My Kempenfest Story

Back on the first weekend in August, a long weekend in Ontario, I had a booth at Kempenfest, a huge show near me in Barrie. This was my 4^th year of participation. Except for the first one, every year has had its spell of bad weather. Last year’s was the worst, with a torrential downpour that flooded out many tents on the Sunday. Until this year that is….

Here are some photos of my setup on Saturday, corners opened up to let the refreshing breezes through on a hot, hot day.

I’ve been thinking about updating my booth layout and displays. Mother Nature decided she’d lend a helping hand on Saturday night. The storm kicked in full force before I left and ripped open the zipper of the doorway. I found myself trying to zip it back up with the full force of the storm and rain lashing me in the face, eventually succeeding. Given that everything in the tent was now soaking wet I gave up on further effort to put things away and went home, after securing one corner of the canopy that was sliding up that is.

In the morning I came back to a tent that was soaking wet on the inside. That darn corner had let go again and the rain had come pouring in. It probably saved me though. My tent stayed up and everything stayed inside even though it was very wet.

This was my neighbours’ site, more than halfway through clean up.

Their tent was demolished and all the displays destroyed. They rescued what could be saved and headed home. Further down, some tents were in the middle of clean up. Others survived just fine.

My first task was to try and dry everything out. I had actually planned ahead and brought freshly laundered sheets, you know, just in case everything was wet. All the trays had to be emptied of water and dried out, necklace display covers also dried out, and all table covers replaced. Everything was up and running again by 10:30, though still a little damp. The breezes throughout the rest of the day helped dry out the mannequins, display cards and price tags.

Of course every piece of paper needs to be replaced, what with ink running and cards twisting as they dried. I have a few months to work on that though. My next show is not until Christmas selling season.

I’ve decided to look at this as an opportunity for that booth rethink I mentioned earlier.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great day.