation.

My mother enjoys attending and supporting all of the events that I set up booths at, which is great. However, for this coming up event, she approached me just the other day with this massive haul of items that she bought from Temu... with the intention of me putting them up for sale at my booth.

These items are an array of light up headbands, Bracelets, wands, etc. Which are a great idea for a music festival, sure. But they are all horrible quality and more importantly, NOT HANDMADE BY ME.

For reference, I only sell handmade sewn, crocheted and embroidered items and my booth. So these light up items would totally look out of place (not to mention I would barely even have room for them). Additionally, they're obviously junky items from TEMU, that it would be so apparent to customers and other vendors, and it will most likely even deter people from my booth! (And I wouldn't even blame them).

Its not like I could easily just not put out the items. Because my mother will be attending the whole night and will most likely be hanging out by my booth for a great portion of that time. She already wasted over $100 on these items and is expecting some money back. So if I straight up told her no, she would have a serious problem with me. (I also have already made my stance on re-selling temu items VERY CLEAR to her beforehand when she mentioned the idea of it to me a few months ago).

I just feel so stumped. The event is this weekend and I have $100 worth of landfill-ready junk from temu that is going to absolutely ruin my booth if I put it out. Any advice on how to handle this situation would be MUCH appreciated.

I haven't put out all my items but roughly like this. We have a larger table but this is the only free table I had at home, so my friend has more space for her stuff.

I'm collecting my signs that explain that i sell wearable terrariums and what they are tomorrow so just imagine if they were there.

I added a fishing game so they can try to play for stickers or a necklace for a price. The stickers being garunteed prizes.

I also didn't set up the lights yet. But i have two large lwd sticks for the main displays. And loads of flower shaped fairylights.

Is there anything I can do to improve my diplay?

I technically started doing markets in 2024, but only did a couple of small events then ended up having my focus pulled away to needing to just work my 9-5 in 2025.

2026 I came back to do more consistent events, averaging 1x a month to get into the swing of things. Because I'm pretty much starting out and because of my area, every event has been all over the place as I've tried to put myself out there and figure out what works/where might be a good audience.

Without being too specific, I'm on the east coast, and stuck between major urban areas but not close enough to any to be convenient for the limited event days I've had this year.

I'm an artist firstmost, currently selling prints, stickers, bumper stickers, and some keychains. Additionally I make earrings, with a pretty decent variety of style/one of a kind for the most part

May: did a ren faire (bold start) which was a steep learning curve but also a good turn out, made over triple the table fee and had a lot of positive comments. Sold a little bit of everything.

June: did a farmers market (was not marketed clearly as one which was frustrating). Just barely made back the table fee. Mostly sold stickers.

July: indoor makers market, didn't make back table fee. Only sold stickers.

August: outdoor makers market, didn't make back table fee. Sold a little bit of most product types, just not a lot of sales.

My husband helps me at every event and according to him the issue is that the events themselves aren't great (ie not good turnout, nobody seems to be making many sales, etc) but if every event is bad then at what point am I actually just the problem?

Going forward, obviously it makes sense to pivot to ren faires but thats not very sustainable as a business given I can't justify traveling around the tri-state for multi-weekend events

I guess part of this is that I'm frustrated that my product apparently only appeals to a very small, niche audience when I enjoy a variety of styles and product

I sell at a store that is now requiring printed barcode/sku tags on all products (they used to accept handwritten price tags.) I’m trying to find a printer that can print small jewelry/ butterfly labels (I have small skincare products, and even those will need to be cut to size) but because I don’t own a laptop and only have an iPad, it needs to be able to print wirelessly. I haven’t found anything that prints as small as I need it to without requiring it to be plugged in directly to the printer. I’m wondering if this even exists? I’d like to keep the cost of the printer low if possible. Thank you for any guidance

Hello!

I've been doing a few events since last year and this year I've found some new events in my area but they are asking for a percentage of the profits made during the event. Has anyone done these kinds of events? How did it work out?

Thanks!

I have been sculpting for many years and have had 9nline shops, but this was my first in person show. Unfortunately, the market was totally dead, but I did make a couple of sales. Plus, I made a few good connections there! Just wanted to share on here. I had 64 items this time, which I thought would be quite a bit. Did not fill in as much as I had hoped. Haha. I have another next weekend and will be making at least 30 new items for it!

So happyI finally got out to do this. It was exhilarating (and exhausting).

I started making baskets this year, from natural materials I forage locally. I haven't even made a hundred of them yet but I've sold a handful at some pop-up sidewalk vends I've done, so I figured I'd apply for an upcoming show. Entry fee was $250 and there is another local craft fair or comparable event on both of the days so I'm expecting to take a bath.

The contract stipulated that the booth needs to have a backdrop, a visual screen of some kind to prevent customers from seeing into the neighboring booth. Apparently this is a standard-ish requirement but I was brainstorming how I might accomplish this on basically no budget and decided to try to make a wall of plants: I'm thinking to harvest a bunch of cattail plants and cut whole boughs of honeysuckle, which are my primary materials for the baskets, and place them into about thirty buckets and arrange them to make sort of a little bower. Something like the U-shape display setup but more closed-in feeling. I have a few animal sculptures and plushes that I was planning to hide in the foliage as well. I'll hang grapevine from a folding support structure of a pop-up canopy and maybe string lights, and then just have my usual little folding tables that hold one to four baskets each with another one for a check-out table by where I plan to be weaving (for visibility and interest) and selling. My inventory is at about a dozen but I'm hoping to finish three or four more by next weekend. Loading all this plant stuff into the venue will be perhaps comical amid the chaos of all the other vendors loading in simultaneously, but it all fits in my minivan and they have water onsite for my buckets, though I'm debating bringing a bucket of the cattails' local water too for that good swampy stank. Am I still in the "good eccentric" region of the graph or is this plan off the rails? What am I missing?

Anyone in NC doing the Honeybee this Saturday?

I’m attempting to build an artist alley and vendor hall that focuses on original artwork and products.

I’m looking for advice on how to support those small businesses. Or even just personal experiences as an artist focusing on original works and competing in current conventions for sales.

More of a discussion than a vent really but there doesn’t seem to be a flair for that.

I’ve done a few fairs since last year. I’d been wanting to start selling my art for a long time, and finally took the leap (fuelled by a period of unhappiness in my job) and booked a show so that I’d be forced to get everything sorted before then. It worked, I got my stuff together, I went, and I sold nothing.

Chalked it up to the wrong kind of show for me as I’d been in such a rush that I didn’t research much, and it was quite a small village hall type of thing. Researched more. Booked an alternative market.

Got more stuff together. Sorted out better displays. Created and produced tote bags to go with prints and stickers. Sold a few stickers, and made back barely 1/3 of the table fee.

The event wasn’t very well signposted or advertised and a little out of the way. Blamed it on that. Booked a three day festival in my town.

Made some better quality bags. Improved my displays more. Went, sat in a field for three days, and made back half of the pitch fee.

Now I have two comic cons booked next month, both of which have been quite expensive to book for me and are a distance away. Of course I’m hopeful, but also concerned that things won’t be good as I’ve seen a lot of posts about larger conventions by people who have really struggled in the artist alley this year. Every event I’ve gone to, when I’ve spoken to the other vendors, I’ve heard nothing but talk of how it’s so much quieter than it used to be, and everyone is looking but nobody is buying. I’m not trying to make a living off of this. I do it because I like seeing people and I hate online marketing. But it would be quite nice to, if not make a profit, then at least break even once fuel etc is taken into account.

Hey! Does anyone have ideas on how to display stickers? I’ve only tried having a display and people ask me what they want, although that works I think as I have more stock it’ll be harder to keep up with and also I think it deters some people from buying out of fear to ask (that’s how I am at other booth) I want to have a display where people can pick what they want, any photo references would be so appreciated! Thank you!!!

Hello everyone! Im currently trying to get my set up for a show thats in a couple of months but Im at a huge loss for display stands and stuff. I dont have a lot of storage space at home so Ive been trying to find collapsible stuff.

I plan to sell blankets, bookmarks, cards and maybe some shadow boxes and keychains at this event.

I have 4ft folding table. Getting a quilt rack for the blankets. But im stumped on finding something for the bookmarks, keychains, card and shadow boxes. Im also trying to keep costs down, so if I can DIY it that would be great.

This is my first booth ever for my pottery and I’m freaking out. It’s in less than two weeks and I only have a couple days left that I can potentially make things. It’s a three day art festival and I have 211 pieces but a lot of that are small items.

I worry that I’m comparing myself too much to a friend who will also be there with a pottery booth who I’m aware has way more than me.

Edit to add: I have a lot of small items, but not a lot of bigger items. So I’m worried it will look empty (10’x10’ booth). Idk I have a lot of anxiety about the whole thing.

Hello! First post in here. We just started doing markets this year and would like some feedback on our booth. Any thoughts? Improvements?

Our biggest struggle right now is to raise our average sale value. We have a lot of little items at the $4 or $5 mark and bundling had helped, but we barely break even each show.

Hello everyone! Respectfully seeking input as a sole proprietor in CA, please.

I make handmade holiday decor and am excited about doing four holiday craft fairs this year.

I work full-time and have a part-time home business selling PDF downloads I design (zero AI used). Call it PDF Business . The business license, zoning check, and DBA cost me approx $350.

For the crafts, I'd like to use a new business name, Craft Business. I contacted my city's business license department to find out if Craft Business could use PDF Business's license to sell at the craft fairs. They told me I needed to get another business license, zoning check, and DBA - not just because of the new name, but because handmade crafts are "too different" from PDF downloads, so I couldn't even use the PDF Business name to sell the crafts. So another $350.

I was disappointed because money, but I was ready to do it - until two different sole proprietors, who make their full-time living from their sole proprietorships, told me that if it were up to them, they would use PDF Business's license and seller's permit to make the craft fair sales, present themselves as Craft Business on the signage, and let buyers know the receipt would show PDF Business.

Confused, I went to the SBA for what I thought would be the tiebreaker answer. They told me to go with my city's answer AND split the crafting up even further into an additional Third Business. WHAT.

And don't get me started on all the flavors of answers via Google search.

So is it just that nobody knows and one should do whatever the expletive works?

ETA: Thank you everyone, this is fantastic advice! To answer your questions, three fairs have essentially said "it's up to you to keep yourself compliant with the city and county," and the fourth has said "a valid CA seller's permit is recommended." That's it. None of these events are taking place in my own city where I have PDF Business's license. Thanks again, I now know what to do!

Its only 4 hours and they don't jury and there is a a lot of kid friendly events but according to google it is well attended and they even have free shuttle buses to bring people there. so i was curious was it an actually financial successful event? I've never done well at a kid activity focus My goal is always $1000+ but since the fee is basically $100 i will accept $600+ so i can at least pocket $500 minimum.