Savannah Christmas on the River Festival re-cap

Booth set-up

Dec. 6 & 7, 2013

I wanted to do this previously, but have been busy like everyone else. So here it is, a few weeks later.

We drove down to Savannah, GA on Thursday evening and checked into the hotel on the riverfront. The next morning, we awoke, went to breakfast and headed down to check-in and started setting up. 

Friday morning was gorgeous! Our hotel room view of river street and the bridge over the Savannah River.

booth space before we set everything up.

Waiting on the crowds.

Booth set-up consisted of 4 hinged trellises, a magazine rack, 2 tables, purple tablecloths, signage, hand-painted purple stars hung with ribbon and two chairs for Ryan and I.

Here are some close-ups of the trellises:

back table

The festival on Friday didn’t actually start until 4pm, but we were there at 10am because that’s when the organizers told us to be there. There was a bit of a miscommunication I suppose because honestly we were there all day, and I think we probably could have waited until 2 or 3 for set-up. Friday was a major disappointment as we didn’t sell anything. Not even a print.

We went out to dinner with a few friends who live in the area and had a lovely time, after we closed for the night.

Saturday, we were up early, had breakfast and got over to the tent a little after the festival was “open.” Because the booth was actually in the plaza next to the river, the festival never really closed/opened. I wish I had known that I could have slept in and been a little bit more casual with my participation. The paperwork festivals make you fill out really is much more strict than what actually occurs. For a few hours in the morning, we were feeling like we were going to have another no-sale day.

Two or three hours in, we made our first sale. And we ended the day with 6 sales total. Way less than I what I was hoping for. We had made the decision to stay until 10pm that evening because we heard from another vendor how he stayed late the night before and people came and bought his stuff. But, Mother Nature was not having it. Around 7pm the rain began and poured down. We managed to break everything down and leave around 8, which was a severe disappointment. We crashed early, and left Sunday midday.

Overall, I don’t think I’ll be going back to this festival in 2014. There were a couple of other vendors I spoke with who were very disappointed with the turn-out. Everyone was having a sloooow time of it. The people who came down to the festival were tourists, mostly, as locals don’t really go to River Street (a fact I wish I had known before participating). In addition, I think the timing of this festival was poor, as it was one week after Black Friday and people had probably already found presents for people or were so strapped they couldn’t buy anything anyway. It was a good learning experience, and a great time to try-out my new booth set-up and get some new photos for future show applications. I absolutely love my new booth set-up. I think everything is really coming together! I also enjoyed seeing friends I haven’t seen in a few years.