Crafty Tuesday: Duped?

So for this week's Crafty Tuesday I thought I would share with you the tales of a recent 'Renaissance Festival/ Craft Fair' that I recently took part in. Lauren had been invited to take part in the show when she was at another show. All the paper work sounded great. We had mistakenly signed up for an area called 'Mystic Moments'. The booth fee was cheaper but it seemed that the area was designated as a kids make and take section. Lauren explained that we were not a make and take table so they upgraded us, at no extra cost, to 'Equine Lane'. Cool. All the paper work explained that we would be listed in the advertising and promotions. Cool. There was a horse show there which sounded really cool.
Day of show. We get our sitters to the house... Not without incident but that's another rant for another day. We head out. Of course we pass up the place but not by far. We pull in and are told that we need to park and lug our stuff. The info had stated that we could park and unload right at our booth. Luckily it wasn't that far and they had provided a table so we didn't have to carry that. We get a good chunk of our stuff unloaded when we are told that we CAN drive to our booth and then park. They have box lunches waiting for us which is nice.
Set up started at 8:30. They wanted vendors ready at 11:30 for a noon opening. We were ready. Some people had gotten there at 8:30 but we had arrived around 11. A look around showed us nine other vendors... If you counted the the face painter (who was awesome!), the story teller (also awesome), the nurse who was there with a table promoting healthy eating (and yes they had to pay a $50 booth fee for the 2 days they had been there) and the people set up with hats and shirts promoting Raspberry Grove Equestrian Center which, in fact is in some one's backyard. It's beaultiful and they do train riders and apparently board horses. We were VERY glad to have only paid $25 for our spot. We were also VERY glad for our newly purchased 'tent' which was envied by the other vendors. It was hot and sticky. The flies were biting but I guess I wasn't tasty enough because they didn't bother me. The gates opened and we waited. And we waited. We became social and started chatting with other vendors and still... we waited. The 'show' itself didn't start until 4. The hope was that the crowd would come in about 3ish. They had done this on another Saturday a couple weeks prior. It had rained but we received an email that said that 200 people had wandered through. Well... Apparently that was a BIG estimate acorrding to the vendors who had been there the other week. They guessed closer to 75. That turned out to be a pipe dream for the Saturday we were there. The people who did come weren't really interested in our wares. We did sell some stuff but to other vendors. As far as that goes we met some great people and had time away from our kids. The vendors weren't supposed to tear down until 6:30 but we were all packed up once the intermission was over. Not sure if the owner even noticed since she never came around to see how we were doing...
I have mixed feelings because I did make a little money but I can't believe the booth fees they were charging for people to set up. PLUS they charged for people to come in. Oh well. Guess we won't be doing that one next year...