Old Timers Day Steampunk Festival 2019
This was our first time vending a real Steampunk Festival. Preparing for this event was really fun and I made many new items including goggles and hats!
We loved seeing all of the different costumes and enjoyed meeting and speaking with all of our new friends. Unfortunately, we were unable to stay the entire time at this event because a big tornado tore across the street we were all vending on. Within 5 minutes of being warned that a storm was on its way, our tent began to start moving. At first, I thought it was someone pushing against the tent. We have a large tent with walls. I couldn’t see outside of the tent so I really didn’t know a storm was on its way until I was told. I immediately started packing up my items after being warned that the storm was 15 minutes away and the next thing I knew, my tent was moving and things were falling from the top and hitting me in the head! As an artist, the first thing you want to save IS your work. While I threw all of my jewelry, teddy bears, and goggles into cases and boxes, Erik and three other people were trying to hold down my tent. It dropped and hit me on the head, but I just stayed there on my knees scooping my merchandise, and other people’s merch, out of the gutter. The water rose to my knees within 5 minutes. A policeman told me I needed to get to safety but I suppose the look I gave him told him he should just go away.
We finally got everything put up and I looked around. Not a soul was in sight. It was only me and Erik standing there, in the downpour, with the wind pushing us down the street. “Go get the car!” I screamed at him. He couldn’t find the keys. He fell down in the gutter and luckily found the keys just before they went down the drain. He ran to get the car and I sat in the rainstorm crying.
Once we got to the hotel, we assessed the damage. Everything I had was soaked. All of my displays, our chairs, costumes, custom hats, all of my jewelry was fogged up and I thought ruined. There was no way for us to return to vend the next day. Although Mother Nature was definitely against us for this weekend, we did have a lot of fun BEFORE the storm.
I was so excited to see the Teapot races and the Steampunk Dog contest but unfortunately, I don’t think those things were about to take place at all this weekend. I wasn’t able to get many pictures or visit any of the other vendor booths and I heard one artist lost all of his paintings. I can’t imagine how that felt. Here are a few of the people who allowed us to take their photos at this Steampunk Festival. Thank you again to everyone who showed up to support this event and thank you to everyone who tried to help us during the storm. That meant more than you know.
