Bristol Vegan Farye - Our Very First Stall

lovecow (Angelique & Jody) at the Bristol Vegan Farye 2008

Being our very first attempt at having a stall was both tiring but even more rewarding, and we couldn’t have chosen a friendlier and more helpful bunch of people than our fellow stallholders at the Bristol Vegan Fayre to guide and support us! Not only did we learn a lot from this experience but we also met many interesting people in the process.

We were busy until early Saturday morning preparing like crazy and up again at what felt like the crack of dawn for the long drive to Bristol from London. Luckily Jody was driving so I was able to catch a few much needed winks in the car, not that it made that much of a difference it has to be said!

On arrival at our stall we had a bit of a reshuffle of the tables with our fellow stallholders but finally settled in and got our stall up and ready, clothing rails and all! Unfortunately we only had space for one chair which was put to very good use, especially by me and especially on that long first day.


Our first lesson – arrive on the Friday night, set up most of your stall at a leisurely pace and then retire to your chosen accommodation to enjoy a lovely quiet evening in. Enjoy a relaxed breakfast on Saturday morning, get to your stall in enough time to add the finishing touches, sit back and wait patiently for everyone to arrive.

After a few hours the first sale was made which was encouraging and even though the fayre was pretty busy we were only able to sell a few items on the first day. Of course I must also mention that we had a sale whilst packing up, proving that when people want quality items they will come and get it, even after a long hard day of shopping at the fayre! On the up side, we had a lot of interest and positive feedback on our products, evidence that we were doing something right after all.

We were so glad to see the back of that first day and hurried to The Base, a vegetarian and vegan friendly bed and breakfast where we spent our first night. After a good night’s rest and a very delicious breakfast, it was straight back to the fayre for another exciting day at our stall. While setting up on the Sunday we were offered very good advice on the layout of our stall by the lovely lady at The Heavenly Cake Company table. Their cakes were indeed very heavenly and my bump was lucky enough to be given a free slice of cake for his efforts. Fortunate me, I mean bump ;0)

Our second lesson – make use of all the table space you possibly can when displaying t-shirts and clothing items. Also, make use of the space behind you by having a wire rack on which t-shirts can be hung and displayed in full view of passers by. The stall had busy periods throughout the day with a few interesting people stopping by for chats as well as those wanting more information on our items and the possibility of having bespoke designs made. However, we had to keep telling passers by that all our clothing items are ethically sourced and organic, since in our exhausted state on Friday evening we overlooked this important bit of information. DOH!

Our third lesson – make sure that the most important information appears on your stand first and this information needs to be prominent and eye-catching. Item prices need only be displayed on items. Strangely, the second day flew by and thanks to having had a good rest the night before I felt we were more relaxed too.

We had the opportunity of taking turns to have a bit of pampering at the Healing Area where Jody enjoyed a much needed shoulder massage, my bump & I enjoyed a session of spiritual healing, all at half price for stall holders so many thanks to those individuals for their generosity. And on the subject of generosity, I also have to say a big thank you to Karen at the Lush stand who offered to give me a bump massage using one of their massage bars. I was a bit apprehensive at first but in no time was pretty relaxed when I realised she was a pro.

Last but not at all least, Veggie Vision also generously handed out goodie bags to stall holders for all our hard work – aren’t they fabulous?!? All this generosity and goodwill from fellow stallholders as well as the friendly nature of everyone enjoying the fayre really made our long hours at the stall very worthwhile.

Will we be doing this again anytime soon? You better believe it!