Agricultural Shows?

[hdflred]

just wondering if any of you had done any craft tents at agricultural shows, and if so were they worth doing or not?

I'm thinking of the south west shows mostly.

Many thanks

Harriet

[jkennedy]

I did one back in the summer. Not an easy one to crack, farmers don't like spending the cash. You have to do your homework a bit and get the products right for the event and attendees. They are generally cheaper for pitches. Mine was the first i did, i was pleasantly surprised with sales plus i picked up 2 commissions worth over 1k.

jk

[ElaineJ]

Like any other Craft Tent (or fair) they can vary greatly and it does depend also on what else the show is offering; some may have quite a number of trade stands and market-stall type stands. Some shows are much more of a social event than others.

Steam and Vintage Agricultural shows can have very large craft tents, generally visited by wives/sisters/daughters of the enginemen plus a reasonable cross-section of the visiting public.

(When you need to go to the loo set off in good time - there's bound to be a queue)

[Works-in-Wood]

As with all Craft Shows, Agricultural shows can vary greatly - but they're normally fairly cheap and have a lot of people wandering around - whether they buy anything is something else!

The bigger ones can be expensive - £80 - £100 per day, but may turn out to be OK, depending on what you do.

Watch out for the weather though, not just from the point of view of customers - I had to be 'Tractored' on twice and off three times this year - helps if you have 4WD in a 'summer' like this.

Chris.

[Just Original]

Hi

I did a ploughing match at the end of September, I only paid £20 for the pitch and made £250, so was very happy with that!

It seemed like people were willing to spend there cash as it seemed like a yearly outing/gathering for some.

Vanessa

PS I also picked up quite a few orders from it

[ElaineJ]

Another point - at many of the smaller rural shows/ploughing matches there may not be many stalls (you may need to invest in a covered stand) so sales can be good.

In addition you may get a meal ticket - this used to be standard practice with all the vintage events I used to attend in the 1980s, mid-morning and afternoon cuppas would be dispensed at some, but they've been taken over by commercial enterprises who don't give out freebies.

There's also a move for local (rather than County) agricultural shows to be held in Livestock Markets with craft stands etc. under cover in the pens.

[craftsensations]

I did one in the summer. I'd visited the year before and it was brilliant - but then it was a lovely sunny day! When I had a stan of course, it was not very good weather!

It was pretty dire to be honest but like the others say, it varies so much!

My advice would be a) check the price of tickets to get in - if it's too high nobody will go and so you won't have any customers and b) keep in mind how to protect your stock - may have been in a tent but the grass/mus was all around and there was also a dog with muddy footprints who jumped up at my table - never did get the mark out of my table!!!

Good luck if you do go for it!!

[bynicki]

I know I am in a completely different area than you are looking for, but I did one in the Scottish Borders last summer and it wasn't good. I paid £90 for the stand for three days, whihc isn't too bad, but I really struggled to make that back. Some of the stalls took a lot less than me too - one only took £10 the whole weekend. There was a lot of people but no one wanted to buy crafty things. I won't be doing that one again this year!!!.