Set Up Time

Good promoters will give a crafters a rough time frame to set up. For example, from 6pm to 9pm Friday and before 8am Saturday. Every show is different so pay attention. Plan ahead and use tools like map quest to figure travel time. Set ups can be a mad house and there may be no set way to avoid the rush.

Better promoters assign a specific time to set up. Staggering the set up times to help reduce bottle necks. In many cases there is little enough space as it is. If you think about it, the typical car or pickup truck is longer than 10'. There is little space to move when a number of adjacent crafters show up at once.

Play by the rules or you may not be invited back next year.

It seems like the majority of people try to show up as early as possible. Coming in a little later, say after 7pm can give the early birds time to clear out. Bring some battery lights if it looks like you could get caught in the dark, especially in the early spring and late autumn when the sun goes down early.

Often you will have a choice between setting up the night before, or early the day of the show. There are several good reasons for setting up the night before.

First, if you are set up and ready to go you can take your time the first morning of the show. A fresh start to the day can make the event less tiring and a few extra hours of sleep can hurt. Setting up the day before is a good way to make sure everything is as it should be with time to rectify problems such like forgotten items or missing parts to a display or set up.

On the other hand if you are paying for a motel room you may wish to set up the morning of the show and save the cost of a second nights stay. This works well for local shows where you will not be driving for many hours prior to setting up. If the setup is not very complicated, if you are confident in your ability to pack everything you need, if you can arrive on time then setting up on the morning of the first day can be a good way to save some money.

Setting up the night before a show, be sure your booth is both secure and attached to the earth with more than just gravity. *See the previous section on securing your setup.

The question of whether to leave stock in the booth over night is a decision you must make, taking into consideration the value of the wares and whether or not the area is secured and or monitored.

Since our items are not affected by weather we usually leave them in the booth overnight, but we know many crafters and artist who take their stock down. Paper items, some works of art, photography and fabric items can absorb moisture over night and become ruined or musty. Other artists who sell expensive jewelry or valuable works of art take the stock back to their trailer or motel room. In all our years of selling at shows we have only had to pull our goods down once and that was because we were set up in a public park with poor security. We have never had stock stolen from the booth overnight.

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