Phew, it’s been a while! Though I fully intended to send out a newsletter last Thursday, I was absolutely swamped with last minute preparations for the All Hallows Renaissance Fair that took place in Billings this past weekend. I’m sure you all don’t mind that I will allow myself to be a human from time to time ;)

Now, on to the updates! Things didn’t exactly go as expected at the Renaissance Faire, and I mean that in more ways than one. If you follow me on Instagram, or visited me in Billings last weekend, you may have gotten the short and chaotic version. If not, let me debrief you.

On Friday Afternoon, I arrived to Billings early enough to check-in to my hotel (which was a bit of a doozy in and of itself), and quickly headed to North Park. It was an unseasonably hot day, and I began the long, nearly 5 hour process of unloading & setting up what felt like 1,000 pounds of tent, table, display, and product into my booth space. Typically, set up doesn’t take more than 3 hours, but the Montana Renaissance Faire has some pretty specific rules & expectations for vendors to participate, so I had quite a bit of extra display which takes time to stage. I really enjoy the decorating part, but I can be a bit of a perfectionist and get carried away.

Exhausted, starving, and in full-body pain, I retired at around 7:30pm to attempt to get a good night’s sleep & take a hot bath at my hotel. I still had a 12 hour day on Saturday and Sunday to make it through, after all. Little sleep was had, however, and nobody was prepared for what would occur later that evening.

Around midnight, a 50mph windstorm tore through Billings. Even with my geriatric ear plugs, I could barely sleep through the noise. Still, I had absolutely no idea that the damage would be quite as bad as it was. After all, I had 8 whole stakes in my brand new tent, and I dropped it to its lowest position before heading out. It was as secure as it was gonna get!

When I arrived early that morning, it became apparent that the vendor to my left did not take the same precautions. Their untethered 10×10 tent had traveled at the speed of the wind and impaled my brand new tent, devastating the display I spent so long on. They took the rest of their belongings and fled before I arrived, assumedly to avoid culpability once they saw the state of my booth. Here are some fun photos of the damage I arrived to on Saturday morning!

It took about 3 more hours & some really awesome neighbors and volunteers to get my booth back into an operational state. Admittedly, I was pretty frantic, devastated, and felt extremely underprepared, despite overpreparing the day before. The clock was ticking to open the gates, and I had nothing ready. I somehow managed to stave off a total meltdown and focused on all of the help that came together to support not only me, but the 150 or so other vendors that sustained pretty severe damage as well. It helped knowing that we were all in a pretty similar boat that morning, and that I was definitely not alone.

Some of the coordinators were there at the crack of 4am, sprinting around trying to put things back together. It’s safe to say I was not alone in my utterly shit morning. The winds continued gusting until 6pm Saturday evening. Some vendors lost their entire tents, and several had so much damage, they packed up and didn’t vend at all. Even though my tent had to be bungeed to the fence behind us and staked to the ground with support ropes to keep it standing for the next two days, I was still one of the lucky ones. None of my product or antique display pieces were broken, despite it all being strewn on the ground under overturned tables. It was nothing short of a miracle.

Perhaps even more disappointing, despite the enormous turnout of attendees, the event wasn’t as successful for The Hemp Witch as I had hoped. This was incredibly disheartening because I spent 7+ hours putting my booth together (and back together). I was sure that if I stayed positive, all of my hard work would pay off. Unfortunately, that’s just the name of the game when it comes to vending at various shows. Some vendors will do extremely well, while others might have their worst show ever. I was somewhere in-between, as I operate a very niche and demographic specific business.

Overall interest and sales significantly increased (along with my mood) by Sunday, but with all of my travel expenses, meals, booth fee, costume, labor, and hotel, it was a little hard to accept my lower than average success with such an energy intensive event. It’s always a risk when I try a new event or travel to a new location, but I gain valuable insight from each and every show I work and I don’t regret any of them.

Perhaps my biggest regret was not bringing any help that would have allowed me to participate in the Renaissance festivities a bit more, which I am unfortunately unable to report on as a result of going solo. I may or may not vend at this event in the future, but I would not hesitate to attend as a patron!

Just a few months ago, Missoula, Montana was rocked by an 80mph hurricane-like wind and rain storm that caused serious damage to homes, vehicles, roads, and extended power outages.

As many of you may know, Asheville and other nearby areas in North Carolina were recently devastated by hurricane Helene, some are wiped off the map indefinitely. Over 240 people lost their lives, and recovery efforts are still underway. Despite primary media coverage being of Asheville, it is essential to draw attention to these smaller towns, several which are still in a state of emergency. Boone, Banner Elk, Black Mountain, Blowing Rock, Brevard, Canton, Cherokee, Chimney Rock Village, Henderson County, Madison County, McDowell County, Waynesville, and Weaverville are among several North Carolina areas where significant damage was experienced and recovery efforts for missing persons are still in place.

Tennessee in particular has also been left out of the media, and struggled with federal funding efforts and assistance. Jefferson, Carter, Cocke, Greene, Hamblen, Hawkins, Johnson, Unicoi, and Washington are just some of the severely impacted areas.

Parts of Florida also experienced severe damage from Helene, and with only 13 days to recover, just endured another enormous hurricane. So far, Milton has claimed the lives of at least 12 people throughout Florida, and over 3 million people are without power at the time of this publishing.

Parts of Georgia, South Carolina, and Virginia were also impacted by Helene. I have provided some national organizations to donate to if you are unable to donate to individual areas or states.

If you are in a position to donate, I have provided some links below to a few trusted hurricane relief programs. If all of my readers donated just $3, we could make an impact of nearly $1,000 in donations together.

I am working to get some small businesses together in the spirit of philanthropy to put together a Hurricane Relief Raffle. Once I get enough donations of products and services, I will post the rules. Each time you donate to a Hurricane relief effort of your choice, you will get a certain number of entries into the raffle. If you’re interested in participating, please follow along on my Instagram for the details. I’ll try to get it posted up on my Facebook as well for more participation.

In the meantime, screenshot your donation receipts so you can use them as future entries!