I’m feeling glad to be home after a long weekend away at the balloon fiesta in Bristol. We got back around midnight last night, and I’ve just about caught up with all the unpacking and washing (it’s surprising how much grass you find in your washing when you’ve been camping!), but I haven’t caught up on sleep yet!!
We had some long days – the marquee opened at 10am every morning and didn’t close til 7pm, and even 10pm on Saturday. But it was well worth keeping my stall open as there were thousands of people walking around in the evening waiting for the balloon glow to start. The location of the marquee wasn’t as good as last year, and I think even more people would have come to the marquee if it was in a better position, but there were still plenty of customers.
My stall was next to an entrance of the marquee which was brilliant for when it got really hot and stuffy, and if I wanted to stand outside and still keep an eye on my stall, but it wasn’t so good when the weather was wet and miserable! You can see part of my stall through the entrance of the marquee in the image above. I had my usual ‘L’ shape for my display which is perfect on a corner.
I displayed my new bunting for the first time – what do you think?
I made good use of the marquee and hung some items up on the backdrop of my display too. I also hung and draped things from my lights which looked really effective so I’ll definitely do this at my next event. I’m glad I took my copper wire, twigs, shells and little pieces of ceramic because I sat and made lots of new hanging mobiles/wind chimes. These looked really pretty hanging from my lights and I was so pleased to sell one of them to a nice couple. It makes me really happy knowing that people like my work enough to buy it 🙂 I’ll post some photos of the mobiles later in the week.
Overall it was a successful 4 days and I am pleased with the sales I made. I also met some really nice people who couldn’t have given me enough compliments! I get a buzz when people spend so much time looking at my stall and I like to watch them picking items up and feeling the surfaces.
I’ve had a few orders since I’ve been home so I think they are from people who picked up my leaflets over the weekend. Hopefully there will be more to come!
We had fun watching the balloons and other things going on, especially the night glow. The new special shaped balloon for this year was the Foamy Gnome – bright pink!
The best part for me was seeing the Red Arrows again. They are breathtaking, and it was a huge treat to watch them performing stunts and formations in the sky.
If you haven’t seen the Red Arrows before, you must! I just tried searching for some videos of them on Youtube but none of them do them justice – you really have to be there.
The marquee was deserted when the red arrows flew over the site, even all the stall holders abandoned their stalls to watch them!
What did you get up to over the weekend?
Sounds like you had a great time! Well done with all the sales, and your stall looks fab 🙂
So glad that you had a successful show, it makes all the effort worthwhile.
glad you had such a great time. the event sounds like hard work but i can tell you really enjoyed yourself. hooray for the event and post-event sales. all that hard work is worth it 🙂
Looks like an amazing time! Wish I were closer so I could visit! Thanks for sharing pics with us! 🙂
I saw the Baloon Festival on the tv just before it started – and it made me think of you! Sounds like you had a great time!
I can sympathise with the grass in your clothes after camping – I'm off to the Greenman Festival – and I'm certainly not looking forward to the washing when I get back!
Love to see the Baloon Festival with my own eyes. Hope I can go to your place. This is a great place to have fun.
Deirdre G