Paducah Summer Festival

We have never been to the Paducah Summer Festival before, but Skyler came across it on the internet, called about it, and it sounded very exciting. We were told the festival was over 40 years old and would draw 12,000 to 14,000 people. We would be the only barbeque vendor, and our tent would be right next to the music. This description made us feel okay about the $500 entry fee.

We ended our two and a half hour drive to Paducah, KY by driving to the brick street riverfront and seeing a large banner stretched above that said “Paducah Summer Festival 2010.” The riverfront was beautiful, and the banner made it seem like a big deal already. We felt excited to get started.

Location is everything. Get a bad location at a festival, and you’ll starve. We arrived and were placed at the back side of a square parking lot where six other food vendors were set up. Six? Does that sound like an appropriate number of vendors for an event that draws 14,000 people? We asked a few other people what they thought of our location and we kept hearing, “There is no bad location. This place will be packed come Saturday.”

We brought more food than we’ve ever brought to a festival before. Three cases of pork, two cases of babyback ribs, porkburgers, brats, boneless porkchops, two cases of lemons, 100 pounds of sugar, and everything for barbeque nachos. Plus, we brought an extra employee after the madness at the Murray Freedom Fest. An extra employee would help us get more food out to more people faster and thus make more money.

It didn’t help that the heat index exceeded 105 degrees. It also didn’t’ help that we were lied to. We weren’t right next to the music. We were three city blocks away from the music. All the vendors were. From the concert area, no one could even see that food vendors were available. The 14,000 people we were told to except turned out to be less than 1,000.

Thursday night was ridiculously slow, but we were told to expect a little more on Friday and a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd on Saturday. Before arriving, we were told it would be beneficial to be available for lunch on Friday, but on Thursday night, that same person who told us that said she wouldn’t set up for lunch the next day. All of the other vendors were staying closed for lunch as well. So, our two employees enjoyed a long morning in the air conditioned hotel room.

Friday night was not much of an improvement over Thursday. This led Skyler to talk with other vendors in order to hear what their thoughts were on the festival. We met a lemonade vendor who also set up in Henderson at the WC Handy Festival. He was very disappointed in comparison to the type of business he usually does. He was also told to expect 14,000 people. A team from northern Mississippi was in attendance. They drove 5 hours just to be at this festival and were irrate at the poor setup and lies they had been fed. All of the vendors agreed that food concessions should be located next to the stage. We were told by the chairperson that this was impossible because of electrical requirements. What?! I believe the music stage had plenty of electricity as did the Pepsi concession located right next to it.

At the end of Friday night, we still owed $400 of the vending fee. Skyler didn’t want to pay it. The vending chair showed up with three men to collect the fee from him. We were told if we didn’t pay it right then, we’d have to pack up and leave. He pretty much threw the money at her. “You don’t know what you are talking about,” she said. “Saturday will be packed.”

No it wasn’t. The lunch was very slow. The music attraction was not playing consistently throughout the day. We had an okay dinner crowd, but it wasn’t a Saturday night crowd. The heat was insane, but the problem with the festival was the terrible set-up. None of the vendors stood a chance. We now have a freezer full of meat and buns and a refridgerator full of cole slaw and potato salad.

Lesson learned: Do not attend a new festival with a full set-up. Go in with lemon shake-ups and check it out. Try it on before you buy.

One good thing did come out of it. We met a few very nice food vendors who shared their information about the best festivals to attend. Where will we go next?