Basically, I got caught by the street dancing and the merry making. After 27 years of my life, this was the first time I truly enjoyed a festival fair. And that’s saying something, because I rarely, RARELY ever enjoy myself in any of these shindigs. So, what was different with this festival fair?

For one thing, I had realized that variety does indeed wonders for the shopaholic’s heart. When a person is faced with much excitement and happiness and revelry and all that pizzazz, the thing is that, his serotonin levels rise.

Serotonin makes people happy (you could call it the happy hormone if you like. Wink wink!) And when people are happy, it usually makes them go buy more, without the usual regard and limit for the budget (which is somewhat a bad thing for them and a good thing for you. Hey, it’s not the best way, but it’s one way of the world you can use to your advantage!)

So it’s a good idea to time your booth or your fair in a local town festival, instead of going solo or going pro. You’d need all the happy people you can get to indulge you in your craft. Remember, a happy person can be a good customer. Of course, you’d want to have a happy customer rather than a frowny customer now, wouldn’t you?

Another good thing about timing your booth or your craft table in a festival is that you never need to worry about publicity, exposure or a lack of audience. It’s a town festival. Everyone is expected to go there, or at least be there. And with that, you get the attention of a full range of demographics, from the youngest of the bunch to the oldest daddy senior of the family. You also get a full range of cultures, both home grown to foreign and exotic people.

Indiana holds one of the largest mushroom festivals and car shows in the surrounding states, the Manfield Village Mushroom Festival and Car Show which is most usually held around the weekends of the last week of April. The mushroom festival is a certified family event and a sure crowd gatherer, especially if you have the weekend off for some mushroom gathering fun.

The event registers early, so it is advised that you get your family wagon (don’t forget to bring your family of course) up and running and go to the registration site for the events. You can choose from organized mushroom hunts, buying of mushrooms, and the selling of mushrooms at organized auctions. There are cash prizes for the largest hunted mushroom for the day (as long as it is a mushroom, the judges would not care where you got it…so long as it’s not illegal).

Enjoy the mushroom you hunt because you can bring it home and make it into a hearty, and delightful meal. Those who find the largest and most mushrooms from everyone also gets to bring home an intriguing hand carved, wooden mushroom walking stick.

The registration starts at around eight to ten in the morning with an eight dollar entry fee. Mushrooms for selling at the Mushroom Auction are open all day, for bidders and sellers near and far. Auctions are held at the Red Barn.

The Mansfield Car Show happens on the second day of the festival, a Sunday, with registrations from eight in the morning up until noontime. Oldies up till the latest models will come parading, so car lovers are bound to find something to pique their interest. There are also shops and vendors setting up arts, crafts and flea markets for the buyer in you. Tours for the Mansfield Roller Mill are open and there are food booths for the gastronomist as well.

There are a lot of food courses you can take should you be interested in taking up food crafting. Food crafting, even as the name sounds very misleading, is serving food as a way of making income during an arts and crafts festival. Food preparation is a craft in itself, as well as being able to prepare it with much gusto both for you and your customers. There are certain factors that should be understood should you delve in the world of food and food preparation.

One, you should be able to determine your specialty. Firstly, do you even like food preparation? Let me tell you that this craft is not for everyone. You should have the passion of a chef and a business man. Remember, you are not there to only cook and to serve, but you are there to also entertain and to manage your dealings. There’s more to just food preparation, is what I would reiterate.

Think of the food you would choose. For one, if it is about food crafting then it should be something that is not as cumbersome and complicated. Like say, chili for example. Unless you are really themed for chili, I wouldn’t recommend using chili as a forerunner for food preparation and serving, especially if you’re just a beginner. Chili is expensive, is quite hassling to make, another hassle to bring to the site, and a hassle for samplers. It is just plain messy, heavy, and not to mention, gas-inducing.

I would suggest you go with something simple, easy to store and serve, and ergonomic. I’m thinking finger foods, cupcakes or cookies, or anything dry; something easy to hold and eat with one hand. That way, the serving feature would be easier and the people would be more motivated to try out your goodies.

Think about it. If someone served chili on a craft fair, and they’re advertising it for purchase (probably a mix or a catering service), would you spend your time hanging around if there is no service area or table in sight?

She did her booth simple, but unique and in the theme. Unlike most of the others who had settled to blinging their booths so much that all it needed was a disco ball, she had a simple tablecloth of white to contrast the different colors, and had set her business corner in the side to allow the customers to roam around and choose from the many different bracelets she had made.

She was also very quiet, but would answer when asked. Customers don’t like naggy salesperson, and often times; it is rather counterproductive and scares the customer away (the irony of it). Be casual, but avoid familiarity as well.

Treat your customers and respect them, and not go hunky dory all of a sudden. People might look into it as favoritism and that could dissuade them from buying from you. In her case, she just sat there, smiled when a person came near and observed. When the buyer asked for something that was the time she stood up and answered the question. Made a successful sale, and a happy customer.

Likely to not happen in indoor fairs, but be prepared for anything especially the weather. Good thing she had a tarp on when the rains came. She was saved (and so was I ). The other booths were quite unlucky, they had to redo it again. Talk about being paranoid and well prepared at the same time.

Lastly, try not to try too hard. Be relaxed and treat it like you are taking a walk and greeting people. She was a regular to everyone, so it wasn’t really that hard for her to try too hard. Amiable and quiet, that I think was the best trait a salesperson and a craftsman could have.

My friend has some serious talent when it comes to making crafts out of beads and strings. She was always spending her idle time doing so, giving it to her friends, to her classmates, to her teachers, and also, even to me. How she expertly weaves her hands in and out of the threads and bobbles, and then making something simply beautiful still catches me in awe and sweet surrender to her skill. At a later point of our high school year, we became good friends and I suggested that she go try it out for our school fair. Told her that her craft is good, and I’m sure people would pay to have a bit of her work.

That was how she managed to pay off her miscellaneous fees, and how she had done her feasibility studies, all in one. Parents praised her, teachers commended her; she was set off into the beads and baubles industry soon after. And to think she started off with only thinking on how to fund her next day’s supply of beads and strings. Truly amazing.

So basically, she was a starter at the school fair that time, competing with the other school clubs managed by a whole class, teacher cookouts and class driven effort; how did she top it all off?

First, research. For one thing, the people who were given the necklaces had responded favorably to it. It was a hobby right? So she had already given quite a number of the trinkets to different persons. The demography was huge. From teachers who were grandmamas, students who were barely out of puberty, mothers of the parents that came by to see where their children got the necklaces from it was a business idea waiting to be discovered.

She had a good customer base already, because she had established relations with the customers even before the said fair.