07/21/2026
As I read through comments on my own video & many others I see a lot of not nice words & I’d like to clear up some misconceptions.
Many of the vendors were already set up from the weekend before, or set up their displays again on Thursday, like we did.
Festivals are a commitment. If the festival is open, we are expected to be there, rain or shine. If we don’t show up, then we likely won’t get invited back the following year.
I can’t speak for other vendors, but I did not get a notification on my phone of the impending storm. No announcements were made from the venue. However I always watch the weather & brought bins to the booth that morning so I could protect our product when the storm blew in.
(This is how our survived the Clawson 4th of July event - I packed our product up & threw it in the truck. Both our table & cooler were flipped so if I hadn’t, it would’ve been ruined)
The way our booth faced, my back was to the storm. There were buildings blocking the view so we had limited sight from that direction. I was watching it on the radar & it looked to be lessening in severity, & further away. However when I came out of the tent the clouds were right on top of us. 50 MPH (or whatever they are) clouds come a lot faster than you think.
Luckily our tent, a 10x20, held on, but not without the help of myself, then my husband when he came rushing back with our 5 year old, who was caught in it, too. We were also staked to the ground as we always are when we are able, with 200 lbs of weights.
A lot of people who don’t understand what it’s like to have this be your full time job are throwing their nasty opinions around. Please have more empathy, for many of us this is our livelihood. Your unkind words are insult to injury.
Do I think it could’ve been handled better? Yes.
However all we can do is learn from this event & do better in the future.
Please go support your local small businesses at Sterlingfest Thursday-Saturday, we will be out there & the weather looks BEAUTIFUL!!
✌🏼
