Vendor Tips for a Successful Festival

We wish a successful festival for all involved – planners, vendors and attendees! Here are a few ways you, as a vendor, can help ensure that the festival is worth your time and investment:

  1. Get your applications in early. Once the spaces are filled, we turn off the ability to apply.
  2. Once accepted, plan to have plenty of merchandise on hand so you don’t run out.
  3. Demonstrate your craft when possible. It adds to the enjoyment and education for attendees.
  4. Prepare for the weather. This is an outdoor festival that runs both full days whether there is rain or shine. Make sure your booth can withstand rain and some wind in case we don’t have perfect weather.
  5. Create a marketing plan:
    • Refer to the festival by the correct name.  It’s Boonesborough Days, with an “e” and “ough”, not “Boonsboro Days”.  The festival’s spelling hearkens back to the origins of our town and its original, historic spelling.  
    • Be approachable and ready to talk about your art or craft and what makes it special or valuable
    • Have a prominent sign for your booth. (We were surprised how many vendors didn’t have a way to identify their booth last year.)
    • Have business cards (or a QR code) so attendees can find you after the festival to purchase items they missed out on.
    • If you don’t already have an online presence, consider creating a website or social media page. The festival will list the websites of our vendors. Those who don’t have one, miss out. Even just a free Facebook business page with a few photos of your items, description of your business and how customers can find you outside of the festival is helpful. (Note that we do not accept personal Facebook pages to represent your business. It must be a business page.)
    • Once accepted into the festival, promote your participation as a vendor. Remember, Boonesborough Days™ is a registered trademark. You may not create any promotional materials that give others the impression that YOU host, own or are in any way responsible for the festival. For example, you may not create a Facebook event post with Boonesborough Days Festival as the title. You may, however, create a regular post that announces you will be a vendor at the festival. See below for specific social media suggestions.

Social Media

Follow and like the Boonesborough Days Festival Page on Facebook.  This page is our continuous presence on Facebook year in and year out.  

Don’t forget to also follow and like the 53rd Annual Boonsborough Days Festival EVENT page for 2024. This is the event post that is created new each year to represent the festival.

Share our Posts – When we post about the festival, share the post with your friends and followers on Facebook.  This helps spread the word about the festival so we have a more powerful reach in general and find more potential attendees.  

Create a Post – You can also create your own posts on social media to announce that you’ll be at the festival or that you’re busy making items for the festival, etc.

Tags – You can tag the festival in your post. To tag the festival, start typing your post and when you refer to the festival by name, type @BoonesboroughDays.  If you are a follower of our page, Facebook should bring up a prompt with our name and profile pic.  If you select that page, Facebook will embed the tag into your post.  This shows your post to our audience as well as yours.  

Hashtags – You can also include hashtags such as #boonesboroughdays #boonsboromd  #craftfestival.  Using a hashtag helps others find your post when they search for these terms. 

Remember, you can’t post anything that gives others the impression that you are the host of the festival.  You should not be creating your own event post that has the words, “Boonesborough Days” in the title (nor “Boonsboro Days” for that matter.)