After a marathon weekend at the
Treasure Island Music Festival I've finally found the time to announce to the blogosphere that it was a success! This show was by far the biggest event the Vivi Dot team has ever participated in and we're proud to say we not only survived, but we had a great time and sold a record number of dots along the way.
Here's how it all went down....
Duncan and I headed out to Treasure Island on Friday to set up and check out our booth space. By the time we arrived it was pretty chilly and windy so set up really only amounted to hanging some lanterns, figuring out our table layout and dropping off as much product and display supplies as we could. We walked around the grounds and were pleasantly surprised to see how small it was. It definitely is a 'boutique festival' and not nearly as daunting as Coachella, Outside Lands, etc. After our quick walk around we were off to Trader Joe's to grab snacks and beverages for the weekend ahead.
We woke up early on Saturday and headed off to pick up Summer and Allie who had coffee and bagels waiting for us. We arrived on Treasure Island around 10am and quickly started setting up the booth. We couldn't have asked for a better location as we were on the corner facing the main entrance/walkway. We were also neighbors with the mini
Indie-mart so our friends from
Deadbeat Sister,
Pop Junkie, etc were right nearby. We were also kitty corner to
San Franpsycho who we later realized was run by a guy (Andy) who Duncan grew up skating with. The only drawback to our open corner spot was that we were at the mercy of strong gusts of wind. Thank goodness for cat ties and fishing line! We rigged up some Macgyver type s*#t that saved us from having to have someone guard the outside of the booth and watch for fly-away product.
The concert goers started streaming in at 11:30 and the traffic flow to our booth didn't really slow down at all until after dinner. Duncan and I were able to sneak away to catch a little bit of Hot Chip and Justice and listened to everything else from our booth, which thanks to the alternating stages was easy to do.
Day two went pretty much the same way as the first, but it was a tad busier, warmer and less windy early on. I was excited to see that there were buyers for each of my varied products though rings, small hair clips and watch necklaces seemed to be the biggest sellers. All of the shoppers were upbeat and really excited about what the Vivi Dot booth had to offer. It was awesome to get the Vivi Dot name and products out there to an entirely new set of consumers.
Allie and Summer headed home on the shuttle after dinner. This allowed them to get home at a more reasonable hour and freed up the entire car to get everything home. We started packing up at the designated 9:30, mid way through the Raconteurs set. We made the tough decision to hoof it to the car with everything instead of waiting at least another hour and half before we'd be able to drive onto the grounds. This was a really rough way to end three very long days, but when my head hit the pillow at 11:45 instead of after 1:00am it was definitely worth it. Oh and frozen treat from the ice cream man on the way back from our first of three trips to car didn't hurt either.
Check out some of the 'press' Vivi Dot has received as a result of the TIMF:
Popote
Classy Sassy
Worn ThroughLabels: events, press
They also posted my discount code on their blog! They really have a knack for making everything look so pretty.
Last up was a feature on Design Mom's Gift Guide to Darling Things. Gabrielle Blair (the Design Mom) is a mother of five, an art director, co-founder of Kirtsy, and is even in Martha Stewart's Blog Circle. It's a HUGE honor for Vivi Dot to be considered darling by such an accomplished woman with amazing taste and a very impressive resume!
