Our First Country Show - East Halton 8/8/2021
After a fabulous first show yesterday I thought I'd treat myself to the evening off from packing orders and admin, and treat myself to a chocolate muffin and a some sweets and another blog post!! Living the dream and diet broken again!!
6AM.. the alarm goes off!! Its show day!! Our first show day! Feeling nervous as I have only shown my items online, Setting up a stand and ensuring it all runs smoothly, but also feeling so excited to finally be out there. A little bit of normal showcasing my products!!
The Horse box was packed, 7.20 AM I was off. Coffee in hand. The show was only about 20 minutes from my house, and only a small local village country show. A perfect little start to meeting and greeting with the public and getting the show vibe.
I arrived at the show, find my space, all is well... until I started to build the gazebo! The great British weather was definitely not on my side! Before I had even managed to get the gazebo fully up the wind turned it totally inside out, bent every leg in the wrong direction and sadly the gazebo died a death! I was there on my own with no gazebo and no idea what to do. I stood in the middle and show field and cried, my friend rang to say she was on her own, and I said don't bother I'm heading home!! I instantly felt id failed, with rain forecast and no gazebo I couldn't see any other option.
Beth arrived (my friend who was helping), fresh headed and told me we are not giving up! We will have a stand today! A friend on another stand ( H&M Haylage - go give them a follow horsey followers) offered to share theirs, but then we decided to utilise my horsebox and create it into a little shop! So we changed pitch so we could use the box, and started to go through set up ideas. Then the lovely stand next door, ( The Green Room Lincolnshire) said they had a spare gazebo at home 10 mins away and would we like to borrow it. I couldn't believe it, I was so thankful and grateful and I snapped up their offer.
So new Gazebo intact, stand set up, we were ready to go. It was so nice to see our the products I have available and designed out on show, and all together. The show got busy very quickly, it was a great atmosphere, and so nice to be doing something that felt so normal after the last 18 months.
Before I knew it, it was 3 oclock, The day had flown by! I met so many lovely new customers. Customers who follow us and have supported our business from the start, and also so many of my friends and family came to support. We for such a fab day, and great feedback on our items and so many lovely comments which I cant put into words of how it makes me feel.
So first show, great success and great response, just minus a gazebo! We have taken a lot away from it. Hopefully we can improve little bits for our next show and lots of other little finishing touches to our overall affect of our stand.
Thank you to everyone who came yesterday, supported, took a card, bought an item,followed, shared and tagged us in your great photos on social media! Your all Incredible and make me do a happy dance!!
So now to plan some more shows, look at next summer, stand design, marketing, a few more roles to my job description. I may have a list as long as my arm to get through, but I wouldn't change it ( Any tips welcome), I love my small business, I love Born To Farm!!
xx