I returned to the Middlebury Fall Festival for the fourth time in September. There were many similarities to previous years (2013, 2014, 2015) but this year there were a few small changes.
Middlebury Fall Festival from the Potter’s Perspective
A milestone has been reached in my pottery career. With a ton of help from my wife, I completed my first festival as a pottery vendor. But not just a vendor, I was also a demonstrator!
The Middlebury Fall Festival took place last Friday and Saturday in downtown Middlebury. To be honest, I didn’t get to take in much of the festival but I had a great time.
Preparation
I felt like the whole week before the festival was crazy. There was so much stuff to do. I got the kiln fired a few days before the festival which is always a lot of work by itself. Then I had to shoot some photos of those pots, haul all the other pots up out of the basement, pack up my wheel, clay and all my tools and put together a few papers for my display. My wife and I also spent one night shopping for wrapping paper, bags, an extension cord and some other items. Then My wife and mother-in-law spent Thursday night cutting and attaching price tags. I brought home two tables from school and dropped them off in Middlebury. Finally, Friday morning we hauled over two car loads of pots, tools, clay and a pottery wheel. And that is NOT a portable pottery wheel!
Setup
vendor tent
They had us located in booth 50 which was the corner of one of the larger tents just behind the information booth. We arrived around 7:30 am, unloaded and got everything set up. It took quite a while and I felt like I was still getting things organized and set up throughout the day. The space was right next to the electrical box and there was a water spigot about 100 ft. away. The festival staff was helpful and very nice too. The festival officially opened at 10:00am and I had my tools and wheel ready to go.
Goshen Pottery Workshop, The First
There are some great benefits to living in the Goshen area. On Saturday I experienced another shining example of this at the first installment of the Goshen Pottery Workshop Series. I’ll admit, it was my first pottery workshop so I have nothing to compare it to but the surface class I took last summer… but it was amazing. Not only did I get to spend half a day with some of Goshen’s finest potters, I got to experience 3 hours of the best demonstrations that money can buy. And it all happened practically in my backyard.
The Goods
So the following is my account of this tremendous time. Disclaimer alert: this is mostly from memory so there may be a few things that I don’t remember quite right, or things that I don’t remember at all!