My latest addition to our
flying canopies section occurred on Thursday, January
21, 2010 at the
Tyson
Wells Sell-a-Rama. We had a storm with 70+mph
winds. Here are what some of the canopies looked
like: The first and third images are my two
canopies. To view more, please visit the
Tyson Wells Disaster
Gallery.
Over the years, we have seen many canopies go flying after being caught
by strong wind gusts. Here are some of our experiences.
Hopefully, vendors take precautions when dealing with windy events.
Got to weigh things down.
It was around 1:30pm and I was sitting toward the back of the canopy. I
looked to the right and saw the canopy begin to lean toward my
left. I quickly stood up and reached over with my right arm and
pushed up against the leg. Too late. "Bye bye Balboni." Almost
"Bye-bye Dave." I couldn't stop it and I then 'moon-walked' quickly
away as it narrowly avoided crashing into me. I couldn't believe
what just happened. Fortunately, there was nobody around in or next
to the canopy.
This happened at the Alma Heights Christian Academy Flea Market.
If you wish to see more pictures and read about the event,
please click here.
If you want to read about my misadventures this year with
COSTCO Caravan Canopies,
please click here.
The Craft Fair, Casa de Fruta, Hollister, CA Sep 5-7,
2009
WATCH OUT FOR FLYING CANOPIES (again). TRULY AN
UPLIFTING EXPERIENCE!! The weather was quite nice the
entire day with temperatures in the high 60s to low
70s. Occasional breezes popping up periodically with
some heavier gusts during the afternoon and this is what
happened during the middle part of the afternoon. Watch
out for Flying Canopies!!! I was located amongst the
other canopies with booths on both sides of me. There
were four booths located along the left side of the
lagoon and this one was the last one there. A 10x20
booth and it flipped completely over. I had looked in
that direction a couple times, but didn't think much of
it until Mark pointed it out as being a canopy flipped
over. You know, I had glanced over there, but I thought
it was a teepee or something, but of course, I didn't
have my glasses on okay? What a terrible day for these
people. I have no idea whether they had it weighed
down, but nonetheless it wasn't weighed down
sufficiently since a strong gust came swooping in and
overturned it.
October 2007 -
Up and Over in Vacaville
Back in October, we did Harvest Days there (which was absolutely terrible)
and were out in a plaza in front of the Nut Tree shopping area. We had to
remove all our merchandise because they were not providing security and
there's a lot of riff-raff scouring the areas at night. So, we left our
setup behind for the night. I thought that it was weighed down pretty good,
even though we had one of those lightweight Caravan canopies (cheap, bottom
of the line as far as canopies go) with 18 heavy 2x5 metal grids surrounding
it. I had a set of covers up, but I left one side open....the front. We
were in a hurry to get home (60 minutes away) so we could watch the Red Sox
in the World Series. Leaving the side open light that was a stupid blunder,
a major tactical error. In our rush to get out of there, we decided that
there would be no harm leaving that side open.
Well....we knew that this area (Vacaville, Fairfield, Vallejo, Suisun) is
known for its strong winds. When we returned in the morning, I was somewhat
shocked to see that the wind had flipped our canopy completely over. The
winds had come from the side that was open and actually lifted it upwards,
grids and all and turned it on its side. What a mess. I wish I had my
camera to take some pictures. Cross pieces bent, grids laying all over the
place, the cover entangled up.
On Days like this, you just want to scream. I must say
that this has been an extremely windy year for vendors.
I've been seeing canopies blowing all over the place at many
shows
April 2007 Down and Around
in Pacific Grove
n Pacific Grove in April, we had extremely high
winds and it was said that there was a canopy that blew over and
traveled several blocks. Don't quite know how true this is, but a
number of canopies were destroyed during that event. One that was
two spaces down from us goppled over (becaue IT WAS NOT SECURED WITH WEIGHTS)
and came to rest just a few feet from some big plate glass windows.
Blowin' away In Manteca in April
a number of canopies were
also blown over. We had some of the worst weather of the
year....heavy rains, winds....just downright ugly. Winds
were blowing canopies all over the place. Many were
flipped over. Fortunately, we were weighed down pretty
good with the grids. However, this was a two-day show and
when we returned on Sunday morning...canopies all over the
place. Watch out for flying canopies!!!! The moral
of the story is to never do a show in Manteca. Too many booths.
Not enough people buying.
Out and Beyond in
Oregon in July 2007
One of the windiest places that I have ever seen was is Winchester Bay near the
Oregon Coast during mid-July. We were participating in Ocean Fest there
and were unloading from our motor home. After we had two canopies up
back-to-back and our grids attached, a couple gigantic gusts of wind came up,
lifted the canopies up and moved them a couple feet. I looked around and
there were people around with their canopies secured to all sorts of weights,
including cars. We had no weights. However, we did have some buckets
and I filled up 6 of them with water and attached them to the corners and in the
middle. That helped a lot and we didn't go airborn. There were a
number of canopies that did topple over during the night.
Our first 'Watch out for Flying Canopies' of
the new year. This took place at the Ripon Almond Blossom Festival.
Winds were picking up throughout the day at the festival. There were
approximately 30-35 booths located on the baseball field at the
Community Center there. The back row of 6 booths took the full force of
the wind. We were located in a different area in front of the CC and
our tent did not even budge.
I did not actually see any canopies go airborne, but each time I
checked over there the winds were really whipping around them. I saw
individuals holding on for dear life and 30-40MPH winds danced through
the area. One person had remove his top early on, but by the time the
afternoon came around, the 6 vendors on the outside had packed up their
canopies and gave up.
I really try to stay away from festivals in our home state of California
this time of year, but not much else happening anywhere. So we were
left with no options. Never been a good show for us and to tell you the
truth, why do they have this show in February, when they know that the
weather is bad. True, it is celebrating the 'Almond Blossoms' but
seriously, does that really matter? The bottom line of a festival is to
have it when and where the most people would enjoy it.
Occasionally, the weather isn't too bad here in this area, but still,
come on now...this is February. I have to announce some price gouging
here....the cost of the booth is high....$385 for a 10x10 at a time when
weather is questionable. They are picky about sitting in your chair on
a sidewalk and tell you what you can or can not sell. This show runs
until 9;00PM and it gets dark at 5;30. So, you need lights, of course.
They charge at least $65 for electricity and they will not let you plug
in unless you have paid for it and your cord has been 'tagged'. Also,
they are overcharing vendors $100 for insurance for the event. So,
vendors do have a lot of issues with the Ripon Chamber of Commerce over
this event.
