As a food vendor you know that there are venues out there that "sell real estate." I thought to myself, wouldn't it be nice if there were a website where vendors share their experiences with bing ripped off by event coordinators. As of yet I have not found such a site so hopefully I can get the word out there somewhat through this site. "Selling real esate" is when an event coordinator accepts you as a food vendor for their event in order to get the fees you pay them for that (usually hundreds of dollars) but they know full well that your chances of making a profit from sales at the event are slim to none.
Sometimes the reason you cannot make a profit is due to the coordinator overstating attendence figures, sometimes it is because there are too many food vendors for the event, or it could be because there are too many vendors selling the same thing as you are. Many times it's because you get put in an extremely poor location while all of the coordinators friends received the premium spots (or vendors that pay off the coordinator to get the only spots where you can make money.) In our 3 seasons so far of experience being a food vendor we have learned the hard way what some of the venue's to avoid are and would like to share these with other vendors so that they can avoid being ripped off.
Here is a list of the venues that have blatently ripped us off:
State Center Rose Festival (ripped off all food vendors - were located 2 blocks from any real traffic)
Delaware County Fair (Way too many food vendors and poor location. Only established vendors made any money, all new vendors can't make it and quit after the 1st try)
Dubuque County Fair (same as above)
Dubuque Fest (way too many food vendors. The event was billed as a big deal but in actuality it was held in a parking lot and there was not the big crowds you might expect for one of Iowa's largest cities.)
Farmington Strawberry Days (Too many food vendors for the size of event although it was raining much of the time so this probably wasn't a typical year. We sell a very unique and specific item as our main menu item. They put us right across the street (30 feet away) from another vendor that was almost identical to us. Also they were very poorly organized. Electrical needs were an afterthought, etc.)
Wilton Founders Day - This was probably one of the most blatent of all. When we arrived they didn't even know we were comming. They stuck us in the grass by some railroad tracks, the 'back 40' of the event as a solution to the fact that we needed 220v and only 110v was available 2 blocks away where the other food vendors were. We were behind a bunch of tall amusement rides and even though our stand is well lit, nobody could see us. We weren't alone though. A merchandise vendor got stuck back there too because it was all that was left and a respectible space had not been planned for him. Even the vendors that were by all of the action weren't doing what I would call "well." There were several empty food vending spots and the word going around was that those are the vendors who had paid to be there but decided to no show in order to cut their losses as there were too many vendors already to be supported by such a small festival. We left early too to cut our losses as did the merchandise vendor next to us. I would advise no new vendors attempt to book this event and would encourage festival goers to not attend this event so as to not support an organization with such deplorable business practices.
Throttle down to O town (Osceola) - Also ranks in the top as most blatently ripping vendors off. There during their inaugural event, we were happy with the size of crowd for a 1st year event, however, the crowd was 1 to 2 block away from us. And there were no attractions in our corner so no traffic flow in our neck of the woods. Also the head coordinator guy was VERY rude and unaccomodating. We pay a lot of money to get into these events and we expect them to make sure we have everything we need in order to get set up. For that kind of money "it's not my problem" or "i don't know what to tell you" should never come out of their mouths.
Davenport One/Wells Fargo Street Festival (nick named Bix) - The crowds were as huge as advertised but nobody was buying much food. And the number of food vendors was MORE huge. Even so, we could have come out of it alright if the entry fee had been more inline with other events in Iowa. The fee was like $1600. One of customers we spoke to said his friend was a vendor there in previous years and got out because they were trying to push the limit for vendor fees as see just how high they could go. Another prior vendor said "All of these vendors you see here are all working their butts of all weekend long just for the hope of breaking even." I'm sure some of the very large vendors came out of with a profit. I would say if you're not a 1/2 million dollar outfit, forget about this event. You would need to at least double your normal prices to make a profit but then your stuff would be so expensive no one would purchase it.
Artsplash (Sioux City) - I don't think these guys are so much blatently trying to rip people off as they are just overly greedy. This was the area's premier event for the year and I would call it a tiny event compared to many of our other events. There were too many vendors there for the crowd to support. The event was spread over too large of an area for the number of people attending also. All of the vendors got together and complained about the fees and lack of revenue basically and the feeling I got from the event coordinator was that they genuinely wanted the food vendors to do well BUT their money came first. She said basically that they were too far over budget but she did give us a break on the fees anyway. (Still we operated at a loss) A plan was made for the next year for lower fees but vendors would provide free food to the hundreds of volunteers. What it boileled down to was that the professional event coordinator that was hired to coordinate and manage this thing spent a lot of money on a band and activities and paying herself and others putting the event on but the public turnout was not such that could support such a 'shindig' therefore they were relying on vendor fees to make up the rest yet vendors weren't making money.
Boone Pufferbilly Days - Once upon a time the Pufferbilly Days was a happening event and the food vendors were happy. That was when it was in the downtown area. I didn't get in on that unfortunately. When they moved the event to the fairgrounds which was a little too out of the way for many Boone residents, attendance dropped dramatically. They moved it because the lawyers whose offices were downtown (apparantly there's a big community of lawyes there) complained about the festival blocking their parking and offices and such. And I think they might be trying to make up for lost revenue due to sharply declining attendance by way of larger vendors fees. The most rediculous thing about this event is that you must become a Chamber member in order to be considered which was $650. Then you had event entry fees on top of that. Definately "selling real estate."
There are others that i can add when i have more time
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