PART DEUX:
The Orange County Festival was fairly small, and our booth did fairly well. There was the glitch of having a very slow printer; if someone wanted the full reading, it took several minutes to print it out. Still, we made some money for the team, a nice share more than the investment.
During the winter between seasons, der Brucer fiddled and gadgeted with the program, getting it to run faster. Getting a faster printer didn't hurt, either. Come spring, we were ready for a second try, which came with the Long Beach Gay Pride Fest, in May. This time, the beneficiary was the Long Beach Gay Softball League, but it still required der Brucer and myself to man things the entire run of the festival, which meant that we had to be there before the festival opened each day and couldn't leave until after the fest had closed. That made for very long days.
The better printing mechanisms paid off. As it happened, more people wanted the full print-out this time, which was fine by us. Again, we had a success on our hands, which is why we agreed to running the program a third time, at the Los Angeles Christopher West Fair, mid-June.
Ooopsies.
Personally, we couldn't have tried it at a worse time. My mother was dying of cancer, and we didn't know if I would be called up north, not to mention the emotional stress I was going through. But the Fair itself was no picnic.
We were given a booth that we were assured would be in the hub of things. It was not. We were parked well out of the natural traffic flow. That was strike one.
Strike two came that Saturday, when the crowds are smaller. I would have thought that we would have done good business, in spite of the location. Wrong, because the Saturday business was mostly people who just wanted to look and stare, and maybe laugh at what was there. It was the day of the jaded West Hollywood snobs. Making things worse was the reappearance of my ex, who had vanished years before I met der Brucer. He wouldn't even acknowledge my presence, making things even worse for me, and thus worse for der B. I was an emotional wreck.
Sunday, after the Gay Pride Parade, was even worse than Saturday. Everyone followed the parade to the festival grounds...and headed directly to the beer vendors. They had no intention of looking at anything other than each other, and getting another glass of beer.
We barely even made enough to pay for the booth.
So I can fully understand BK complaining about not having a good location. I sometimes wonder about whether these festivals are even worth anyone's time. But it depends on the festival, and the atmosphere. The OC and LB festivals were great, friendly places. I sometimes forget that.
A couple of years later, der Brucer and I went to the CSW festival again. There must have been three other booths selling computerized astrology readings that year. None, from what I could tell, were as well written as I had done. OK, that's vanity on my part. But they weren't doing much business, either.
That's the way things go, I guess.