Gaia’s Awakening Faire
Michael and I went to the Gaia’s Awakening Faire today at the UU church in Spokane. It seemed well set up and all but it was lacking something that left me disappointed. It has taken me most of the day to figure out what bothered me about it.
There was nothing I was really drawn to. Not in the traditional sense that I did not like anything, I did, I adore handmade crafts. But… there was no energy at all in the place or the vendors. None of them seemed interested that there was people looking at there craft work. They almost seemed to be avoiding contact when I said hi and their smiles were weak at best. Only one person truly made an effort to talk with me and not surprisingly as a result I liked her crafts best out of the lot. I had my tarot read which was fun, the lady who did it was passionate and confident, even though it was her first time doing a faire.
Maybe it is just me but I have always been raised of the mind that being passionate about your craft empowers your customers too. Acknowledging their existence is good too. Fine if you are miserable, but if you expect to get sales then perk up, and realize you are selling your crafts, made with your heart and soul, not some junk from the dollar store.
I use to help my grandma at craft shows when I was younger (a lot bigger then the faire today of course and they were only targeted at crafts.) I loved it, I loved the diversity of people and being able to help my grandma sell her jams and jellies. I love people and interacting with them. So many crafts forget how important marketing is, even I do sometimes, but it really is half the battle.
So I may be a vendor other UU events, including the Gaia Faire next year. Hopefully I will not be the only enthusiastic person there. No one else was selling candles which is good for me, there is definitely no shortage of people who love candles. This was a small faire, I assume other UU ones will be too but yet they have enough traffic to probably turn a little profit. More importantly, it would be good to get my name out there to the local community.
Disappointing as this was in the end, it was definitely a positive experience for showing me the power of passion.