Virginia Fly Fishing Festival

Well, it is probably official now, we won't be attending the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival in the future.  The decline in attendance was very evident for us this year.  I took pictures every couple of hours or so during the event on both days.  The pictures show at least three times as many vendors up and down the aisles as the customers.  Sort of like a barber convention, we are all there to give each other haircuts because there are no customers.

I keep good records and have watched a dramatic decline in sales at the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival immediately following the combining of the wine tasting and the fly fishing festival.  The tickets went up to $20 to get into the event, even if you didn't want to drink wine.  Most of the people that did come to my booth had wine glasses and asked questions that obviously made me think, they are just killing time after drinking wine because they were surely not fly fishers!

Another notable event occurred for me this year.  I buy two booths (tables) at the going rate for each of the events I attend in the local area.  Each time I have done that in the past, no matter the venue, I was required to offer one door prize or raffle item for a certain dollar figure.  This year, the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival made me provide not one but two raffle prizes at $100 value for each of the tables I purchased.  Despite my concerns that I had never done that in the past, I was told that was the way it was supposed to be.  So, I paid $300 per table (x 2 = $600) and had to pony up $200 in retail items for a total of $800 to attend the festival this year.  I drove 3 hours each way and used over $100 in gas pulling my trailer to the event and stayed in a hotel on Saturday night.  I sold just over $800 worth of merchandise for the two-day event and even at a whopping 100% profit margin (which no one ever really does), I only made $400 for the trip and a negative $500+ weekend.  I might note that the first time I attended the festival, I made almost $4,300 in sales and it has continuously declined, as annotated in the chart below.

The green line depicts my sales from 2009 till present at the festival.  The blue line depicts my sales at the NCTU Show in Maryland for the last 6 years and the red line shows our sales at the Rapidan TU show for the last 6 years.  I must note that the NCTU show charges me $285 and a $50 raffle item for attendance and the Rapidan Show charges me $100 and a $50 raffle item to attend the show.  The NCTU and Rapidan show are one-day events.  I get to eat breakfast at my home, drive about an hour or so to the event and return the same day and eat supper at my home.

In comparing ratios, I spend 3 times the amount to attend the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival than I do at the NCTU show and almost 8 times more than the Rapidan show. For the returns, I have consistently made almost 8 times the sales as my entry fee at NCTU and almost 14 times the sales as my entry at the Rapidan show.  So, for me to spend one day at the NCTU show at the cost of $335, I will average over $2,300 in sales.  I averaged over $1,400 in sales at the one-day Rapidan TU show for a $150 entry fee.

Why do I spend $800 and two days travel and a hotel fee at the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival to net Zero this year?  Attendance!  At any of the other shows, there are people at the events!  The aisles are crowded, I never get to sit down all day.  At the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival this year, I took pictures of empty aisles.  I sat in my chair most of the day, there were no customers to speak of.

When I asked Virginia Fly Fishing festival officers about the attendance, I was told there were 1,500 tickets sold.  Funny, when talking to other vendors, they were told 1,200 and 900.  So, what was the true gate and more importantly, how many went to the fly fishing side of the event as opposed to the wine tasting?  For years, many of the vendors have explained to me that they cannot afford to go to the event because it just doesn't make financial sense.  I understand that, when you are in that line of work as your income.  I donate my proceeds, so I have a different model than those other vendors.  However, the same goes with me as them when it comes to financial sense.  I could have stayed home and not lost any money or time.

Why spend the money and time on an event to lose money?  What makes me more concerned is the fact that something happened a few years back at the Virginia Fly Fishing festival that changed the demographics of the clientele. We started getting more wine tasters and less fly fishers.  Once, the show was well attended and sales were great, I think there is a .99 correlation coefficient to the raising of the ticket (double the price) to get entry to the  festival grounds, whether to drink wine or go to the fly fishing vendors and tents.  That is when I noticed the steep decline in sales for me and it has gotten worse instead of better.  I don't see those trends correcting upwards until they make the tickets separate again.  Charge $12 for the fly fishing side and $12 for the wine tasting side and offer a combined $20 deal to those that wish to do so.  Then give us vendors a tally on the ticket sales again.

I might note that I am listed in the vendors list at both the NCTU and the Rapidan Shows each and every year but I wasn't this year at the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival, despite paying my entry fee before the deadline.  Another sore subject for me. The Director told me he had mentioned that I was attending on their FaceBook page but I couldn't find it anywhere. The few people I have talked to that used to attend the festival explained that it was too far to drive for a $20 entry fee and they felt that they were not getting their money's worth on the ticket costs, mainly because they could care less about the wine.  They stopped coming.  It was evident to me and it was evident to many of the vendors.  A new vendor (first timer at the festival) was right next to me and they repeatedly asked me if this was the usual volume of foot traffic at the show.  I said no but I did point out my facts above and they indicated they would not return next year.  They spent a lot of money to attend the festival and there were very few customers for them.

My final observation of the Virginia Fly Fishing Festival for 2014 was a sad one too.  Bob Clouser and Lefty Kreh were in attendance this year.  They spent most of their time with their host TFO and Rick Pope. Neither Bob or Lefty spoke this year at the event.  Lefty did have a free casting class but to have these two greats at this event and not have them speaking, is like going to the Masters and having Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer sit in the locker room.  And I heard it was all about speaking fees!

So, in retrospect, I will continue to support the local shows the best I can but I will make sure that when I do attend one, I attend the one that treats me like a vendor they want to be there and keep coming back.  I will attend the ones that charge me a fair entry price, include me in their advertisements and acknowledgements and bring fly fishing patrons to the event in numbers that exceed the vendors!  I will attend the shows that the director of the show will personally greet me and ask me how things are, even for those one-day events.  I will attend the shows where I feel wanted and can make a contribution to the event and not someone that just writes a check to attend.