Don’t worry, I’m not going to make you look at another picture of the booth. Because, although Phil took several photos at the Bethesda Row Arts Festival last weekend, I don’t want to see them. You don’t want to see them either. The artist in those pictures is NOT happy.
Yup, the Bethesda Row Arts Festival was so awful, we started calling it “Beth Row”. We knew we were in trouble when it started raining on the drive up Friday night and NEVER STOPPED UNTIL SUNDAY. Setting up Saturday morning was further complicated by the fact that the organizers had put down chalk marks to map out the booth spaces the night before (yes, in the rain) and then surprise! The chalk marks washed away! Who’d have thunk it? No one knew where their booth was, a problem that was only mitigated by the many empty spaces left by artists who were too smart to show up. Mercifully, our set-up went more smoothly than at St. Louis, due largely to our vast amount of experience (hah!), and the fact that we rented a cargo van so that we wouldn’t have to try and reassemble the display units in the early morning cold and dark.
Did I mention the cold? The temperature never rose above 44 degrees the whole weekend. Throw in pants and shoes that never dried out on Saturday, and opening day sales that wouldn’t cover the emergency room visit I was sure I was going to need to treat my hypothermia, and you have a snapshot of one of the worst days of my life.
Fortunately, Sunday was a little better. The rain (mostly) stopped, and although it was still cold, overcast and windy, we were kept warm by the love of the brave souls who came to check out the art, and even burned a few calories ringing up sales and wrapping up Fobots. Not as ecstatic a buying frenzy as St. Louis, but at least not a total loss.
And there were some bright spots. The people were nice, if a little reluctant to take their frozen fingers out of their gloves to extract a credit card from their wallet. The children were well-behaved and delightful. I believe every single person we spoke with personally apologized for the weather, thanked us for coming out in it, and promised that it was NEVER like this in mid-October. Then there was the father and two young boys who so enjoyed seeing the bots that they came back later and performed a skit about frogs for us. And god bless the woman who, seeing how badly I was shivering, gave me her disposable hand warmers. I’d still rather have been home in front of the fire and a bottle of tequila, but on the whole, it could have been worse. But not by much.
So instead of a picture of me shivering so hard that my image is a blur, I leave you with a Fobot I made specially for the show; “Bothesda”. Notice the “Maryland Club” tin. And since his bag reminded me of a doctor’s bag, let’s make that “Boththesda, MD”.
Of course, since he didn’t sell, I think I’ll change his name. Any suggestions?
Amy Flynn Designs 
Man, that sucks. Nothing says Autumn in the North like ice cold rain.
Name…”Never Again Bothesda?”