When you tell people you are doing a fashion internship, new York fashion Week, runway shows, models, on location photo shoots, fashion showrooms or trendy pop-up shops might come to mind. selling goods in the middle of a downpour at an outdoor art fest, doesn’t exactly make the list.
So far during my internship, I’ve helped Brynn with two outdoor events and my expectations were nothing out of the ordinary, just lots of people walking around shopping and enjoying the summer weather. I should’ve known better, as I’ve lived in Chicago all my life.
Friday night at the Evanston Art Fair
I was excited to set up my first event, the Evanston big Fork Art fair in August. That Friday we went out early to set up and plan the layout and showcase it on our Facebook Live. It was a nice night out and light traffic, and we felt good about our location and the layout.
Check out our Facebook live here.
It was a completely different story when we showed up Sunday morning! After a long night of storms, we walked up to a tent with all four walls unzipped and flapping in the wind. The tent itself was still up, so that was good (a tent two doors down had completely collapsed!), but it had shifted a whole five feet from its original position. inside we found our heavy metal six foot tall racks had toppled over and the tablecloths and photo frames were completely soaked. OMG, what to do now?! luckily there was a Target literally next door, so we bought towels to wipe everything down and new tablecloths, and before long our tent looked normal again. thank god we take all of our product home at night when we do outdoor events.
So in September when we did the Andersonville Art Fair, I was looking forward to sunny skies! once again rain was on the forecast. Some vendors didn’t even come on Sunday, but we decided we could figure it out as the day went on. Surprisingly, it started out actually pleasant. There was traffic and people were buying.
Our mood packing in the rain.
But come 2pm, the skies and mother nature were not on our side! As we slowly starting packing bags, the weather slowly got worse! The street fest was emptying, and fast. So although we aren’t suppose to breakdown early (per our contract with the event) we just didn’t care at that point.
As we were scrambling to pack the automobile up, taking small bunches at a time with umbrella in hand! Finally they let us drive in to breakdown. trying to get puddles of water off the roof of the tent seemed like a good idea, until on that last push all the water come straight down onto Brynn’s face and down her shirt. At that point, we tossed the umbrellas, we were so wet. We seriously looked like wet animals frantically trying to pack up Brynn’s car.
Although these events tested my patience, I am grateful for the lessons I gained. I now know how important it is to adapt to whatever situation life puts you in, and remaining positive can truly make all the difference. Brynn and I easily could have packed up our things and gone home early, like some of the other artists at these shows, but we stuck it out and still found reasons to smile and laugh. We didn’t get the gorgeous summer weather or breezy setup that we wanted, but I think seeing what fashion events really look like is exactly what I needed.
Makes me so excited about our next event which is INDOORS! The holiday one of a Kind show is going to make up for all the other bad weather events. now let’s just pray for no snow!
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