Whiskey Flat Days - Kernville, CA

Whiskey Flat Days. Feb 17-20, 2012    Kernville, CA

IMPORTANT: I have written a book about our experiences selling at Street Fairs, festivals, A&C Shows, fairs, flea markets. I know that you will really find reading it quite enjoyable and you'll be able to relate to a lot of things that I describe. Having to endure 71 mph winds, heavy rains, floods, lying and cheating promoters. You'll love it. Only $14.95. Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness

The 54th Annual Whiskey Flat Days will be held February 18-21, 2011, and the theme is "Goin' To The Dogs". Take a step back in time and celebrate life in the 1850's. This old-fashioned, western style festival includes a parade, gunfighters, carnival, music, vendors, and a Whiskey Flat Encampment. Enter the Epitaph Contest, Frog Jumpin' Contest, Whiskerino Contest, and more! Be here to find out who will be our next Honorary Mayor of Whiskey Flat! (Chamber of Commerce)

Click here to read my review  I guess that getting to the town of Kernville is half the fun? After taking Highway 5 to Buttonwillow, we gassed up and followed 58 to Bakersfield. We then took 178 toward Lake Isabella and Kernville. This was a long, winding road and a bit difficult with larger vehicles...trucks, vans towing trailers, motor homes, etc. You really have to be careful driving around the curves. However, it is a very scenic drive as you wind your way along the Kern River.

In 2010, there were a number of break-ins at the show. Click here to read news account. I have heard contradicting accounts of what happened from other vendors. Some of the culprits were apprehended and some merchandise was recovered I was not there. If you wish to do the event, I strongly recommend that you ask the Chamber of Commerce about the security measures they are taking. This is a nice show in a beautiful location, but it gets rather cold and usually a day or two of bad (rainy and snowy) weather. Good luck. The thefts will surely be a topic of conversation there this time. Be sure to read Starving Vendors website.

Indio Tamale Festival

Indio Tamale Festival
Indio Tamale Festival, Indio, CA Dates: Saturday and Sunday, December 3-4, 2011 (Always the 1st weekend in December!)
Hours: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday
Location: Downtown Indio The Festival is between Highway 111 and Indio Boulevard and fills-in the streets of Miles, Towne, Smurr & Requa.
Weather: 79 Degrees, Sunny Days; 40 Degrees, Cool Evenings

IMPORTANT: I have written a book about our experiences selling at Street Fairs, festivals, A&C Shows, fairs, flea markets. I know that you will really find reading it quite enjoyable and you'll be able to relate to a lot of things that I describe. Having to endure 71 mph winds, heavy rains, floods, lying and cheating promoters. You'll love it. Only $14.95. Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness



It all started in 1992 with an idea by Dave Hernandez, a member of the Downtown Indio Merch
ants Association. The rich heritage of the tamale, consistent community support and hard working tamale makers have created the festival's tremendous success. Recently, the Food Network-TV ranked the Indio International Tamale Festival in the top 10 "All-American Food Festivals" in the nation!Festival's Guinness World Records: The World's largest Tamale-over 1 foot in diameter and 40 feet in length, Dec. 4, 1999. The World's largest tamale festival-with 120,000 in attendance, Dec. 2-3, 2000.The weather is pretty good in Indio this time of year, but nights are a little cooler. Booths are spread along several streets. Lots of tamales and they all sell for the same price. Booth fees are a bit high and overpriced. Commercial goes for $475 and if you are staying in a motel, your expenses end up quite high. Very risky for this economy. Arts and Crafts spaces go for $475

Here's an excerpt from my book Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness on page 72 where I tell about an experience I had trying to purchase lemonade at a store in Mt. Shasta City, CA. The book has just been published and sells for $14.95

Chapter 7    Mt. Shasta City and the Fourth of July Celebration

Looking for Lemonade

It wasn’t a real scorcher up there in Mt. Shasta in 2009.  We have encountered temperatures up around 110 in past years.   One day, after closing up at 6:00pm, we stopped by a grocery store in Mount Shasta City to pick up more drinks for that night and the following day.  I have a real thirst for lemonade and I find it quite refreshing, especially in hot weather.  It’s much better than canned soda’s. I went inside the store and headed for the back where they had the drinks. I looked for some lemonade (ready-made from the frig area.  Minute Maid or Paul Newman’s Virgin Lemonade) would be fine, but I couldn't locate any.  I asked one of the employees where the lemonade was located. I saw at least 50 brands of Orange Juice.  Really! 

What do they do with the stuff?  You think I'm kidding about that?  Seriously, there had to be at least 50 different OJ's in there. I have never seen a selection like that before.  Anyhow,  absolutely nooooo lemonade. He said that they had none and he was hoping that the truck would bring some tomorrow. That’s nice.  I looked at him.  "I'm not waiting until tomorrow."  This isn’t one of those places where you wait in line for days to get tickets for a big event or you are trying to pick up a new game machine or an I-Phone. Can you imagine 200 people standing in line at 5:00AM waiting for the place to open so they can get some lemonade?  Only two per customer please.  Oh man. I gotta go to the bathroom; can you hold my spot for me?  Hey dude, back of the line, I've been here since yesterday morning. 

Here's an excerpt from my book   Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness  on page 44 where I tell about a day and a half of rainwater flooding the booths with 2 feet of water at the Ostrich Festival in Chandler, AZ.  The book has just been published and sells for $14.95

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and set up.  The show opened up on Friday and during the evening, it started raining.  Throughout the night, we listened to the rain coming down on top of our motor home.  Periodically, the rain would slow down, but would come down hard shortly after.  Earlier on Friday, there were reports of possible rain.  As I walked around the vendor area, located in a gully, I realized that if we were to get a large amount of rain, the area is going to flood.  The ground was hard and it would take a long time for the water to seep through.  Fortunately, when we closed up Friday evening, we removed most of our things from the ground and elevated them onto tables and hung a lot of our things on the grids.

It started raining on Friday evening. Throughout the night, we listened to the rain coming down on top of our motor home and it was quite loud. Periodically, the rain would slow down, but would come down hard shortly after. Earlier on Friday, there were reports of possible rain. As I walked around the vendor area, located in a gully, I realized that if we were to get a large amount of rain, the area is going to flood. The ground was hard and it would take a long time for the water to seep through. Fortunately, when we closed up Friday evening, we removed most of our things from the ground.  Upon awakening Saturday morning, it was still raining and we pretty much knew that the day was going to be a 'washout'. All day long the rains kept coming and coming.

As we sat in the motor home in the parking lot we saw the ground turning to mud, as some vehicles passed by. We began to wonder if we would be able to get our vehicle out of the parking lot as we saw many vehicles actually get stuck in the mud; tow trucks couldn't even get them out. I gave thought to moving our motor home out of there, but didn’t really have anyplace else to park. We were to remain in that parking lot the remainder of the day.

CHAPTER 5    Tough Times at South Lake Tahoe

Wind, rain and snow in the Sierra’s in late May? You have got to be kidding me. Oh, lucky me.

It was Thursday, May 22, 2008 and we were on our way to South Lake Tahoe from the Bay Area for an Arts and Crafts show at Miller’s Y, located at the junction of Highways 50 and 89. 

Note:  Shows at Miller’s Y have been discontinued due to reconstruction in that area.  The property was sold and the new owners had the buildings demolished.

Highway 50 is the main highway stretching approximately 110 miles from Sacramento up to and through Lake Tahoe. This picturesque road climbs in elevation to around 8,000 feet at the summit.

As we were driving up Highway 50, we approached the community of Cameron Park and began to climb in altitude.  I was in the right hand lane of the highway and there was a large semi-truck in front of me struggling to make it up the hill.  Traffic was light and there were no vehicles on the left side of me, so I turned on my signal and began moving over.  But just as I began passing the slow moving truck,  a huge sheet of plywood suddenly appeared out of nowhere and came flying at us from the left side and smacked into the my van.  It caromed off the left front side and flew up and went completely over our van.  Unbelievable. We never saw where it came from.  I looked all around me and there were no other vehicles around, except for us and the truck.  Luckily it didn’t go through our windshield. It would be tough running around without a head.  My wife immediately looked up.  “What was that?” she asked me.  “I don’t know, it looked like a piece of plywood” I told her as I glanced over to the right side and looked into my side view mirror.  I could not see the board anyplace. Most certainly it didn’t come off the big rig since the container was fully enclosed. 

That was a very rough weekend in Lake Tahoe as we were vendors at an arts and crafts shiow there.  To read more about this and other adventures contained in my book Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness just click on the link.  You'll love it.

Chapter 3   Our Motor Home Gets Stolen

Our most cherished possession goes missing!

A lot of people who are vendors at shows have motor homes.  You can do shows all over the place without worrying about motels, etc.  Of course, we do have an assortment of other worries.  If you have a motor home, you most certainly are not going to be able to keep it parked in front of your house for long periods of time unless you have a long driveway or some large property. Then you have to worry about city ordinances. Many of us have no choice but to put it into some kind of storage yard and pay their fees.  I had found a place on Jackson Street in Hayward, approximately three miles from our house.  I thought that it was pretty secure because it had one of those automated gates where you use a security code to enter and there was a high fence around the perimeter.  There happened to be approximately 35 motor homes and trailers stored there. 

This is the beginning of chapter 3 in my book, Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness.  Just click on the link for more information.  Great book.

Part 1     Chapter 1      A Day to Remember

Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama 2010

Standing in the heavy rain with 70 mph winds while watching some 60 canopies go flying in all directions, toppling over all at once was something to behold as I had never seen anything close to this in all of my 17 years selling at festivals, fairs and other events.  My two canopies crumbled and collapsed to the ground right in front of my very eyes as I stood helplessly watching in complete awe. All my merchandise was scattered on the ground beneath the canopies. This would be a day that I would remember for the rest of my life.

This is the beginning of Chapter 1 in my book 'Street Fairs for profit, fun and madness.  If you want to read more or place an order, please click on the link.