Vendors scramble to replace income from canceled festivals

For Tim Roth of Hempfield, selling his artwork at area fairs and festivals is a hobby. The cancellation of this summer’s events won’t break his budget.

But things are different for Grace McCracken of Carnegie, who left her day job in 2016 to produce and market her charcoal drawings full-time.

Likewise, the Steel City Chimneys food truck is a sideline for Greensburg attorney Jason Kelly and his wife, Meredith Minkus, but Speal’s on Wheels is the main source of income for Terry Lee Speal of New Alexandria.

Whether it’s their vocation or avocation, vendors are looking at significant financial losses this summer because of the covid-19 shutdown.

Roth, who makes pottery with cane accents to sell at the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival, Three Rivers Arts Festival and other summer affairs, said he anticipates losing 90% of his normal sales revenue this summer.

“I’m retired, so I’m not depending on this to make a living,” he said. “Now I have more time to make more stuff, but nowhere to sell it.”

Artwork was a side gig, McCracken said, “while I grew my business to the point that it would support my half of the family income.” Since leaving her job as a logistics broker, she has been selling her work online and at a number of large festivals in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia under the name The Wandering Muse.

“This would be my 11th year of (selling at festivals), if we were still conducting business,” McCracken said.

“I’m really not considering dollar figures right now, just to keep myself from getting too anxious. The last show I did was an I Made It! Market for Valentine’s Day. I’d say my income has been cut to a third of what it should be at this point.”

‘This is devastating’

“For some of our vendors, this is devastating,” said Diane Shrader, executive director of the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival.

Shrader said she doesn’t have access to vendor income figures, but “for many of them, this is their favorite show and their most profitable show.”

“They started calling us in February and March to see what was happening,” Shrader said. “Most of them had already paid for their raw materials, but now they’ll have no income.”

The annual festival at Twin Lakes Park will go on this year in virtual form, as will Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Arts Festival. Links to websites for artists, vendors and musical acts will be featured on each festival’s website.

“Most of our artists are full-time artists, because we are a fine-arts show, and they do travel the country going to shows,” said Sarah Aziz, director of the Three Rivers Arts Festival. “We send out a survey asking them to tell us how they’ve done, and 99% tell us they make back more than what it cost them to come.

“That really was the driving force in moving to a digital platform, rather than canceling. Everyone is hurting, so this will give them some exposure.”

‘A big hurt’

As a food truck owner, Jim Barton said he is in a better position than some of his compatriots. He and his brother, Paul Barton, operate The Hot Dog Guys truck in Tarentum and Lower Burrell. While Paul is a full-time minister, the truck is Jim’s full-time gig from April through November.

The brothers don’t depend on fairs and festivals — instead, they park their trucks at First United Methodist Church in Tarentum and at the U-Haul store in Lower Burrell. They also do a lot of touch-a-truck fundraisers for various organizations.

They took off April this year because of the quarantine, and Jim Barton said they are half-staffed for the time being. But “the community came out in droves” for their first sales of the season, he said.

“Seeing us brings people a little sense of normalcy,” he said. “We’re making it because of the support from the community.”

Losing the Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival was “a big hurt” for Speal, who also owns a smaller truck, Speal’s The Block.

Among the festivals he works are Greensburg Community Days and Saltsburg’s Canal Days, both of which have been canceled, as well as Latrobe’s Great Banana Split Celebration in August. He also does lunches at various businesses.

“Right now, I should be in my busiest time, but it’s been an overwhelming drop to this point, at least 50%,” Speal said. “At least my trucks are paid for. I can’t imagine how people who took out a big loan on a truck are making it.”

Kelly, an attorney with a Greensburg firm, can absorb the loss better than many.

“We’re in a fortunate situation because of my full-time job,” he said. “A lot of our friends in the food truck business full-time have really had to scramble.”

A changed experience

Like Roth, Steel City Chimneys has a slot this summer at the weekly Ligonier Country Market, which opened May 23 under social-distancing guidelines.

“There again, even in the context of the farmers market, (social-distancing) factors change the experience for the public and the vendors,” Kelly said. “Our plan is to look for ways to make up for the lost income. We have to make a lot of adjustments as we go.

“The feedback we’re getting is that some of the bigger events for the fall are hoping to go forward and that some summer events will be pushed back to fall.”

Fort Ligonier Days in October is the biggest sales event for Bonnie Tesone of Apollo, who has been selling her handmade Bonnie’s Soaps for about eight years.

“I’m hoping that we can still do it this year, but if we don’t, we don’t,” she said. “I don’t need this income, but I’ll be retiring in a couple of years, and it will be nice to have the extra cash.”

Soap-making is a sideline for the full-time nurse, who said about 75% of her sales come from festivals.

Two of her other major events, Fort Armstrong Folk Festival, which begins July 31, and Delmont Apple ‘N Arts Festival in October, are still on at this point.

“I just wonder if people will come out if we do have them, or will they be fearful and stay home,” she said.