Jaylene and I spent about half an hour holding down the marquee asking ourselves whether it would be worthwhile staying ... we tried to put the sides on the marquee, but the wind just kept on picking it up and tried to toss it onto High Street! A few other marquee's found themselves flying away and at one stage one of the Northcote Town Hall people said "It's just not Northcote anymore ... Toto" ... that summed up the evening.
So out came the rope ... lots of it, and we tied it down to everything we could find; the hinge on the town hall door, the tap around the corner. The Town Hall Manager was there with containers of water to help keep down the marquee's. Quite a number of people gave up and went home ... but we soldiered on!
We ended up putting two tables in the middle of the marquee and used the third one as a "rise" to create a point of interest. Table cloths were gaffa taped to the table and then a pricing gun was used to pin everything down. It looked like I was protecting myself against theft, but rather it was more of a wind issue! Several times I had items go flying across the courtyard. But the exercise of having a table that people could walk around worked well, we were in training for our Borders Craft Market experience next Monday night.
At 5.30 we were still not ready despite being there early to set up, most of the time was spent slowly unpacking stock and making sure it was pinned down.
- Sandbags, or containers of water (those big 10 litre containers that you take camping with you)
- Lots of rope, we got a 50m roll of white plastic type rope.
- Gaffa tape
- Pricing gun or safety pins to pin down stock to table cloths
- Definitely a wind stop jacket of some sort
Overall a good market night once it got going. Entertainment was interesting, as they had lots of people playing rather than the same set. My treat for the evening was a Grand Manier Crepe from the Crepe Stall! yum
3 comments:
So do you think booking an outdoor stall was worthwhile?
Good question Jenny, from the space point of view, definately. I can hang my bags up and it is certainly less congested outside than it is inside. Also lower overheads, outside is definatley the way to go if you have your own gear. In my first year I was inside, but sharing. If I do it next year I might be inside but ask for a stall around the outside.
YOu're a brave little soldier.... I've done my time at outdoor markets and vowed "never again". Glad it was worth it for you in the end.
By the way - what ever happened to my application for Northside Makers...?
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