A couple weeks back I posted a thing about there being too many events and not enough real shows. I figured a handful of people might nod along and that would be that. Then 147 of you showed up in the comments, and I spent two nights reading every single one with my coffee going cold.
I learned more in that thread than I have in a long time. So this one isn't really me talking. It's me telling you what you taught me.
You're not imagining it, and neither was I
The thing I was nervous to even say out loud, that we are drowning in events, turned out to be nobody's hot take. It was just Tuesday for most of you. Six markets in one town on the same weekend. A vendor market, a farmers market, and a "pop-up" all inside a 20 minute drive. One of you put it better than I did: when there's a show on every corner, nobody feels any urgency to actually buy, because there's another one tomorrow down the road. That one stuck with me.
The part that actually got me
Here's what I didn't see coming. So many of you have quietly given up on anything new. You only do the shows that have been around 10, 20, even 50 years. The juried ones. The ones you've done for two decades and happily drive an hour to get to.
I understand why. But there's a quiet sadness in it. It means a good new event, run by somebody who genuinely cares, can't get a foot in the door, because we've all been burned too many times to risk the booth fee on an unknown. The flops didn't just cost us money. They made us stop trusting anything new.
You're already doing the thing
This is the one that lit me up. I walked in thinking I had some original idea. Nope. You've been building it by hand for years.
There are statewide Facebook groups where vendors compare notes on shows and organizers and, in one person's words, "weed out the scammers." One of you keeps a spreadsheet going back years: table cost, money in, weather, notes. Another walks a show as a regular customer before ever paying for a booth. You vet promoters the hardest way there is, one bad weekend at a time, and then you quietly pass the warnings to each other.
The knowledge is all there. It's just scattered across a thousand comment threads, notebooks, and DMs, and it dies the moment the thread scrolls away.
Where you corrected me, and you were right
I came in a little hot on promoters, and a few of you set me straight. Asking vendors to help spread the word about a show isn't the crime. We should all be sharing the events we're doing. The crime is when the organizer does nothing else. When your fee buys a parking spot and one Facebook post, and that is the entire marketing plan. That's the line, and I needed the nudge to see it clearly.
A bunch of you also reminded me that no amount of promotion saves a bad fit. Sell candles at a rodeo and that's the matchup failing you, not the marketing. Know your customer. I tell myself that constantly running offroad and overland events with my other company, where the whole dynamic is different, and I still managed to forget it applies right here too.
The stuff that should just be standard
One thing came up again and again, without anyone organizing it. You are tired of having to interrogate every organizer for the basics. Is there electric. Are tables included. Indoor or outdoor. How many years has this actually run. How are you really advertising it. One vendor posted her six-question checklist and a dozen people said they were screenshotting it.
That told me something simple. This information shouldn't be a scavenger hunt you do over DMs. It should be right on the listing, every time, before anybody pays a dime.
So here's what I'm taking away
You don't need fewer makers. You need a way to tell the good shows from the bad ones before you hand over your money and your Saturday. You have been doing that detective work alone for years, and you've gotten good at it. I just don't think you should have to.
So thank you, genuinely. Keep it coming, because I'm clearly still learning. If you've got a checklist, a red flag, or a "never again" story that didn't make the first thread, drop it below. I read every one. I always do.