That was.... AWESOME!

We had so much fun at High Sierra Music Festival 2008!
We're still decompressing from the experience, but we're already planning for next year!

Where to start...
It was a LONG drive down, we got a slow start and drove through the night (which wasn't so bad because that's when it was the coolest). We left Tuesday night at 8:30pm and got there at 1pm the next day, which included grocery shopping in Redding and a detour because of the wild fires.
When we got there we saw that most people had two and sometimes even three 10X10 booth spaces stacked behind the 10X10 we were told was our booth. And although we were told there was no electricity, there was (pirated)... but we wanted to be safe than sorry and so planned for the instructions that were given to us. We also found a drainage hole in the floor of our booth, Dena (from EarthboundCreations) the vending coordinator worked with us to find a bigger piece of plywood to cover it. It was an eye sore, but we worked with it.
Next year we'll make sure to bring another EasyUp to extend our booth (and bring enough inventory to fill it). We had a very 'boutiquey' booth, which was great... I did feel that if we had had twice as much inventory we would have sold twice as much. Our rainbow awning made up for an ever decreasing inventory and kept bringing people in... it created enough shade to make the inside of our booth a noticeable 10 degrees cooler... we'll definitely keep the awning for next year!
For more pictures of our booth at High Sierra Music Festival 2008 Click Here

We were so fortunate to be at such a great venue that there were actual bathrooms (and showers) close by, and that the main gate of the meadow where the vendors are is closed down and secured every night (allowing the only time for us to get away from our booth)... (not that he's reading) but I want to thank Manny (and all the other staff) for this security and freedom as a vendor. Manny was there for up to 15 hour shifts and we appreciated his job and friendly smile.

So Thursday night, the first night of the festival, we closed our booth early and put up a sign saying we were off to the Fire Fashion Show!

If I had to do it all over again, it would be better, but all in all I have to say that the Fire Fashion Show was an honor, was a fabulous idea with great potential, and was such a fun time. Thursday was the slowest crowd to the Fire Performance, which gave the freedom to try something new. I'll have some video up soon! So stay tuned.
The Fire Performances were spectacular! I missed Friday nights, but Saturday was amazing! Sunday was a bit anti-climatic, not as engaging to the audience, but none-the-less entertaining and mind-blowing. They did a great job with trying something new, using more theatre and drama in the performance, and of course the costumes were fabulous! But back to Saturday's.... We had run out of memory on our camera to take any video. Brandon and Shireen did this crazy and amazing hoop duet where Shireen stands on Brandon's shoulders and they both hoop... great act! There was Jamie Janover on a pyrobeat drum tricycle. And there were spring jumps through flaming hula hoops with double staffs from Noah. Amazing crazy fire fun! The fire shows are that they over at the late night shows and are free... or rather then performers don't get paid for what they do. They do pass out hats to collect any donations... the question is asked, "What would you pay for a show like this in Vegas?" Saturday's show could have been on any ticket in Vegas! Great energy, engagement with the audience, big fire, and lots of it! And what great performers to have dealt so professionally with a guy tripping on acid walk right through their fuel station, redirect him, and not bat an eye in the performance. They set up the environment and hold the safety line in only a space marked off with chalk... in the walk area between the late night shows.
The fire performances were the only thing we got out to see. We did get to hear everything at the main stage including an awesome performance by Michael Franti (and Keller Williams) on the last night.

We saw people we hadn't seen in years, Jody from Yeah!Yeah! block printing who pulled up right next to use as we drove in to get our tickets and set up. We also saw, on the 4th of July, an epic dress that we made 5 years ago... Erin, the girl wearing it, must have thought I was a freak! But I freaked out when I saw it. "That's my dress! I did that dress!" It was in perfect condition!! To think what great condition she had it in, that it is such an epic dress, makes me feel like there's a chance that 20, 30, 50 years down the road I may just see it wandering again! What a trip!

MZglass was fabulous to camp next to, Pria gives a wicked good message, MountainAir Batiks were amazing (mixing their own dyes too! The colors were fantastic!), Eve's hipbelts are a must to grab (her whole booth is incredible with tons of style!)... there were so many fantastic vendors I can't even begin to name them all. It was great to see so many handcrafters versus imported items... good balance, and good representation of handcrafters!.

Now that we're back it means lots of unpacking (and uploading new items to the website), finishing up the sewing projects that didn't get done in time to take (an exclusive online batch), and getting ready for next year! We'd love to go back, and although we won't know if our vending application will be excepted for next year, we're going to be planning like we are.

We'll have new items up soon on the website, we'll be taking a few custom orders to prepare for the holiday shopping, but other than that it may be limited on what's available on our website. Just as we did in preparing for High Sierra, we'll be blogging about our new designs here on our blog - keeping a bit of visual inventory of what we'll be stocking up to take next year.

*If you're in the Portland area* you'll have some local opportunities to check us out. We'll be having a fashion show October 3rd (stay tuned for details) and possibly some trunk shows at Cafe Delirium in Gresham. Join our mailing list on our website (or stay tuned on our blog) for details on where to find us.

Thanks for ALL your support! We appreciate the love! We'd love to see you again next year at High Sierra!