The venue was totally inappropriate for an artist alley. When I got there no one was about, I asked the bar staff where the event was and he said it was in a room on the second floor, with no lift it was a struggle carrying my case up. The room was nice for a ceilidh but it was only a single room with a bar in the corner. A customer even said to me "is this it?"
Staff had no idea what they were doing, the two girls were volunteers and when an angry vendor asked to speak to the organiser they were told he hadn't shown up and they didn't know why because no one could contact him. They were nice and came round at the end asking how things could be improved
The layout was pretty bad. They didn't have a table plan so they were just telling people to pick a table. there were 12 artist and vendor spots available. All were booked but only 5 turned up. Apparently the other 7 had chosen to pay on arrival (I didn't realise that was an option or I wouldn't have paid in advance!) Tbales were lined up around the edge of the room. The vendor next to me was moved a few times so they could open the bar in the corner.
The Facebook page advertised a free event with expected attendance of 200+ (although they seem to have changed the FB description because it doesn't say that anymore). In reality around 30-40 people showed up, nothing happened for the first few hours and there were no seats so most people just sat on the floor.
Artist tables were £20 and vendor tables were £30. There was no difference between them. In reality the artist tables were actually in a better place. I felt really sorry for the one comic artist that had a vendor table. I was one of the lucky people that made my £20 back but most vendors didn't sell anything. The tables were cheap but not worth it at all.
Not as advertised at all, if I hadn't made my table back I would have asked for a refund. I hope the other vendors got their money back.
