We have a festival that is 10 day long, and the spaces are about what you mentioned, depending upon who you are renting from and the location, it could cost you anywhere from $200 to $2000 for the festival.

I've never set up there, basically because I never wanted to be 'at the market' for 10 days continuously from before daybreak to well after dark. Most vendors camp at their site.

Marla

I wouldn't do it. People aren't there to looking to buy produce. They are looking for ready to eat, unhealthy fair food.

That is my thoughts. We have a one day festival in my town. There are lots of craft vendors and things like that. I set up a booth to sell my jams and jellies. I do ok. I started to take my produce, it is ready to sell so why not, and I don't sell much, but I do sell some. Most say they will stop back by, some do, most don't.

The reason we set up this booth is for a landing zone for my family. It is a "Parking spot for all their stuff".

Just my two cents.

Jay

I know people who have sold produce at fairs in SW Ohio and EC Indiana and have done alright. But They were resellers or had a big operation with a lot of workers. You have to have enough to sell around $500 to $1000 worth of goods a day (i.e big full display) and you will have to, after selling for 10+ hours, go home each evening after dark and work several hours picking, cleaning and packing produce.

Mike, you being a one person operation on very small acreage, I don't think would be able to keep up unless you can source a lot more food. I would think one day of sales would pretty much wipe out your garden for 5 to 7 days. I thought about doing this a few years ago and decided that with only two people there was no way we would be able to keep up with harvesting and did not think that on 2.5 acres of planted beds we would have enough stuff to sell daily.

I find it is pretty much impossible to both farm and sit at a market 8+ hours a day for a week unless you have staff

I wouldn't expect fair goers to purchase much produce. They tend to be there until after dark, for the shows and to see the lights on the midway. Not the sort of place where you'd want to drag around a bag of lettuce with you.

The only thing I have ever bought at festival type events were specialty products. People seem to want to buy fudge all the time and whenever I am at a fair, there's the fudge booth with a lineup. Honey, pesto, gourmet vinegars or specialty dried sausage made from elk/emu etc. I only buy things that I won't find near where I live. However, if it's a 10 day festival it may not have that same fair atmosphere and you might get a different assortment of buyers.

I do a huge 4 day event at my farm-a big yard sale that get around 30K to 50K people through. I sell produce but I never sell more than $500 during the course of the event 1 (and the one time I grossed over $500 for the 4 days was when I bought 100 dozen ears of sweet corn and most of the income came from that).

And considering fairs usually charge $400+ for the week (double if you are a food vendor and a produce person may be considered such) I don't see where you will make any money and you will have to work around 23 hours a day to keep it all together. there are much easier and cheaper ways to sell produce like farmers markets, to restaurants, roadside stands, etc..

Thanks, all - I appreciate the input. FWIW, if the fair was two weeks later, I know I would have the tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, beans and summer squash to sell, as well as quite a few peppers and maybe some acorn squash and onions. Lettuce is not a problem - I'll have it all summer.

But checking the average number of Growing Degree Days between June 1-August 9, unless this is a perfect summer, no way will I have enough for five good days; two - yes, five - no!

The hours would not be unbearable or close to it. The fair runs from 4-10 or 11 and I would plan on taking the week off from my day job. That would give me plenty of time to harvest, wash and bag produce, though I suspect I wouldn't have lots of time to sit back and consume mass quantities of alcoholic beverages!

One good thing - I can wait until the last moment to rent a booth so if, by chance, I have tomatoes, beans, cucumbers and squash up to my eyeballs, I would be able to sell it. I can also get a booth close to the grandstand (where everyone heads after dark) and the exit road from the grounds where someone could run over and get stuff on their way home.

I guess the bottom line is to not write this idea off but don't plan on it being a major sales week either. But one side benefit would be that the vast majority of visitors are from a five-mile radius so it would allow me to promote my produce stand.

Again, thanks for your input!

Mike