First Time Vendor
What you wish you knew…
May 19, 2024
Derrick Strom (He/Him)
Event Vendor Manager
derrick.strom@tcpride.org
2024 Twin Cities Pride Festival
Agenda
● Festival Information
● 4 Question
○
Looking back on your first time at Pride - what do you wish you would have known?
○
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
○
What would you recommend a first time vendor NOT do?
○
What would you recommend a first time vendor ACTUALLY DO or PLAN FOR?
● Festival Load-in Information Session
2024 Twin Cities Pride Festival Attendance Estimate
2024 Attendance Estimate:
● Festival & Parade attendance estimate at 550k+
● 620 merchandise vendor and sponsors booths
● 47 food vendors
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
1st time 1-2
times
3-5
times
6-10
times
11-15
times
16-20
times
20+
2024 Vendors at TC Pride
2024 Twin Cities Pride Festival Theme
Show your colors 365
The month of June has always been a
month to celebrate the LGBTQIA+
community, we believe that we shouldn't
just show our colors in June but show them
365 days a year.
Twin Cities Pride is committed to making
pride shine 365 days a year.
Sign up Now for Pride
Text Alerts
Text the following “keywords” to 333111
TCPRIDE - Public Messaging/Alerts
(opt-in expires 7/7/24)
TCPVENDOR - Festival Vendor Messaging/Alerts
(opt-in expires 7/2/24)
Over 40+ Food & Booth Vendors
Responded these 4 questions:
●
Looking back on your first time at
Pride - what do you wish you would
have known?
●
What suggestions (tips and tricks)
would you share with a first time
vendor at TC Pride?
Survey Responses
First Time Vendor - What I wish I had known
●
What would you recommend a first time
vendor NOT do?
●
What would you recommend a first time
vendor ACTUALLY DO or PLAN FOR?
Looking back on your first time at Pride
- what do you wish you would have known?
1. It is very, very, very crowded. – How many people there would be!!
2. I wish I had known how busy the event would be, and I also would have packed more
materials and promotional items to meet the demand of the attendees.
3. Give yourself time to get into the park and then to your spot.
4. I wish I would have known that if I needed to restock my inventory on the second day,
it is very difficult, as there is no place to temporarily park nearby your booth to
unload.
5. Parking situation
6. Been warned about navigating driving through the park. It is a bit confusing.
7. I wish I would have taken advantage of a Friday setup.
8. How to find my spot. I got really lost looking for it in the park.
9. Not to be afraid to ask questions.
10. Not to be afraid to ask questions.
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you
share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
1. “Bring a kit of items that are likely to be useful over the course of the event.” — A GO BAG
2. You don't get a lot of chances to just leave and go grab stuff, and even if you do it can take a while
to get back to where you parked, so having useful things on hand is a good idea.
3. Bring your own food, snacks, and water. The lines will be long and you don't want to be away from
your booth for too long. BRING TONS OF WATER. I was dehydrated most of Pride, it was bad.
4. Definitely bring a comfortable chair to sit in.
5. Wear comfortable clothes, especially shoes
6. get as many folks to volunteer for your space so it's not draining and allows for breaks
7. It gets overwhelming talking to so many people, so best to overstaff.
8. You will be talking ALL DAY, so you will be exhausted and can lose your voice easily. Stay rested.
9. Make sure you book a massage appointment after Pride. Everything was sore after.
10.You'll be really tired a few days after Pride. MAKE SURE if you work a 9-5 to take a few days off
extra to relax. There is no way you'll be mentally or physically able to go back to work a day after.
Pride is taxing.
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you
share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
TENT SETUP & WEATHER
1. To come really early for set up so you don't stress about finding parking an
getting set up. Bring your own water supply.
2. Pack everything in plastic bins with lids, great in bad weather and easy transport each
night
3. Bring a cart of some sort it is incredibly helpful
4. plan for plenty of material
5. get a tent - it is WORTH IT
6. Be prepared for weather. Bring bungee cords, three ring binders.
7. prepare for rain - this includes a plan for putting supplies away and again, your clothes - it
can get pretty muddy
8. Weigh down your tent! - have ""weights"" for windy days - even if you are under a tent.
9.
Make sure you tent is weighted or staked -
have 40 lbs of weight per tent leg!
10. Plan for uneven terrain
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you
share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
TENT SETUP & WEATHER
Use weights to hold down the legs of the pop ups. Place the baskets under
the table Pride provides you. Have a plan for volunteers if a strong storm hits
during Pride. Sunday can be very crowded. Provide space in front of your
booth to encourage attendees to check out your booth without being pushed
away by the crowd. Provide seating for volunteers. Pens disappear. Have
weights (rocks) to hold down literature if there is a strong wind. Bring duct
tape, bunge cords, magic markers, or other supplies just in case. It is difficult
to get in and out of the Park during Pride to get supplies that you wish you
had.
Store all paper in sealed plastic bags because it can be damp
around the pond in the early morning. Put all the booth
display contents in plastic baskets with lids that snap on.
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you
share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
SELLING - ENGAGING
1. Sales receipt book in case your POS stops working
2. I wish I would have brought more small bills for change.
3. I wish I would have had more staff to help- it gets to be a long day.
4. People tended to buy more lower priced items. There are tons of teens that couldn't afford a
$25 item or just had $25 to spend all together. Make sure you have bigger priced items and
smaller priced items so everyone can buy something.
5. LTE is unreliable; couldn't get my square reader to work most times. Was frustrating.. It really
depends on what you sell and your price point.
6. make sure whoever is volunteering, that they understand and respect the community and the
event - training can go a long way
7. If you have volunteers, they must do their homework on what PRIDE is about and what they
can expect to see during the event. In the past, we've had volunteers experience "culture
shock."
8. have an interactive exhibit
9. Speak with an actual person.
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you
share with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
SELLING - ENGAGING
"I assume most, if not all vendors are themselves members of the
LGBTQ+ community. If they are not personally, be the best ally you can
be. Wear pronoun pins.
Be respectful and not assume anyone's pronouns.
Compliment gratuitously ("I love your hair/nails!", "I love your outfit", and
of course lots of smiles and "happy Pride!" to everyone).
We are gathered to celebrate and uplift this marginalized community."
10.
What suggestions (tips and tricks) would you share
with a first time vendor at TC Pride?
Don't be afraid to contact the organizers with any questions or concerns, they are very
nice!!"
Be aware that Loring Park is quite large and you will need to carefully drive through the
park along the marked path routes to get to your vending spot and set up.
Get to know at least one of your neighbors so you can help each other out during the
show.
Keep an eye out for people who seem off or odd. Pride will give you an emergency
number, and if someone or something raises your hackles, call them. That's why they
are there. Everyone wants our festival to be safe, and if we all look out for strange
goings on and alert the proper folks, the safer we will all be. Also Pride security will be
roaming around in carts and you can flag them down anytime. Same goes for medical
emergencies.
What about 1st time Food Vendors?
Set up day is crazy. Don’t be in a hurry.
Make sure you know the route you are coming in on.
It will be very busy and restocking is nearly impossible when the event is going on.
Leave more stock at your spot than you would ever think you can go through.
Restocking Saturday night or Sunday morning needs to be done with carry in too so
plan ahead for that as well.
Plan to be busier than almost any other event you do. Don’t under prep!
Have a person that can run and get you supplies before you run out
Don't run out of starting money.
Utilities are hard to come by.
What would you recommend a first
time vendor NOT do?
1. Be late to load in, be late setting up your booth for the day.
2. Anticipate that you’ll have plenty of time to just roll in and setup. - Assume set up will
be quick.
3. Buy a cheap canopy tent with bad stakes and annoy their neighbors with the tent
constantly trying to blow away
4. Set your booth too close to the walking paths.
5. Don't think you can do it alone - plan to overstaff your booth.
6. Be cash only
7. Stand behind your table/booth. Get out front and interact with the public. Be engaged!
8. Bring high cost low volume swag! don't do it
9. "expect that community will just come to your exhibit" - have activities and energy"
10.Party like you’re a festival attendee
What would you recommend a first time
vendor ACTUALLY DO or PLAN FOR?
1. Plan for all kinds of weather, follow directions of staff, be aware there are lots of vendors
all trying to do the same thing courtesy goes a long way
2. Plan for crowds. Plan to take money via credit card and cash. Venmo is a good idea.
Have your Venmo QR code printed out and ready to share.
3. Scope out your spot as early as you can! Plus, make a load in and load out plan.
4. Plan for focused products for the event, then double it. I had a ton of fun design a whole
line up for pride. I ran out of some hot sellers
5. Bring your own food it gets super busy and hard to run and grab a bit to eat.
6. Be your best self. Smile lots. Compliment people and welcome them to Pride/wish them a
happy Pride. Wear a pronoun button/pin (several groups give or sell them). Be your
authentic self.
7. Go out and enjoy the festival (plan for multiple shifts and have help)
8. Bring a notebook or something for staff working booth to right down the learnings in real
time as well as write down things that patrons might ask for or about
9. plan for texts messaging to not be working all day.
10.Be mindful of your neighboring booth - they are stuck with you the whole weekend.
Festival Load-in Information Session
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ATTENDANCE
●
May 26th 1-2 PM Booth Vendor:
Click here to join the meeting
●
May 26th 1-2 PM Food Vendor:
Click here to join the meeting
●
May 30th 1-2 PM Booth Vendor:
Click here to join the meeting
Recordings will be available: https://tcpride.org/festival-vendor-faq/
We will be covering all the details you will need to know:
●
Pick up your Packet on June 11-15
(will contain Entry Pass)
●
Setup information for June 28th
●
Info on Street Closures and how to get into the park for setup
(Load-in)
●
Festival Times and what to expect during the festival
●
Safety Briefing
●
Info for Sunday end of festival, getting into park for Load-out
PACKET PICK UP
1618 Harmon Place (Pride Office)
Tuesday June 11
th
9AM – 7PM
Wednesday June 12th 9AM – 7PM
Thursday June 13th 9AM – 7PM
Friday June 14th 9AM – 7PM
Saturday June 15th 8AM - 1PM
In town - have someone pick up these days
Out of town - ARRANGE TIME ASAP -
Pick before June 21
st
or June 28
th
before load-in.
●
Entry Pass - for vehicle to enter Load-in / Load-out
●
Booth Sign – parking and Wi-Fi vouchers – festival information
●
Confirm your booth Information
●
Review the Routes and Booth Location
●
Scope out your spot
Reserved Vendor Parking
@ Packet Pick-up
Sample Route Queue & Entry Pass
Q & A
“Don't be afraid to contact
the organizers with any
questions or concerns, they are
very nice!!"
