Blog: Individual Festival Blogs

Bear Paw Sticks & Staffs, Boyce, LA

BEAR PAW STICKS 2010 Festival Schedule: 2/27-28/10 at the RED RIVER ARTS & CRAFTS GUILD SHOW in the Rapides Parish Coliseum Exhibition Building in Alexandria LA --- 3/27-28/10 at COTILE TRADE DAYS at Cotile Lake in Boyce LA --- 4/24/10 at the LSUA RENAISSANCE FESTIVAL at the Alexandria Campus in Alexandria LA --- 5/1/10 at the SOUTHERN FOREST HERITAGE MUSEUM FESTIVAL in Long Leaf LA --- 5/29/10 at the FLEUR DE LIS CRAFT SHOW at the Natchitoches Events Center in Natchitoches LA --- 6/12-13/10 at the MELROSE ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL at Melrose Plantation in Melrose LA --- 7/16-17/10 at the NSU FOLKLIFE FESTIVAL in Prather Coliseum at the Northwestern Campus in Natchitoches LA --- 9/11-12/10 at the RED RIVER ARTS & CRAFTS GUILD SHOW in the Rapides Parish Exhibition Building in Alexandria LA --- (Tentative) 10/23-24/10 at the NELA SCOTTISH GAMES at Karoli Park in West Monroe LA --- 11/27/10 at the FLEUR DE LIS CHRISTMAS SHOW in the Natchitoches Events Center in Natchitoches LA. Y'all come see us! 

Bear Paw Sticks & Staffs is back! Check out our 2010 (tenative) festival schedule! Thanks, everyone, for your support! We're all better now! David & Lisa Brown @ Bear Paw Sticks & Staffs

It is with deep regret that Bear Paw Sticks & Staffs has to announce the termination of their 2009 Festival Schedule due to serious and possibly long-term health issues for both David & Lisa Brown. Please be assured that the internet part of Bear Paw Sticks & Staffs will still be up and running, and we have high hopes for a return to the festival curcuit in 2010.

Visit us also at bearpawsticks.com, AmericanCraftGuide.ning.com, Artfire.com, Etsy.com, FaceBook.com, Festivalvendor.ning.com, MySpace.com, and ThisNext.com!

Since each stick, staff, wand, and shillelagh is unique, the pictures on display are representations of what I may have in stock. Since I also sell at festivals my stock changes frequently. Here is our 2009 Festival Schedule. Other dates and locations will be added. Y'all come see us! 2/7-8/09 in Alexandria LA Coliseum at the RED RIVER ARTS & CRAFTS GUILD - 3/20-22/09 in Forest Hill LA at the LA NURSERY FESTIVAL - 3/27-28/09 in Boyce LA at the COTILE TRADE DAYS - 4/18/09 in Long Leaf LA at the SOUTHERN FOREST HERITAGE FESTIVAL - 4/24-25/09 at the LSU Alexandria LA campus at the LSUA RENAISSANCE FAIR - 5/15-17/09 in Marksville LA at the TUNICA-BILOXI POW WOW - 5/23/09 in Natchitoches LA at the FLEUR DE LIS CRAFT SHOW - 6/13-14/09 in Melrose LA at the MELROSE PLANTATION ARTS & CRAFT SHOW

Indoor venue: No sales, but garnered a wealth of information from experienced festival vendors and promoters about future festivals on our schedule! Also got invited to several future festivals that we hadn't heard about by scouting promoters! And DON'T ignore comments from the festival promoters; their comments on your setup and advertising can be worth gold to newbies! No experience is wasted if you learn something, and we learned A LOT! 10'X10' lots are $60, $20 for electricity, byoc.

Festival listed & rated on festivalnet.com

Outdoor venue: High foot traffic, low sales; both due to carnival on site. Has anyone else experienced this? Vendor parking was a nightmare due to lack of communication between promoters and local fire & police depts; the rules changed daily. 2010 to be held on new site with dedicated vendor parking and better power supply. Electricity rate changed from $10 for 2009 to $25 for 2010; 10'X10' lot fee still $75. Haven't decided on 2010 attendance yet.

Outdoor venue: Set up EZ-Up tent w/sticks & staffs Friday am 3/27 before major thunderstorms came thru. The tent top is now majorly stretched and flappy; any ideas on how to remedy this, please? COLD and windy Sat 3/28. Sunday 3/29 started cold, but ended nice. David had a "box sale" on the other half of our double lot (boxes of camping gear, fishing gear, household goods, electronics, etc, for $5 per box). Good way to clean out the sheds, kitchen, carport, & back porch; and people got fantastic deals. It's that kind of crowd there, not a lot of arts & crafts so much as resell & garage-sale type stuff. Foot traffic was medium; maybe 5T over both days. We made expenses plus a little profit and got rid of a bunch of (to us) junk. Vendors can park right behind their individual setups; and there's plenty of electricity, running water, and porta-johns close by. This is one of David's favorite festivals, so he rebooks it every year. Lots are 10'X10' for $30, electricity $15, byoc.

Can't rate this one, folks, 'cause we never got there. I missed the two steps leading down from the living room part of our hotel room to the bedroom part & sprained/strained my right foot, both knees, and my left wrist. The foot & knees are much better today (4/6), but the wrist is still swelled, painful, & wrapped. Needless to say, we didn't even go set up. (David & I each weigh about 350 lbs; the logistics & mental images of him helping me in a porta-john were downright funny!) We came back home Saturday am, and I went to bed with ice, heating pads, Ace bandages, & Tylenol.  Woke up Sat eveving with an infected tooth! Guess I wasn't miserable enough! So today I've got dr & dentist appts, and I'm typing this one-handed. Reckon this one wasn't meant to be. Y'all please pray for David & his never-ending patience!

4/14/09-Left arm turned out to be broken; in cast for next 6 weeks. Typing skills very limited; will do my best to keep up.

Very historic & pretty setting at a restored sawmill. Forecasted weather very bad, but thunderstorms held off until 4pm. Spaces were under a tin-roofed warehouse, 15'X15' for $35, electricity available, byoc; lots of resale vendors, some commercial, not many hand-crafters. It's billed as an "Antique & Artisan Trade Show". We had zero sales. Festival was very small & new, but very nice. Foot traffic was very slow, but festival should grow as it gets better known. They had tours of the museum and grounds, bar-b-que, and 3 stages with different types of music at the same time. Projected attendance of +5000 was probably less than half that, possibly due to the weather forecast. Don't know yet about next year.

This is our second festival with my broken arm. Unloading, setup, breakdown, and loading took twice as long with me sidelined; this cast really bites! However, this was our first really profitable setup this year! This venue is always good to and for us; our fantasy/gaming line does extremely well here, and we always get a suggestion or two for variations on existing product lines and a few custom orders. The weather tried to be against us; the wind made several attempts to parasail our setup around the campus, but was foiled by our tiedown system and the sheer weight of our product! Saturday morning it briefly sprinkled rain several times, thereby taking foot traffic down to about half of what it was last year; we still managed to almost double our sales over last year! Since there's no setup fee (lots are minimum 10'X10', electricity available, byoc), and the college is around 20 miles from our house this one was almost pure profit! We love this venue!

Outdoor venue with lots of resale; very disappointing sales; other vendors said it was the worst year they'd ever seen for foot traffic & lack of sales. Weather was a factor; Friday & Saturday it either rained or threatened to do so, & was very hot & humid; Sunday turned chilly & was rained out; we lost the whole day. The promoters were extremely nice & accomodating; they provided very good lunches/dinners to the vendors (delivered to our setups!) on Thursday (setup) and Saturday. We could park the trailer and truck right behind our setup; very convenient & helpful to us older semi-handicapped vendors! EMT's came by our setup regularly to check if we needed cold water & ice, or other medical assistance. There were even "booth sitters" made available if we wanted to take a little time & go watch some of the performances. David had a blast reuniting with old military buddys from his Viet Nam service days; there was 1 special 30-minute program each day honoring the military veterans & he was asked to participate. He was plumb tickled! Lot rent is $175 for 20'X20' and includes good security & electricity, but byo extension cords. We barely made lot rent, not to mention hotel, food, & gas, so we don't know about next year. We can afford only so much prestiege!

Festival & promoter listed & rated on festivalnet.com: OUR FIRST A&C FESTIVAL WITH NO RESALE/COMMERCIAL!!! Very nice indoor venue; relatively easy parking/unloading/reparking process. Coffee & donuts provided, lunch ordered & delivered to your booth, booth sitter available if needed, easy access to electricity, spaces advertised as 10'X10', but actually more like 12'X12'. Foot traffic was very good; our wizard staffs didn't sell, but drew lots of favorable commentary & drew customers for hiking staffs into our booth. Fellow vendors were great, as usual, very nice, informative people with a good sense of humor. Sales were mediocre (we met expenses, which were low as Natchitoches is local to us), but the venue & promoter were so excellent we signed up for the 11/28 show, which promises to be a Christmas shopping extravaganza. In fact, out of 60+ total vendors, 39 had signed on for the Nov show by closing time! 10'X10' corner space by the entrance door with electricity (byoc) was $85.

Well, folks, weatherwise, Melrose was HOT HOT HOT! 97 degrees both days with +100 heat index. Foot traffic was surprisingly good (more Saturday than Sunday); sales were ok-we met expenses and made a small profit. Vendor accomodations were fair; why do promoters assume that if you're a vendor you can't possibly be physically handicapped. too? They definitely need more portajons, they need to put them in the shade, and they need to spread them out throughout the grounds. They also need better provisions for vendor parking (some more of the "yes, you can park here; no you can't, move" mentality).Way too much resale for a juried arts & crafts festival, but David took Honorable Mention in the woodwork category with one of his walking sticks! Entertainment was provided by the squirrel in the pear tree overhanging our tent that expressed his dislike(?) for David by eating half a green pear and throwing the other half at him. Halfway through Saturday his aim got pretty good, too-he beaned him a couple of times! On the plus side, the grounds are beautiful and about half shaded, the promoters and other vendors are nice, and if you can nail a spot in the back you'll probably have more space & shade. Show up on setup day as early as possible! We've firmly and finally decided we are way too old & fat to do any more outdoor festivals, so we won't be doing this one again. 10'X10' lot rent is $150, $35 for electricity, byoc (at least 100 ft, 12v).

Addendum: We've had to cancel the Peach Festival in Ruston 6/27-28/09. I'm going to be in the hospital having a hernia repaired. Did we pick a year to start a business, or what?!?!