Sunday 29 June 2014

Surviving the Book Festival...

Now I've caught up on my sleep, and I've downloaded the photos I took yesterday, here's the review of the day...

Festival poster
There was a little more space as a couple of regional organisations weren't in attendance this year; but there were a number of events also happening around the region this weekend, so they may have been booked elsewhere.

It's an early start for stall holders, as everything needs to be set up and ready for opening at 10 am. So I was up at 6.30- not my normal waking up time for a Saturday, and I hadn't gone to bed until midnight...

It took an hour to set up the writers club stall, rearranging the position of members books, and promotional material.

Finally it was done, and here's the finished stall.

Nottingham Writers' Club stall
I discovered my white tablecloth had a big blue ink stain on it, just where it would have been visible, so it was a flowery effect instead...

The bunting worked well, and another stall holder asked me how I'd printed the lettering on the panels.

Reality was using the shapes available in Word, and careful cutting along lines, plus a mass of double- sided tape and a glue stick.

I got to the talk on Mary Shelley by Christy Fern  in one of the small marquee tents behind the hall, but I only heard the first half hour as I was standing up outside the tent to listen- it was very popular and all the seats were full before the talk even began at 12.30.

The cafe providing refreshments in the hall eventually ran out of cake, but having experienced this in previous years, I made sure I got mine mid-morning.

As it was also the 15th year since the book festival was first held, there was a song written especially to celebrate, and performed by the 'Lowdham Singers' for local book shop owner, Jane Streeter (who runs the Lowdham Bookcase in the village) who started the festival up.

What did I learn that I can pass on to you?

Background posters or upright banners- like the festival one in the first photo. They attract the eye and get the message over; they also roll down into a compact unit when you're finished, so easy to transport. If you're doing a lot of events then they could be quite useful. Quite a few stalls were using them, and they can be put up or folded down as needed. (You can see the back of one of these banners behind me in the final photo.)

As the afternoon drew to a close and visitor numbers dropped, I was chatting with the official festival photographer- since the start of the festival on the 20th, he'd taken at least, 2,000 pictures.

He tried out my new bridge camera, and took a great photo of me, so thank you Mr Photographer. :)

And of course, dismantling the club stall took half the time it took to put together!

It's a long day, but for me it's only once a year, and I'm constantly learning from everything I see and hear at events such as this.

So this is the photo that was taken on my camera by the official photographer.

At the end of a long day...



6 comments:

Keith Havers said...

The display looks great. You worked really hard, Carol. Well done.

Teresa Ashby said...

That looks fantastic, Carol, really professional - and that is a lovely photo of you x

Carolb said...

Thanks, Keith. It was a joint effort getting it just right. :)

Carolb said...

Thanks, Teresa. I was really pleased with how good the stall looked, and I love the photo of me- I'm amazed I still looked tidy. :)

Maxi said...

Glad the festival went well after all your hard work!

Carolb said...

It was a big relief that everything looked good, Maxi, it was a shame the weather wasn't better...