2010 Castro Valley Fall Festival

The 2010 Castro Valley Fall Festival will be held on September 11-12.

2009 Review: This yearly event is being held in the small town of Castro Valley, located approx 15 miles south east of Oakland. For a good number of years, it was held in the Village Plaza, a complex of around 25 businesses frequented by the locals. Three years ago, they took it to the streets, having the festival on Castro Valley Blvd. I recall many years ago....early 70's and before, this was a popular cruising area as the teens took to the streets in their souped up and beat up junkies and 56 Chevy's and drove up and down the Boulevard, quite similar to what you saw in American Graffiti. I recall being in the service back in '72 and my friends and I cruised up and down on a number of occasions. The scenes of people parked in lots sitting on their hoods were reminiscent of what you saw in that famous movie co-starring Ronnie Opie Howard. Anyhow, the cruising ended quite a long time ago..... I think. I lived in New Jersey back in the 60's and it was the thing to do.

The show is promoted by Festival Productions (Jeff & Jerry Cambra) along with other local organizations and has been going on for a long time. I believe this is probably our 8th year here. I recall that we did the Atwater Fall Festival on the weekend following 9-11 and the year's after I we did Castro Valley during the second weekend of September.

Please click here to read my review of this festival.

There are many reviews along with loads of information on the Starving Vendors website.

I am currently writing a book about our exploits, experiences and adventures encountered during out 17 years selling at festivals, fairs, A&C Shows, etc. You can sign up to be notified when it comes out.

2010 Manteca Pumpkin Fair

This years Pumpkin Fair will be held on October 2-3. The annual Pumpkin Fair presented by the Manteca Sunrise Kiwanis, will be held on the first full Saturday and Sunday of October in downtown Manteca from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Street Fair portion complete with pumpkin patch, kids zone, truck show, car show, motorcycle run, three stages and over 150 vendors will once again be located in downtown Manteca near Library Park.



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

2009 REVIEW: Once again, the organizers put on a good event as they always do. The people came out but they did not buy. Great weather; rained last year. Lots of vendors and plenty of food. But the people just did not buy. They had no money. They all traded in their clunkers and bought new wheels and now they got their cars repossessed. Some of them just walked around and got fatter while others socialized or played with vendor's items.

Click here to read remainder of review.

There are many reviews along with loads of information on the Starving Vendors website. I am currently writing a book about our exploits, experiences and adventures encountered during out 17 years selling at festivals, fairs, A&C Shows, etc. You can sign up to be notified when it comes out.

Stockton Barrio Fiesta 2010

Foster City Lions Club Misses the Boat

Foster City 4th of July Festival, Foster City, CA

We were told by Phyliss Moore, the President of the Lion's Club that we would not be allowed to drive our vehicles close to our spaces to unload and load our things. We would have to cart our things (canopies, grids, boxes, merchandise, etc.) in and out 75 yards to and from our vehicles parked on the curb. We managed to get there early Sunday morning and drive up to our space to unload.

However, we would need people to help us haul our stuff out and she promised me that she would have loads of kid's to help when we closed down and I took her word for it, but doubted it. The show ended at 5:00 and we had begun packing around 4:30. One of my friend's had found her and was able to get some kid's to help him haul out. After he was finished, he talked to Phyliss Moore and explained to her that my wife (disabled) and I (trouble walking and lifting things) would need help. She replied "I am off duty."

I went looking for her and she told me that because I wasn't ready at 5:00, I would get no help. Nobody told me that. The papers said that the show ends at 5:00 and we were to be out of there at 6:30. Nothing about being ready at 5:00. She was terrible. She began walking away from me and I chased after her. I asked her again for help and she told me that everybody was busy and I would have to wait. She was very snotty over this. One of the other sane Lion's Club members stepped in and said that he would get people to help me and that he did, thankfully. However, this lady had told me that she would have 'loads of kids' to help me and was reneging on this. I had explicitly explained concern for my wife and I, telling her that we had health problems. Furthermore, when all of us applied for this event, we were not told that we would have to haul our stuff in and out until we had received paperwork and only by looking at the map, did I determine that it was a long ways to the booth and a phone call to her brought me the bad news that we would have to haul in. Try to get vendor's for your show next year, butthead!!! Such abusiveness toward vendors and crippled people. No mercy with this woman. I AM OFF DUTY. Yah, right. And you are President of the Foster City Lions Club. What a joke. OFF DUTY. I think we might be able to do that.

Gosh, what does on between the scenes of these events. People would be shocked to hear what we have to go through. You can read my story about this event on my famous web site:

Starving Vendors

Better yet, I hope you get to read my book which I am writing about exploits at these festivals and how difficult it is to survive. Hopefully, coming out in October. Keep you posted on the Starving Vendors website

Foster City 4th of July Festival

Return to Foster City. We shall be returning to the 4th of July Festival there after a six-year absence. I hope that it is as nice as it was back then. They have a number of vendor and food booths along with entertainment and fireworks. One of the few places around that do provide fireworks.

I am highly disappointed that we will have to haul in our things. We have a canopy,16 grids, 6 heavy buckets and around 15 sacks and numerous other things we need to set up. We are 60 year's old and this is quite difficult for us. Year's ago we were located alongside the curb and there was no problem. I guess that if I would have known this beforehand, than we would not have signed up. Seems like a completely different show. Family health problems are preventing us from going to Mt Shasta where we have been for the past 6 years ago. You think that we want to haul our stuff in with our health problems. Disgusting. I am certain other vendor's do not like this also. Please be sure to check out my website Starving Vendors for more info on shows and other things.

2010 Morgan Hill No Bull BBQ Cook-Off

Saturday, May 8, 2010. Morgan Hill, CA

We drove down to Morgan Hill on Friday to set up and it took twice the usual time to get there due to numerous pockets of traffic. I was able to locate Michelle once arriving there in the midst of dozens of RVs parked in a lot with their BBQ grills set up for the competition. She led us over to our spot, where we set up our canopy, grids and left most of our merchandise inside and put the covers on and left. On the way out, we drove over to Cochrane Ave., where we dropped by Chipotle's and picked up some burrito bowls to take home and eat. They were good, of course.

To read more about this event, please click here.

Tell us about your shows.

Hi Vendor's. How about letting us know how your events are going. Come to our forum and tell us all about your shows. Join us in our conversations as we discuss many topics in the business. Discover new shows. Find out which one's not to do.

http://davejs.proboards.com/index.cgi

Clovis Big Hat Days 2010

Clovis Big Hat Days.
Clovis, CA Held in Old Town along Pollasky.
Apr 10-11, 2010 Sat 9-6 Sun 9-5 vendor application

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 festival features over 400 food and craft booths, garden shows and live entertainment, all to kick off the Western Heritage Month. With more than 125,000 attendees, the festival is hailed as the largest event in the entire Central Valley. Highlights include the Clovis Strongman Competition and the many carnival rides for children. Big Hat Days will be held on the second weekend of the month — after Easter Sunday. It is the first main event of the season and provides a great family outing. Thousands of visitors, many pushing strollers, fill the streets to purchase those unique, one-of-a-kind items or terrific food.Please see my review for 2008

Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama January 21, 2010

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

At approximately 5:00pm on Thursday, January 21, we had extremely strong winds and rain. Here are some shots of the disaster when winds reach 71mph and knocked over at least 50 canopies in the back rows of the Sell-a-Rama. These are my booth in space X-19. Canopies flew all over the place. The guy's 30-foot canopy in back of me went up in the air and landed on top of my canopies and the 5th Wheel trailer 15 feet away from me. A guy had a 20-foot canopy across from me and it went airborne and he never saw it again. Gone. To see more pictures please click here: http://www.starvingvendors.com/tyson_wells_disaster.html to read more about Tyson Wells, click this link: http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Tyson_Wells_Sellarama_2010.html

Dandelion Days - Jackson, CA

DANDELION DAYS, Jackson, CA vendor application

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

Saturday and Sunday, March 20-21, 2010, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., in Downtown Jackson. The Annual St. Patrick's Day Dandelion Days Celebration is a family-oriented event, and it's lots of fun! It includes an outdoor bazaar and flea market featuring antiques, relics and collectibles, arts and crafts, and much more.

Booth size is 10' X 10' (this is the only size available; for more space, you may purchase additional booths). The cost for each booth will be $90. This is for two days (no refunds are offered if you cancel after 2/15/09). You must provide your own tables and sales fixtures. Booth set-up is permitted the Friday before the event (March 13th, 2009).No persons are permitted in the booths after selling hours; booths will be patrolled Friday and Saturday nights. No electricity is provided, and no generators are allowed

click here to read my review of last year's Dandelion Days.

Be sure to check out my other reviews of shows we have done the past couple years. Interesting, humorous, wild!!! Loads of information.

21 Vendors broken into at Whiskey Flats Days

Whiskey Flats Days. Feb 12-15, 2010. Kernville, CA. Here's what a local TV station in Bakersfield reported.


Whiskey Flat Days Marred by Vendor Thefts
Nearly A Dozen Vendors Stolen From Over Weekend

KERNVILLE, Calif. -- It is one of the most popular events to attend in the Kern County mountains, But this weekend's Whiskey Flat Days events has been marred, a bit, by theft.
The Kern County Sheriff's Department is looking into ten to 12 reports of merchandise being stolen from vendors in Kernville. Event organizers had heard that up to 21 vendors had said items were stolen this weekend.Those items include skateboards, cowboy hats and even fudge. Organizers believe kids may be behind the thefts and the sheriff's department agrees.
Organizers say security has always been a struggle because its not the most secure location with vendors being outdoors on the streets, but they're always trying to make it better and more secure. The sheriff's department says a couple thousand dollars worth of merchandise was stolen.

MY COMMENT. This may or may not be the truth as to what happened and the creditability of the information here is only as reliable as to what the Sheriff's department and promoter's of this event care to divulge. In other words, there is a story circulating amongst the vendor's that there were 3 security guards involved. If this occurred like that, then this strikes a serious blow to all events that utilize this method of security. Who are you going to trust? Moreso, who are you going to believe? Does anybody have any info?

Be sure to read my review and more comments on Starving Vendors - Whiskey Flats review.

2010 Ripon Almond Blossom Festival

Saturday update: Looks like we had a little bit of rain on Friday. Rough weekend, huh? The rain woke me up this morning around 4:00. Cats and dogs out there!! Wow. Forecast calls for more rain today and clearing on Sunday. People have been flocking here by the hundred's the past couple days.

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

Held yearly on the last weekend of the month in February in the community of Ripon, CA.

I've done this event in the past and you can read all about it by clicking on this link:

http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Ripon_2008.html

Read how vendors were mis-treated in the past in this bad show. I don't recommend this to anybody. Changed locations to ball field, but it is even worse than before. Talk to other vendors who have done this event. Many problems. Check out some of the other reviews on the website.

2010 Tyson Wells Sell-a-Rama

Feb 15-24, 2010 at Tyson Wells, AZ just across the highway from Quartzsite.

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

Been here since Tuesday. Took a couple days to set up and began selling on Thursday. Show actually began on Friday with loads of vendors. Weather has been okay up until now but we had a couple days of very strong winds nearing 30mph.

Please be sure to read my daily log and review of the event:

http://www.starvingvendors.com/events_Tyson_Wells_Sellarama_2010.html