Ok, so the basics.  Clearwater Beach Fest was a 3 day long festival that was estimated to bring 20-30,000 visitors.  It was the peak for Spring Break.  Artisans from Florida, local restuarants, and area musicians were present.

To view photographs of our work from this event, click below

Beach Fest 2003

There were three other henna stands.  Not a problem, as this was the big Spring Break weekend, and I was by far the least expensive (price wise) henna stand there.  Of course, I set up and then checked out the other henna stands.  I crawled back to my stand feeling like the rag tag henna stand that could.  This was the actual first festival I have ever done, and really the first festival I have seen where there were henna stands.  The part about me feeling bad that their stands were so "professional" looking isn't what bothered me, because all things are learning experiences.  What bothered me the most was that the way the set up was for the festival all traffic would have to walk past all three of the henna stands before seeing mine.  The event coordinator did this for a reason from what I hear.  One of the henna artists was supposed to set up just diagnolly from me, but when he seen my prices, he threw a fit and demanded to be moved, and in return got a choice setup, right on the beach.  The other two were good friends with the event manager (even received reduced booth rental fees,) enough said.

Sooo, when the throngs of crowds eventually made it to my stand, they were already adorned with thin spindly henna designs from the others, and they were almost physically kicking themselves for not "shopping around."  Some regular festival go-ers knew to look around for the best price, and sat in my chair graciously and received big thick pasted designs that were sure to have the paste stick longer than 30 minutes.  Some even ran back to the other stands and took their monetary "deposit" back (yeah you read that right) and came to me to get several designs for the price of their one!  On Sunday I was even re-applying henna to designs the other henna stands had previously done that weekend, or correcting some light patches, etc.  Even more humorous, a couple of occasions while I was doing henna, the person in my chair would look at a woman staring at my signage, point, and say "aren't you the henna artist over there?"

So, of course, I didn't make my millions that weekend (lol) but I had a good time, learned alot (get better location at festivals,) made some good friends and contacts, and would definately do a festival again, at a different event.