MILPITAS ADOBO FESTIVAL
September 3-4, 2011
Friday, September 2. With hopes of setting up on Friday, we arrived at the Milpitas Sports Complex on Calaveras Blvd. just after 5:00 pm. We sought out the promoter of the show, and found him talking to two firemen as there seemed to be a disagreement in the size of the festival. I asked him for my space number and he told me that his wife would be here shortly. Uh hum. So, we waited and waited while the promoter and the two firemen tried to settle their indifferences. There were a couple vendors who had set up along the side of the football field and I drove over to one of them. I asked him if he had a map and he pointed over to a number of young ladies who were in the process of setting up. One of them handed me a map and I looked for my name and didn't find it. So, we continued to wait and wait. I wanted to get our canopy and grids up by the time the sun went down.
Six-thirty came and nothing happening. Finally the guy's wife arrived and shortly after, began marking off the spaces. At 7:05, she approached me and showed me where I could set up, next to a rented canopy that had been set up earlier by workers. I quickly drove over there and parked in front of the space. We began unloading. As soon as we could, we set up the canopy and the grids approximately 3 feet from the adjacent canopy.
Within a few minutes, the lady comes over and tells us that we have to move our canopy right up next to the neighbor's booth. I really couldn't believe it. Here we are in the middle of a football field with plenty of room and she is giving us the squeeze play. What is wrong with you, woman? Damm. I paid $350 for this space and don't tell me that I won't be able to sell from the sides. Welcome to my nightmare. I couldn't help but notice that we had a lot of dirt in our area and it looked like our buckets, etc., were going to come out of here with messy bottoms. So, you know that we are located around midfield, between the 45's, the busiest part of any football field where the grass is all chewed up.
WE HAD PLANNED ON STICKING OUR STUFF INSIDE and covering up but the sun was going down and we wanted to get something to eat on the way home. We left and headed over to Chipotle's in Fremont. I parked in front and walked over to the entrance. I opened the door and saw tons of people. Well ya, I did see tons of people but the line was pretty long also. You always see tons of people at any place that sells burritos, you know what I mean? This was the longest line I have ever seen at one of these places and I almost turned around and left, like so many other people did. But I was hungarrry and it would take me longer to go someplace else. It took around 20-25 minutes for me to meander my way around the tables and chairs along with the 30 people in front of me to place my order. I ended up getting three burrito bowls for my family to munch down on.
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MABUHAY!!! MY WIFE OF 38 YEARS happens to be from the Philippines and we try to do anywhere from 1-3 Filipino shows per year. This one is #3 for us this year, with the Stockton Barrio Fiesta and the Vallejo Adobo Festival being the other two. I am certain that my wife (and I) enjoy doing these events as she is able to meet other Filipinos, listen and watch their cultural entertainment and eat some native foods. |
WE ARRIVED AT THE FESTIVAL AROUND 7:00am on Saturday morning and immediately went to work. It took us approximately 3 hours to finish our set up. Around 8:30, the vendor on the other side of us arrived and gave us 3-4 feet between the booths, thank gosh.
THE WEATHER WAS A BIT OVERCAST, but the clouds burned off around noon time and the rest of the day was okay.
FOOD and the Adobo Station. There were some 6 food booths at the event. There was a Korean BBQ, the Filipino Adobe Station, Goldilock's Bakery and a couple other booths selling some sort of ice cream. This being a Filipino event, I was hoping that there would be other foods available such as lumpia, pancit, etc. There were long lines for the adobo on Saturday, but much shorter on Sunday. On Saturday, I picked up a couple pork buns from Goldilocks and that was our lunch. On Sunday, I got some adobo and brought it back to our booth for my wife and I to eat. I paid $6 for a meal that included two microscopic pieces of chicken adobo and a large portion of rice with a teaspoonful of sauce over it. Sorry, but I was disappointed. People were actually standing in line for this? They didn't have much of a choice. Both my wife and I agreed that the adobo wasn't very good.
 URINE NATION |
WEEKLY REPORT for September 3-4 And now, our weekly report on the canine sector of our population . Only saw two dogs here the entire weekend and they were pretty well behaved. You know, overall you don't see too many Filipino families with dogs, No idea what happens to them.
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THE ENTERTAINMENT WAS SOMEWHAT OKAY until this one group took the stage around 5:00. They were yelling and screaming. Really loud. Just not my type of music. I imagine that the younger audience can tolerate this, but to me.... uh uh.
ON SUNDAY MORNING, I took a trip over to the stinky stalls, aka porta-potties. They had not been cleaned out and were a mess. There was no toilet paper in any of them. Gosh, this reminds me of this happening in Taft, when we did a show down there and the porta-potties were absolutely horrible. I wrote down the phone number listed there. I then walked around and tried to find the promoters of the event but was unable to find anybody. I spoke to a policeman who then made an attempt at finding the lady in charge and he ended up telling me that he would notify her when he saw her. Oh Well. I then got on the phone and called the number and spoke to their answering service and the lady that answered the phone said she would take message. Yah. Right. No toilet paper the rest of the day; filthy toilets and each of them (4) was a mess with toilet paper and garbage strewn all over the floors.
MY SALES FOR THE WEEKEND weren't really terrible, but definitely not good. I think that some of the vendors did worst than me. I guess certain styles of Filipino shirts sold decently.
I GUESS THAT I DIDN'T LEARN MY LESSON from the Adobo Festival we did in Vallejo. We had a lot more white people straggle by over there, apparently seeing the festival from the road. However, this one was on a football field behind the school district offices and its adjoining parking areas. In other words, you could not spot the festival from the Street (Calaveras Blvd.). A huge majority of the people attending the event were Filipinos who saw/heard the advertising or were told by word of mouth. Just a handful of white people attended. However, no money here. I thought the people in this area were a little better off than other areas, including Vallejo. Apparently not.
THEY CAME TO WATCH THE ENTERTAINMENT and were pretty much glued to their chairs. Had to pry the chairs off their butts. One booth selling crowbars made a killing on them. The performers were okay and most of them were enjoyable. They had a 4-year-old young miss out there on the stage with all the confidence in the world. There were some other 7-8 year olds who sounded quite promising while some others sounded..... well, not quite so promising. Kudos to the one's who gave it their all.
THERE WAS A KARAOKE BOOTH in close proximity and at times, drowned out the music from the main stage. Some of the singers sounded half-way decent while others were just exercising their vocals. Surprisingly, not that many Filipinos 'took advantage of the opportunity provided.' Most of the singers were black or white.
THIS EVENT HAS TO BRING IN OTHER FOOD VENDORS SELLING more of a variety of the delicious Filipino foods and snacks. I know this is an 'adobo' festival, but sad to say, the adobo is lacking dearly in taste and quality and one has to wonder if this food vendor is somewhat connected to the promoter's of the shows
ALL IN ALL, THIS IS NOT A $350 EVENT (booth fee). This show is overpriced. Taking into consideration a number of factors, I feel that this show is valued at between $175 and $225 for vendor fees. The crowd is just not large enough to provide minimal sales that would justify a $350 booth fee.
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