Gilded
Serpent presents... Artemis Imports began as a mail-order and event-vending business in 1983, and I would like to give some insight to the dance community about the vending experience. While festival attendees are making last minute adjustments to costumes and choosing their music, vendors are finishing up on a process of packing and making ready displays that often began months before. Everything that is displayed had to be chosen and packed, decisions made as to which items to bring (often wrong, as one cannot know exactly what people will want), and how much of each to bring. One thing that makes vending a very stressful job is that the booth fees for the larger events are now pushing $1000, and sales income must cover that cost first, then hotels, gas, food, and all of the extras needed to stay a weekend somewhere. Then, we must somehow get to the event, which can be 400 miles or even more away. Some vendors will drive from neighboring states, driving 13-18 hours or more. It is a joy when an event is within a 3 hour driving distance! Since most of us drive vans, some quite large, you can imagine the cost of transportation, due to the ever-increasing cost of fuel. For vendors who don't drive, attending means obtaining airline tickets, jamming full two suitcases to carry, and paying for the advance shipment of the remaining inventory. When we arrive at the event, it becomes about the “haul in.” For spring and winter events, it is always about rain: will it rain or not? Rain is awful to deal with! How do we minimize water damage to our items? How do we not come down with the flu, after having been soaked in the unloading process?
(This doesn’t affect the smaller vendors, the one or two table people, as much as it does the larger vendors, of course.) After the haul in, it then becomes about how to deal with our allotted space - it is never perfect, but we have to make it work. It is at this time that most promoters get the biggest headaches, since 90% of us will be unhappy with the space we are given because our expectations were different, and we will express our dissatisfaction to the promoters. But somehow, using a lot of “patchwork” technique, we make that difficult space work. When the festival begins, and dancers start coming by to shop, we are nearly ready, but rarely completely done. Our day will be 12-14 hours of standing, bending to get items, talking to customers, trying to help everyone as quickly as possible, and answering questions. We don’t attend “after parties,” because by that time, we are ready only for bed! As vendors, we usually see most of the dancers and hear most of the music, (we can tell what is really popular by how often we hear it used), so, you might say, we really have a finger on the pulse of the event. We at Artemis love talking to dancers that we only see at these events, some only once a year - it is like long-term friendships being re-validated. Our goal at these events is always to provide an array of fairly-priced items and to give honest assessments of the music and DVDs that we carry. We delight in being able to offer unusual items not seen elsewhere. At most of the events, we have a great deal of fun and of course, it is always wonderful when the promoters can offer us a dance spot, since dancing is really what it is all about!At the end of the event, when dancers go home to relax, we have to break it all down, pack boxes, sweep up, do a “haul out,” (about 3-4 hours) and then drive "home", whether that be a nearby hotel or our own homes. This is when we are REALLY tired. Some of the difficulties that we have encountered at the belly dance festivals are shoplifting, (which always makes our guts hurt, because we have trustingly put the items out for close examination), dealing with some “me first” customers, (who like to interrupt us when we are writing up a sale or helping someone else), temperature problems in the hall (makes one feel like fainting), complete blackouts at an event, and promoters who are rude and use storm trooper behavior to manage their events. Mostly, we deal with wonderful promoters, who are willing to listen to complaints and try to solve the problems. However, now I want to get down to some personal comments. Recently Artemis has said “adieu” to vending at the Rakkasah festival, both because of the culture of fear that has been carefully cultivated amongst the vendors by the promoter, and because of the inability of the promoter to behave without rudeness towards this vendor of 23 years' duration at that event (that’s almost $25,000 in vending fees, and that should buy some form of civility). Vending is mostly a very positive experience for me, and that is because of the wonderful dancers that I get to chat with, the networking and information sharing between vendor/vendor and vendor/dancer, and of course, because of the participation in an event that promotes, what we all love—the dance. Twenty years ago, there were a few events a year; now, every month there is a choice of events to attend. Twenty years ago, the events didn’t have a glut of vendors such as they all seem to have now - kind of a sensory over-load, when it comes to costumes and such - but on the other hand, it gives dancers a larger choice, and more bargaining power.
I think dancers are enjoying the small and medium sized events more these days, and I have had many dancers tell me it's because they don’t feel lost in the overkill, and the vibe is more relaxed and just feels better. One very seasoned vendor/dancer remarked that she felt that the hey-day of the “mega event” was on the wane, because people have realized that they could have just as much, or maybe even more, fun at a smaller event. The admittance costs are also an issue. Many of the door fees at big events are so high now, that dancers must choose which day they can attend, and, given the current economic climate, this coming year will make this even more apparent. Whatever event you choose to attend, you can take a different look at your vendors, now that you know something of what we do to be there to offer you a great shopping experience. We all share the dance, and some of us are dancers as well as vendors!
We at Artemis look forward
to seeing you at many events in the coming year; check out
our webpage,
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