Anyone a vendor at Festivals??

Hi,

Ive been a vendor at various events in the South Texas area for the past 3 years and im looking to branch out into the rest of the states, doing music and arts festivals. I sell non mass produced crafts and clothing mostly from Northern Thailand (including hill tribe). We go to Thailand to source the products ourselves. Does anyone know of some good festivals to sell at?? Or are any of you vendors at festivals?? Thanks for your help!!

Jay
'Zootzu'

 

I have done some vending and this summer we are gonna hit as many shows as possible. We have done two Wakarusa's and one 10KLF and one Mulberry Mountain and some smaller stuff. We import fair trade clothes, purses and hats from Nepal...someone goes over twice a year for designing and such and then it is made for us and shipped to us.

 

Hi,


Thanks for your reply. Which festivals have been good for you?? We sell mostly summer type clothing - loose cotton pants and shirts. Wrap skirts, some real cool japanese t-shirt designers etc. Probably quite different to your product. We are applying for Bonnaroo but want to hit as many as possible. Im familiar with nepalese craft - nice and colorful! What kind of turnover do you normally expect from music festival shows? Are they a buying crowd? How do you go about finding festivals? Ive found it a little hard sourcing good shows...

 

well...alot of the clothes are similar...we get summer and fall stuff from Nepal. We also get clothes from Bali, but we didn't go to Bali this year. We sell sarongs, wrap skirts, sundresses, tunic tops, hoodies and lots more. We decided to do Wakarusa because it is a local festival. It wasn't very good in 2006 money wise, we broke even...but we learned alot about festing vs store. Last year's Wakarusa was WAY better. And Mulberry Mountain was good stuff too. We have applied to Bonnaroo in the past, but it is huge and we haven't made it in, YET.
As for finding the shows, after two Wakarusa's we had talked to enough people to start searching...we mostly look via word of mouth or the internet...which is part of why I am here, in addition to just finding fun folks.

 

Hi Luna,

We might give Wakarusa a try. We just want to make sure that its worth doing as we will be coming up from S. Texas. It is actually very cheap to be a vendor at the show - $250 + festival ticket is very good for 4 days. We normally pay up to $1500 for a 4 day show. I guess you learn as you go along what sells at these music fests. We normally do Arts shows so the crowd is a little different. Do you think you expect to take $1000+ per day?? We wouldn't do the show unless we could take at least that. Thanks for your help again..

 

Namaste

if you need any help let me know, i would love to try out the vending lifestyle.
Have you ever tried selling your stuff at the Kerrville Folk Festival ?

 

ive heard of the kerville folk festival and might ive it a try. I am looking for employees to work at festivals as we have a new (well sort of) baby (18 months) .. Its pretty hard to manage yourself.. Shout us a mail so we can talk more..

 

No experience - but want to travel some shows vending food.