Kingsbury May Festival 2010 Review (and a little mention on how my stall went!)

Last week I attended the annual Kingsbury May Festival, in my home village, Kingsbury Episcopi, Somerset, UK.

It really was a great day, despite the dodgy weather (very windy - not very good for all the stalls with gazebos!). As you probably already know, I had my first ever stall there, so it was also quite a big learning curve for me! But I'll get to that later.

  

Firstly, there were some amazing craft stalls including handmade jewellery, woodworking, knitting/crochet, sculpture, to name but a few. My stall was very fortunate to be nestled in-between Bob Selway's (rjm_selway@yahoo.co.uk) handmade wooden items stall, where I purchased some lovely cedarwood hearts and a cute blue squirrel toy for my daughter, and Poppy Langford's hand-made jewellery stand, which was abundant with gorgeous earrings and necklaces.

Here are a few pictures I managed to snap at the festival:

As for my stall, well I think it all went really well.  I did a bit of last minute reading and research on how to prepare for a craft fair and what to expect and I came across the following amazing blogposts: Shopping is Psychological by Soap and the finer Things in Life and Ten Craft Fair Tips! by Wonder Turtle Soaps.  A must for any craft fair newbie, especially a shy one like myself!  I took heed of the 'shopping is psychological' mantra on the Soap and the Finer Things in Life blog and I'm certain it worked wonders.  If I was birght and cheery, so were the customers.  If I became quiet and shy, most people just walked on by not making eye contact.
Tip no. 6 - 'Bring plenty of change and small bills' from Wonder Turtle Soaps is excellent advice too.  My first 2 sales were paid for with £20 notes, so that wiped out a good deal of my change and the day had only just started!  In fact, most sales were paid for by either a £20, £10 or £5, so it was very important to have lots of change to last me the entire day.

Anyway, here are a few snaps of my stall:

 I chose to have a round table so that customers could walk in under my gazebo and walk around it to view the soaps and to also get rid of the barrier between me (the seller) and them (the buyer).  It seemed to work quite well.  I think some people didn't know what to make of it at first, but soon cottoned on to the general idea.

Things I'd change for next time:

• Make the pricing clearer.  All I had for this stall was one sign at the back stating the pricing.  Most people didn't notice it and either didn't say anything and walked on by without buying or had to ask.  So next time I plan to have the pricing on each soap section.  

• Make a large shop sign or banner to make it obvious that I'm a soap shop!  I honestly think that some people didn't realise initially that I was selling soap.  I guess it's quite an unusual thing to see at country fairs!

• Add more decoration...but not too much to distract from the soaps.  My stall was rather bare, I was hoping to have some pretty bunting, but couldn't order some in time.  I noticed a couple of other stalls at the festival were nicely decorated and it really made them look welcoming and friendly.

So overall Kingsbury May Festival 2010 (which boasted a whopping 9,000 visitors this year!) and my first ever stall was a great success and I also secured invites to other local craft fairs!  The next one being Bradford Abbas Country Fayre on June 19th.  See you there!