Watford was a last minute addition to my schedule of events, I saw it advertised in the local paper. It was the first one of its kind and I was excited to be a part of it. However, this was the worst event I have ever attended! I don't normally like to be so blunt and negative especially as a lot of work went into the event and the advertising beforehand. In theory it should have been great but some of my fellow stall holders packed up and went at 2:30pm, I stuck it out until it closed at 4pm.
The new craft fair has been introduced to attract people to the market. The new market reopened in Watford in a new location last year and according to the permanent stall holders it isn't getting the footfall and a lot have had to close their stalls.
When we were there a lot of the usual stall holders didn't open so it looked closed. Part way through the day we decided to move our stalls out on to the High Street (we did get permission) and I wish we had thought to do that earlier.
I usually say that you need to give events a few goes before making a decision, but I have done enough now to know which are good ones with potential, and sadly I don’t think Watford has much potential. I was also open to the elements, although the market is undercover it's not indoors. Thankfully it was a sunny, dry day but it was very windy and I needed to add ribbon to my display to tie items down, which isn’t great for customers browsing or the appearance of my stall. You can never guarantee the British weather and my previous experience with an outdoor event gives me another reason not to do this one again. Ah well, at least I tried it, I would have regretted it if I hadn’t.
Thankfully I was back at Little Fox the weekend after which was a more positive experience. I attend this regularly and you probably have read many times how I enjoy it so all I'm going to say about it this time is, it was another good one. You can read about my previous times at the Little Fox Market here.
I haven't any more craft fairs booked until August now when I will be back at Royston. The organiser has done so much to promote this event, including yarn bombing the town, which made the local press and even the BBC news website! I'm looking forward to going back there as this is another one of my favourites.
fizzi~jayne x
Psst.... you can see the craft fairs I have booked for the rest of 2015 here.
