gonzai | This Show Totally Blew (Reply)

Saturday, I had my first show of the 2008 Christmas season at the Maryland School for the Blind's Baltoween Festival. For the 4th year in a row, it rained and the show had to be moved indoors. Accordingly, we all had less space to work with (although some people of course demanded they get the 10'x10' they originally signed up for; that's nice, but the theatre building isn't big enough to hold the vendors AND give them that much space.) There were far fewer attendees, and when it not only started pouring but also blowing shortly after the event started, most of them left. The ones who were there weren't spending. And the band was moved indoors to the same building as the vendors, but left their sound system set for an outdoor show. Doesn't work in a 50'x70' building with tile floors. Gee-yah, that was loud. My mother was so miserable she opted to stand in the rain for an hour rather than deal with the volume. We were supposed to be there until 5, I gave up at 3 and we were home at 4:30. Would have been home sooner except some loser parked his van across the loading ramp, so the hand carts had to go over the curb (always fun) and had to be carted that much further. Gross receipts: $51. It was $30 just to sign up and gas & taxes will eat the rest, so really bad day. The lone saving grace is that it wasn't actively raining during load in or load out. Although it was absolutely pouring within 5 minutes of getting home, quitting early was definitely the right decision.