I returned to Viking Alchemist Meadery to vend at their Mead & Mischief Artist Market, which was organized by Creating Harmony Events. International Mead Day was a good show in August so I had hopes October would succeed. Unfortunately, due to bad timing my sales did not go well but there was still plenty to gain from my experience.
As both the venue and event host left a good impression on me, I thought Mead & Mischief could be a low stakes show to close out October. Plus, this was also a chance to practice new booth ideas to emulate the cool booths I saw at L5P Halloween Fest.
Mead & Mischief was scheduled from 1-6 PM with setup as early as 11 AM. Thomas wanted to try a new load-in strategy where instead of pre-assigned spots vendors would set up in the order they arrived. I believe the intent was to avoid vehicles weaving around each other which is a safety concern I appreciate. My booth ended up in about the middle of our row along the far side of the parking lot. The final layout ended oddly asymmetrical since there were about 7 row booths and only 2 island booths between us and Viking Alchemist Meadery.
New booth, who dis?
Since I don’t have much space at home to test booth layouts, I wanted to try a few ideas at Mead & Mischief. Such as, using my clothing rack as intended. I know it’s silly in hindsight, but I thought of it as a second photo stand and only hung one shirt of each design. It wasn’t until L5P Halloween Fest, seeing all the vintage vendors with their racks bursting with style, and a customer coming up to my near naked rack and asking “are you sold out?” that I rethought my choices.
So I unrolled my shirts, gathered hangers from my closets, customized some rack organizers, and voila! I think the rack worked pretty well, as shoppers came by they’d engage with the clothes. It was easier for them to visualize the sizes and feel if the 100% ring spun cloth was to their liking. I think I just took the retail design of clothing racks in stores for granted. That’s the thing about good design, sometimes it becomes so ubiquitous it can seem invisible.
I think I’ll keep the full clothing rack in my arsenal, even if it makes traveling a little less convenient. Previously, I’d have all the shirts organized in rolls by design and size. Now I got all these hung guys too, but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.
Ever since purchasing a few Pride flags from Michaels last June, I had regrets for not doing more research and buying from Flags for Good instead. Even with Michaels’ sales the flag to dollar ratio was clearly in Flags for Good’s favor! Seeing all the flags at Pride and all the decorated booths at Halloween Fest, I finally committed and bought the flag buntings. Fortunately, they were on sale the week of Mead & Mischief! I enjoyed having them on my booth, they gave a little flair. They didn’t play the best with the t-shirts I hung from the tent as well, but that’s what experiments are about. So many possibilities for festooning.
Sales Performance
Set-up took longer than I expected, the midday sun got to me, but by the time I fully finished around 2 PM I felt something was off. We were an hour into the market and hardly anyone had come by compared to International Mead Day. Traffic was consistently slow throughout the event despite all the festivities. There was a staff flight competition, a costume contest, dogs available for adoption, and an outdoor showing of Night of the Living Dead.
Other vendors noticed the lack of shoppers as well. The going theory became perhaps the nearby two-day festival, Crafts & Drafts, took the whole town’s population! Even Viking Alchemist Meadery themselves had a booth at Crafts & Drafts. Unfortunate timing, but as a vendor it can’t really be helped if a similar larger event happens to be in direct competition to the market you’re at!
Other than maybe doing more research into market events but there are so many around Atlanta I can’t be expected to have an encyclopedic memoryyyyy….
I was nonplussed about the poor turn out, downing the staff flight of mead sours did a lot to help my mood. It got me a bit sleepy along with my half pint of the limited-time Raven mead. To be honest, Atlanta Pride and Halloween Fest had taken a lot of my energy so a low key afternoon wasn’t the worst that could happen. I was concerned this would end up being my first event to end in the negative, but luckily I had just enough sales to make the booth costs.
I was very fortunate in that I was able to make back the table cost and a little extra. And it’s always nice to network with fellow vendors, I even got to do a trade! As 6 PM came closer, Thomas came around apologetic for the slow foot traffic. I appreciated the gesture, but I don’t really think there was anyone particularly responsible for what happened. Sometimes there’s just bad luck, you know? He did tell me that two of the dogs found forever homes and a third got a meetup scheduled, paws crossed for that one! Honestly, that some furry friends were able to find families justifies the whole shindig.
The Next Day…
I did check out Crafts and Drafts on Sunday, since downtown Smyrna is a wonderful location for Pokémon Go and there were Gigantimax battles going on. And wow, I’m glad I did.
Seeing how crowded it was at Crafts and Drafts I definitely felt better about how Mead and Mischief went. It couldn’t be helped everyone was simply over at Smyrna Market Village to enjoy crafts, drafts, and football broadcasts. Their outdoor market was large enough to cover the Village Green and stretched all the way to City Hall. There were large screens playing sport ball broadcasts, multiple inflatable bouncy castles, and some manner of dinosaur themed live entertainment. Just checked out their website right now, JRM Management Services, and they report an estimate of more than 20,000 people!
Of course, it’s difficult to prove how much Crafts & Drafts drew away from Mead & Mischief, but the overlap of audiences is there. Knowledge is power, and power is useful to stop thought spiraling about what you could’ve done different to avoid disaster! I’ll have to keep an eye out for Crafts & Drafts next year, I really had a blind spot and only learned of it Saturday morning from Viking Alchemist Meadery’s Instagram.
Billie’s Vendor Rating
It feels a little harsh but I do want to document my vendor experiences as they are in this blog: the good, the bad, and the mid. I think Mead & Mischief was a dud sales wise, but I don’t want to hold it against either of our hosts. Effort was clearly made in organizing a good event and hopefully this was just a blip! I’ll still be looking to join future Viking Alchemist Meadery and Creating Harmony Events endeavors, if they’ll have me!
| Mead | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Foot Traffic | ⭐ |
| Attendee Vibes | ⭐⭐⭐ |
| Restrooms | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Pokémon GO | ⭐⭐ |
| Puppies | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
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