We had a family meeting yesterday and came to the decision that we would no longer be participating in the Montrose Arts and Crafts Festival.  While this fair is special because many of our friends live in the neighborhood and take the time to visit us, the show itself has turned out not to be worth our while from a business standpoint.

One thing that has frustrated us is our booth location.  We were told from the beginning when we first applied several years ago that booth location and preference would be given based on a first come first served basis, as well as based on seniority.  Yet, this year, after having done the fair for a number of years now, we were again put in this poor location.  Our complaints about it have been ignored for three years.  We pay extra for a corner booth every year, yet this corner is crammed behind another booth.  It’s not the booth owner’s fault.  He set up his tent exactly according to the space dictated by the fair.  

While we do have some extra space inside the booth, we have maybe 7 feet of frontage for people to walk in.  People who have not paid extra for a corner space have 10 ft. frontage.  Not to mention that due to the positioning of our neighboring booth, it is completely possible and likely that you will not even see us as you are passing by.  This is what our booth looks like if you are just walking by:

Notice how only half of our sign is visible, and if it weren’t for the colorful wooden roses we intentionally put in that corner to draw people in, we’d be invisible.  We are tired of voicing concerns about this booth space that simply get ignored, and business has suffered as a result.  No other booth at the festival has such a difficult space with which to work.  We checked.

To everyone that has visited our booth, we thank you!  We thank you for your patronage, support, and love.  We will miss you, but we will not miss the Jacaranda trees that drop their sticky flowers all over our products at this show.  If you’d like to see us at another event, please check our website periodically to see where we’ll be and when.  You can always email us at sev@sevswoodcrafts.com, or even LIKE us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/sevswoodcrafts).  Thank you.  :)