Hershey Art Show and CultureFest 2019
I’m behind on the show reports, so I’m going to discuss the latest public appearance and stick the rest in this week, so hang on. It may be a three-post week at the Press!
We were told to set up at 7:30 for a 10 a.m. show, so it was a long day at Hershey Art Show and CultureFest. By the time we had gotten home, unpacked, checked the inventory, and accounted for the sales, we had a 12-hour workday under our belts.
But we didn’t mind. The time goes as it always goes: one minute at a time. And we were happy being among the first to set up our canopy and tables on the side street near Fenicci’s. There was plenty of room to maneuver the car and its contents, and we could sit back and watch as the later vendors threaded their way through the increasingly crowded street.
Impressions: There was a pretty good turnout, many of them people from the neighborhoods who could walk down. Many of them brought their dogs; we must have seen twenty of them throughout the day. There didn’t seem to be as many vendors as last year, but many more food trucks, including the return of Olivero’s Vineyard with their delicious sangria. One advantage of owning your own business: on the job drinking with the boss’ approval!
As we did with ArtFest, Skye and I strolled around the vendors and picked a few that particularly attracted us.
Bianca Zidik brought along her magic Fashion Bus (that’s her creation Skye’s inspecting at the top of the page). Wonderful boutique on wheels, featuring clothes that she designed and sewed. She had purses, bracelets, wraps, robes. Like playing dress-up in Diane von Furstenberg’s closet walk-in closet. Smart girl. Wanted a bus like this about five years ago, and while in college taking a business class was able to draft a plan for this. (I’m assuming she got help along the way.
We’ve seen Patti Tingen at the Winter Arts Show, so it was a pleasant surprise to see her tent set up next to ours. It was the perfect fit, since we don’t sell children’s books, and she doesn’t sell a line of murder mysteries and Sherlock Holmes fanfiction. We were thrilled to see she did very well selling her 32-page book “A Cat Named Mouse.”
Finally, we stopped at Karelyn Soaps and looked over her selection of natural soaps, lip baums, and lotions. Many of the usual florals and citrus-scented bars were there — some with names like “Unicorn Farts” and “You Put the Da Lime in Da Cocoanut.” I was taken with the pine tar and tea tree bar. It smelled like turpentine, but the other ingredients cut the smell so it was astringent, but not overwhelming. Highly recommended for the woodworking man in your life.
Those were the highlights. We had a great time chatting with people, seeing again the young girl writing the World War II YA book, the Dan Simmons fan who told me about “The Fifth Heart,” in which Sherlock Holmes and Henry James investigates Clover Adams’ suicide. Mark Twain’s in there somewhere, so I’ve reserved my copy to find out what Simmons did with him. There are the people who’ve seen us at previous events, and it was fun seeing them again.
We also talked with Sarah A. Walker of RNDM doodlez, a storyboard and layout artist whose portfolio can be viewed at Behance.
The best surprise was the couple who came up to the booth. They were passing through Hershey and stopped at the Starbucks across the street when they found out about the festival.
She looked over our rack and picked out “Writers Gone Wild.” “Oh, I loved this book. Have you read anything else by him?”
“Read? I wrote the book!” She was a math teacher who somehow got a hold of the book, and passed it along to her friend at school who’s an English teacher.
Clearly, I need to get cracking on “Writers Gone Wilder.”
Our next appearance will be Sherlockian in nature: “Scintillation of Scions” on June 7-8. Locally, Teresa will be at Cupboard Maker Books in her Odessa Moon persona for their “Sultry Summer Signing” event.