I have scraped up bits and pieces I had written back then and included that information in this updated review for all to see.  New promoters took over the show in 2009 and I still don't hear too many good things about it.  Back in 2007 I was not writing reviews like this but I have now decided to present this information to you.  I am including a number of photos from the flood in 2006 which were taken in the vendor area.  I only wish that I would have taken some shots of what the parking lot looked like during and after the rains.  A horrible mess.  Mud all over the place with vehicles stuck in it.  Once I realized that all that area was going to turn to mud, I didn't dare move my motor home because we would have gotten bogged in the mud as several other vehicles did.  I waited until the last possible moment late Sunday afternoon to move it, before the other vehicles attempted to get out, which would have made driving through it quite difficult. 

 

March 10-12, 2006.  Chandler, CA.  We traveled a long ways to do this festival, as did many other vendors.  I could never have imagined the torrential downpours on Saturday that would have led to this mess.  We arrived at the festival on Thursday afternoon and set up our canopy.  The Phoenix area had experienced a drought lasting 140 days.

 

Please click here to view gallery of 2006 images (flood).

 

 Last year at the Chandler Ostrich Festival in 2006, we were flooded out and they proceeded to raise booth fees for us this year.  Additionally, those with RV's were FORCED to pay $100 for their so-called 'hookups'.  We were all bunched together in a far area of the parking lot where sand was blowing all over the place and our motor homes became filthy, outside and inside from parking in the sand, etc.  Their water connection composed of a hose where we all had to use 'Y' connections to obtain our water.  So, you know that water pressure was at a minimum.  For our electricity, we had to connect long extension cords to their 'box' and most of us only had 15 amps.  Wouldn't try running more than two things with it......would not even dare turning on our air conditioners....90 degrees and super hot this year.

 

 

 

Now you believe me, huh?  We paid $100 each for those connections you see.  Perhaps 25-30 RV's hooked up and that's around $3,000 these people pocketed.  That comes out to between $33-50 per night for your hookups.  County fairs run between $10-25 per night for hookups with water, electricity and sometimes sewer.  This was preposterous.  The hookups here should run no more than $20-30 for two nights, since we all were paying pretty hefty booth fees.  RIP OFF TIME.

 

 

In 2006, we had to pay $100 to park out in the lot with No hookups.  I stress that word 'forced' because they would not allow us to park anywhere unless they extorted that money from us.  Talk about gouging people.  Anyway, .it rained for 1 1/2 days and since the booths were located in a gulley, a huge bunch of us had over a foot of water in our booths and a lot of things were ruined. As for me, I knew that rain was coming and I saw that the ground was pretty hard and we were located in a gulley.  I knew that if it rained substantially, this area was going to flood.  If I knew that, then so wouldn't the promoter's who could have placed the booths at a higher elevation.  This ain't rocket science, people 

 

It began raining Friday evening and by Saturday morning that parking lot was pretty soaked and vehicles attempting to get out of there were having problems because the place was turning to mud.  Trucks were getting stuck.  Too late to move my motor home now because I would never make it out of there until this stuff dried up.  Even then, some of us couldn't get out. 

dler ostrich festival

In 2006, They increased the entrance fees for visitors to the Chandler Ostrich Festival around 15 percent and the Chandler Chamber of Commerce   increased the parking fee to $10.00 per car.  Very bad thing to do.   Several years ago, this event was held downtown and admission was free.   Everybody knows what happens when you increase the costs of attending a festival.   You affect the 'mood of the crowd' from being upbeat, loose and positive to one that is uptight about spending their money and limit themselves to purchases of food and possibly the carnival rides.  Our booth was  located in the vendor area down in a gulley and the crowds were scarce most of the time.   They just did not want to divert from their straight path which led from the gate, through the food area and on to the carnival rides. 

 

Porta-potties located near the vendors were absolutely filthy at night and many people avoided using them.  They were unlit and you could not see inside. I heard many people making comments such as 'It's too dark' in there..."I can't see'.....'wow, it stinks in there'...'I don't want to step in anything'   As for us, fortunately we had a flashlight to use.  I wish I took pictures of the condition of these porta-potties at night.  Since I had a flashlight, I was able to observe the condition they were in.  So, not only was I able to smell the stench of urine and fecal matter, I spotted much urine, etc. on the floor of the potties. Two years ago,  the same condition existed and one of our neighbor vendors tripped in the dark. and fortunately, she suffered no more than an ankle sprain.   Believe it or not, but it was completely dark in the area.  Washing stations were placed at the far end of each set of porta-potties situated in a way that they could not be spotted by somebody exiting the stalls.  Naturally, these washing stations were probably required, but were situated in a manner where use would be minimal and therefore maintenance would be held down. Brown Amusements

 

In 2007, I found it to be quite humorous when the promoters of the Chandler Ostrich Festival, Brown Amusements, passed out a flyer mentioning that 'we could not tear down until 11:00PM and if we were to do so, then a note would be place in our files.  By 10:00, more than half the vendors were in the process of tearing down and many were gone well before 10:30.  Can you guess how many vendors will be returning next year?  On Saturday night, while exiting, I passed by three sets of vendors discussing the show.  One pointed out with his hands, "All new vendors next year..."  The other two agreed.  I turned to them and said "YES...ALLLL NEW VENDORS"   Yes...all new vendors for the Chandler Ostrich Festival.

 

Even the City of Chandler is not without blame.  Each and every vendor had to pay them $50 for a City Business License in order to participate in the Chandler Ostrich Festival.  Many cities derive all kinds of methods of extracting money and this is another.  There was a time when vendors were not charged these fees.  Fifty Dollars IS EXCESSIVE.  They sent me a 'bill' for this amount earlier in January.  I hadn't decided on whether to do the Chandler Ostrich Festival or not, so I didn't sent in the payment for it (until later).  Next thing I know, I'm getting a bill for a $50 LATE FEE...even when I hadn't even signed up for the Festival.  What is the matter with people in Chandler?  MONEY THIS, MONEY THAT...RIP YOU OFF FOR THIS...RIP YOU OFF FOR THAT... everything is money, money, money.  We only do festivals in cities lasting 2-3 days and are usually charged amounts ranging from $15-30.   Everybody has their hand in our pocketbooks & wallets!!!!  Moreso with Brown Amusements and the Chandler Ostrich Festival.

 

 

In 2006, we arrived in Chandler on Thursday and set up during the afternoon and spent the night out there in the parking lot.  We were all awakened around 3:00am when the Hispanic carnival workers blasted their music loudly for all to hear.  I mean they were blasting it.  They didn't care.  Three-o-clock in the morning.  Who are you going to call?  Ghostbusters? Very tough sleeping with this going on. 

 

The festival started on Friday and it was mostly a carnival-type crowd.  Not very many people during the day but substantially more as the day wore on.  Not a lot of crowd flow down in the gulley where the vendor's were located.  It began raining later in the evening and we retreated back to our motor home, hoping that the rains would decrease.  We stayed in the motor home throughout the night and heard the rain hitting roof.  Quite difficult sleeping especially when you are worried that rainwaters might be accumulating on the top of the canopy.  The rain slowed down around 8:00 and I walked over and checked out the canopy, pushing the water off the top.  I returned to the motor home and that is where we spent the rest of the day.

 

I guess that the rains stopped between 4-6 am on Sunday morning.  I stepped out of the motor home with plastic bags over my shoes and made my way over to the area where the booths were located.  The place had turned into Lake Chandler.  (pictures below were taken around 10-11am and do not show the extent of the flooding as much of the water was absorbed into the ground.

 

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It wasn't until many hours later that they began pumping the water out.  A good deal of it had evaporated, sunk into the ground or evaporated by then, but there was still quite a bit of water around the booths.  They claimed that they could not contact the city workers to get the pump until around 9:00 but much of their story is unbelieveable.  They didn't begin pumping until almost noontime and by the time the got rid of the water and layed down the hay, it was mid-afternoon.  Sales were sporadic the remainder of the day and evening.  With no rain since the morning, the mud in the parking lot was drying up and I was waiting for the chance to go out there and get my motor home out.  You don't want to go out there when it's still wet because you don't want to get stuck and you don't want to wait too long and have other people turn it to mud once again when they try to get out.

 

It was just getting dark when I figured I had my best chance at getting out.  I raced down to the motor home and hopped inside.  The mud was pretty much dried out.  I didn't want to make a right hand turn into the mud from the parking space because I could have gotten stuck.  I decided to maneuver my motor home back and forth and angle it so I would have a straight shot out of there;.  I actually just sat there for 15 minutes waiting as long as possible.  I turned on the engine and put in in gear and pushed my foot down on the accelerator and applied my pressure.  I did not want to stop and I drove out of the space and on down the aisle. slip-sliding as I went through the mud.  There was a group of people standing at the end and I honked my horn because I didn't want to stop.  I got to the end and took a right hand turn and drove quickly out of there and park on dry land.

Toward the end of the night, they would not let us drive onto the grounds and we had to cart our stuff out of there on one of their golf cart things.  It took 4 trips before we got everything over there.  We then loaded in as quick as we could and we got out of there.  That was a close call.  I had pictured us there stuck in the mud and not being able to get out of there until Monday while leaving our canopy and merchandise sitting over there in the field.