Can you believe it took until April for me to realize I’d been mislabeling my 2025 Vendor Reviews as ’24? Ahhh! Well, I fixed it now, whew! I was happy to return to my third Viking Alchemist Meadery art market, but instead of Harmony Events, our organizer was Mead & Metal! Run by Nicole Barnes, aka Nikki Stitch, they’ve been hosting art markets with VAM since at least 2022.
This art market was part of VAM’s 9th anniversary celebration! Other festivities included: live blacksmithing demo, behind-the-scenes meadery tour, commerative glasses, food trucks, and a limited edition mead raffle. Apparently, it’s also a tradition for there to be a staff mead flight on the anniversary as well, but one wasn’t organized in time ^_^;;
Mead & Metal puts out their calls for artists on Facebook, and after following their feeds for months, finally April 5th lined up with my schedule. Once you’re accepted, Nicole uses email for communicating important vendor info and I must say, she runs a tight ship! Vendors were asked to provide blurbs, social media links, and images we’d like for M&M for shout-outs and promotion. Then about a week before, we were emailed a layout map and a load-in schedule that would allow us to have a coordinated dance of cars. The schedule was much appreciated, while the parking lot is large enough to host a nice market, there’s not so much extra space that it would be safe to have cars maneuvering around tents.
The weather was clear, warm, and breezy. One of those surprise Georgia 80 degree weekends after a few cold fronts. I’m grateful that I bothered to check the forecast and packed for heat, instead of assuming it’d be more of the same cool March spring! There was also a consistent wind through out the market, I even saw the food station tent attempt an escape! But it was nothing compared to those Marietta the Gathering winds, I was prepared with my rubber bands and clothes pins!
Or at least, I was mostly prepared. My t-shirt display still struggled to be visually stunning, at one point I realized I could tie clothes hangers together to put my shirts back to back. This would allow my shirt designs to always be visible in 360 degrees, and they wouldn’t be obstructed by the wind rotating them. However, when another hanger broke from falling off the tent, I decided I really need to prioritize a new outdoor display for my t-shirts. I’ve already started brain storming ideas and hope to debut it in June for Smyrna Pride.
I also got the nice surprise of a couple visiting friends! Dang, I wish I thought to take a group photo of us three, haha. They were super kind and even helped me pack up when the market closed.
Sales were decent, with this third event hitting right in the middle of Mead & Mischief and National Mead Day sales. Most attendees seemed to be VAM regulars from what I could tell, but there were also a few families! Unless… are families regular clientele of the meadery? Unsure! I’m not aware of a children’s menu, though they do have non-alcohol drinks at VAM. The first hour was fairly quiet, with sales picking up 2 PM and 5 PM. It did stand out to me that this shorter event had two activity humps! Not sure what the deal was between 3-4PM, but predictably traffic slowed way down by the final hour.
Billie’s Vendor Rating
Overall, a satisfactory show! I’d love to work with Mead & Metal again, and the Viking Alchemist Meadery is certainly becoming a favorite venue of mine. I will have to be careful not to rotate into the roster too often as a vendor, for fear of tapping out the audience. But hey, I’ll definitely visit for that mead as a customer!
| Mead | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Foot Traffic | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Attendee Vibes | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Restrooms | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pokémon GO | ⭐⭐ |
| Organization | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
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