Gone With The Wind - Lewiston, ID. The show must go on

I always look forward to doing the 3 day 'Art Under The Elms' show in Lewiston, Idaho. I just really like the people there. It's a fun art show to be a vendor at. Friday through Sunday.

Let's talk about Sunday morning shall we?

I was woken at 2am by flashing lights and a siren and a megaphone saying: "Attention. If you are a vendor, please go to your booth immediately. Many booths have blown over due to high winds"

I scrambled over there, high winds indeed. It was like a mini tornado. There was only myself and two security guards (who left after 15 minutes...thanks guys) and then one of the organizers turned up and a lovely student stayed to help who also raised the alarm (thanks Fatima.) and one other vendor who stuck around and helped (sorry, I misplaced her name)

We were running from one booth to another, trying to hold them down at all four corners like a hot air balloon. I was being lifted off the ground. Then we would run to another, as that was going airborne, and then to another and another. I took one artist's watercolors that were now tent-less, and totally exposed and traveling all over the park. (she was a first-time vendor there; I felt so sorry for her), and I put all her things in my tent, because my tent was fine. She eventually came and must have been devastated, thinking all her work had gone, until I told her they were all safe.

Tents were tipping over sideways and impaling themselves into other tents 30 ft away. I had to rip the canvas off one to stop it taking off. This went on till 4am

There was so much to do, and so little time. We would run from one to another. But we had to just take a lot of peoples art such as glass art, and just lay it flat on the ground. The tents had gone, but there was nowhere to store it. My tent was full and we had no helpers. I spent a lot of time re zipping tents and strapping them back down

But here is what I learned from all this, and I hope you will also value this going forward - respect the minimum 40lb per leg weight rule. also, make sure that you don't only zip the tent up, but also TIE THE TENTTO THE LEGS OF THE FRAME. This was imperative. It saved a lot of booths. There were many that were trashed even though they looked fine on the outside, simply because wind found a way inside and created a vortex.

One tent was wrecked because they used cinder blocks but didn't tie them effectively. The wind got in the tent. It blew a heavy wooden set of panels over. They in turn hit the side of the tent. The tent sagged. The wind then blew it away.

The next morning, there were many empty spaces where vendors once were. (pottery, glass, etc.)

Anyway, that's all from your roving reporter on the ground. Back to the studio.