We decided to try another spot and see what happens. This gig came about from our Springfield farmers market location. A person who had bought our kettle corn wanted us to pop at their hospital employee event. We were kind of skeptical because we’ve done events like this and you don’t get the kind of traffic you need to make it a worthwhile day. I guess we weren’t skeptical enough.

The people running it were certainly nice, but this was their first time doing it. When I first arrived, the woman in the video just pointed me to the far end of the parking lot. I’m standing there in the middle of all this asphalt, wondering exactly where I’m supposed to pitch my tent. I’m looking at this large group of tents all bunched together, figuring I’ll be on the end of them, but she then PLACES me on the outer edge of everything. I’m thinking, “wow, this event must be huge, since I need to leave all this room in front of me.” I then get crap from a bikey guy who thought I was cutting into the motorcycle parking. He was trying to get me to move into the dirt. Cripes.

 We haven’t had a chance to do an event like this, so this was interesting. Jim Doherty had contacted us via email a while ago about popping at the Sudbury Colonial Faire in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Everyone gets dressed up in period costumes from the revolutionary war and reenacts chasing the British out Sudbury…or Massachusetts..or whatever. Their normal kettle corn vendor couldn’t make it this year, so they had contacted us.

I KNEW our bright yellow tent would be an issue with somebody someday. They try to get everything to blend in with the ambiance of the event so you can delude yourself into thinking you had lived in that era, for a short while anyway. I’m not too sure if they used yellow dye #9 back in the 1700’s. I had sent him photos of our setup and after some head scratching, they decided to go with us. I kind of promised that if this event were lucrative, we could scrap together the 200 bucks to get a plain white tent and fit in better next time.

Of course it rained like [insert funny analogy here]. Normally on a weekday farmers market, if it rains we don’t make the trip because it’s VERY tricky to make kettle corn in a downpour. If you don’t bag everything within a few minutes you end up with a bin of mush. Jim had mentioned that MANY people come JUST FOR THE KETTLE CORN, so we were concerned about not disappointing the crowd that will “soldier through” this event, come rain or shine. We couldn’t just blow them off even when the forecast predicted “suck”.

The event went off as planned, we went through 5 oils which isn’t too bad of a day. We normally do that on a regular day at the Framingham Farmers market. The rain held off pretty much during the day, but waited for us to start loading the trailer before it really turned on the faucet. Of course an hour later, when we’re sitting in our cars, ready to pull out of there is when it stopped completely. I think the kettle corn Gods were giving us the finger for our incongruous tent color.

What is also notable (to us anyways) is that THIS field, which is located next to the Wayside Inn, was the location of another kettle corn vendor which inspired us to get into this business. For years, “Grand Pa’s Kettle Corn” has popped here at their yearly craft festival which Velma and I would always visit, just to get their kettle corn. Many people were wondering if we were the same people who pop there every year. I took that as a compliment since I’ve always loved “Grand Pa’s Kettle Corn”.

We recently popped for two days at the Mattoon Street Arts Festival in Springfield, Massachusetts. We haven’t done too many of these kinds of shows. Normally they’re kind of tricky to get into, there’s usually the “regular kettle corn guy” who’s been doing these events for years. I always thought that kettle corn was a staple at these events. We discovered Grandpa’s Kettle Corn (our favorite OTHER kettle corn vendor) at the Wayside Inn’s arts and crafts festival in Sudbury, Massachusetts.

I guess last years event was better. We had a little drizzly rain during Saturday while our kettle refused to light. (There was a leak in the gas hose to the pilot light.) We frantically drove around Springfield looking for a replacement part and lost the first half of the day. We were also kinda stuck way in the back. The food court was off of a side street to the main event, and our tent was stuck in a driveway off of that side street.

Here’s what we’ve noticed between our regular Farmers markets gigs and these single events: our weekly farmers markets customers tend to buy multiple bags per visit and tend to stock up for the week. We hardly got any double orders during this arts and crafts show. We were also surprised to find a bunch of people who had no idea what kettle corn was. We had to do a lot more selling (giving away of free samples) to get the sales.

After two days we did just a little more business than our best single day at the Springfield Farmers market. If you subtract the $150 fee we paid to get into this event, we did below average for both days. Don’t forget, we only pay about $15 for a farmers market spot. Boy do we like our regular customers!