Manteca Crossroads
            Street Faire
            













 

 

 

 
 



 

 
 April 10-11, Manteca. CA

This event is held annually on the streets of downtown Manteca.  Many people.  Too many booths.  Too many non-profits soliciting in the middle of aisles.  I don't know man, maybe they should rename this thing the Jerry Springer Extravaganza or something like that due to the variety of character's that you come across over there.  Stay tuned.

 
Saturday, April 10

I left Hayward at 5:00am and arrived at the Street Faire at 6:10.  I exited off Highway 120 and drove down to the customary check-in spot.  Still dark.  Told the guy my space number and was told to drive around to kid's on the bikes, where I was escorted by one of them to my space.  Still dark.  I positioned my car and began unloading my things.

Jerry Springer guest #1.  I was in the process of unloading my van when I saw a large truck with a trailer in tow coming down the opposite way.  Supposed to be one-way traffic but this guy was bulldozing his way past the people, forcing people to jump out of the way so he could get through.  There was a guy walking down the street alongside the vehicle and he approached me.  "Can I get you to move your vehicle so we can get through."  I looked at the fat guy and told him "you are going the wrong way."  He responded by saying "We are the city we can do anything we want."  I then had to move my vehicle out of the way so they could pass.  I looked at the side of the trailer and it said something like "Green Living."  Isn't that a shame!!! 



GUY SELLING DOLLAR STUFF had two spaces diagonally from me and that drew quite a bit of people.  Seemed to be the only thing people were buying around there. 

TOO MANY BOOTHS.  Booths were spread out along three streets.  I think maybe six total blocks.  I might estimate 300 or more?   This show draws a large number of vendors because it's cheap ($180) and everybody is looking for a show.  Basically, it's either here or Clovis Big Hat Days, which is too expensive.  Have done it before, but it is not as profitable as it once was.

LOADS OF ZOMBIES WALKING UP AND DOWN the middle of the street.  Right down the middle, not even bothering to look left or right.  Fat one's, skinny one's.  Tall one's, short one's. (part of a song, I do believe).  They would congregate in numerous spots along the street and catch up on the latest news.  What else are they going to do?  Most of these events nowadays are mostly social gatherings.





THERE WERE SOME LADIES SOLICITING in front of their booth a couple spaces down.  There they stood 5-10 feet in front of their booth holding their large pamphlets in their hands trying to sway people into their booth.  They looked like Jesus-people.  I am just glad that they weren't next to me.

PLEASE READ MY REVIEW FROM 2009 where I tell about the Manteca Cowboys who had a couple spaces across from me and were a complete nuisance.  The guy was coming over to my booth and passing out flyers to my potential customers and threatened me.  Another Jerry Springer candidate.  This year, they had four spaces half-a-block down the street and I didn't care what the heck they did.



I SAW A GOOD NUMBER OF BOOTHS that hardly had anybody stopping by and had very few sales and I also saw other booths that did attract the people.  But they weren't buying.  They just walk over, grab their products and put them back down.  Agonizing.

I HAD LOADS OF KIDS and adults coming over to my table and grab my wooden snakes and alligators.  Had buyers but dozens upon dozens had to pick them up and play with them.  Whole families, one by one.  "Mommie, can I get this?" they would ask.  "NO!!  We just got here and you have to walk around."  "You don't need that."  "Oh, that's too scary."  Teenager's would walk over and grab them and shake them at one another.  That's how they get broken.

I DID MANAGE TO WALK DOWN THE MAIN STREET and visit some vendor friends.  Nice to see them.  Matter of fact, I had one of my acquaintance's in the space next to me and we watched each other's booths occasionally and pretty much took turns dozing off.



THE FOOD.  Had the usual food vendor's there and some of them may have made some money.  I spotted Lockeford over there and got one of their great sausages for lunch.  Excellent.  Five bucks for one.  Been eating them for years.  I went over there around noontime and the line was about 3 people long.  Maybe 2 people longer than any other line over there.  Got to the window and forked over my $5 bill and told the guy "The Works."  He knew what I was talking about.  Pile that sauerkraut on!!!   I took it back to my booth and gobbled it down.  Delicious.  I saw some other food booths that I might have tried, but this one suited me fine.






Take  a look at the food lines in the picture.  No lines except for Lockeford Sausages!!

La Peepee.  An elderly guy, perhaps 55 years old grabs one of my tiny stools and tells me how great it would be for the work her does.  He had two little dogs dragging him in tow.  He paid me for the stool and I look down and see Little Oscar lifting his leg and squirting on one of my sacks.  "Heyyyyyy," I yelled very loudly and scared the dog away.  But the puddle was made.  The guy apologized to me but what can you do?

Turned out to be a typical slow day there with sporadic sales for me and everybody else.  I began packing around 4:15 and was done at 5:38.  I walked 3 blocks to my van and drove around, zig-zagging my way through detours over to the entrance to the show, which was still road-blocked.  I stepped out and asked the Cop what time I could go in and he told me "6:00."  Fine.  It was about 3 minutes until.  Shortly after that, I went in and drove over to my space and loaded up and I was OUGHTA THERE!!!
Sunday, April 11

I wasn't there.  Stayed home because of potential bad ugly weather.  I believe that it started raining late in the morning.

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