Art Festival 2016

To be clear: this post is not intended as a whinge, it is a note to my future self on how to prepare better. And there are pretty pictures, so you can scroll straight down to those if you like.

The Isle of Man Art Festival was a culmination of many months of hard graft, both in my own practice and as the event publicity officer. It seemed to be a resounding success across the board, which I (and the whole committee, who equally if not more so have had their noses to the grindstone!) are very happy about! Hop over to the Creative Network Facebook page to see some excellent photos from the weekend.

By Wednesday last week my body was showing signs of pre-event wear; mouth ulcers, a minute but infuriating stye on my right eyelid, nightmares, and a higher-than-usual craving for chocolate. Standard reactions to working long hours, not sleeping well and feeling anxious. And to my despair, I forgot that Bonjela tastes like licorice.

Typically, I developed a sore throat, so was chugging down hot, soothing tea and religiously taking my Vicks nasel spray every 4 hours in an effort to fight off the potential cold. Miraculously it worked, and by Saturday morning I was bouncing and ready to greet festival-goers.

Saturday gave us the best weather and so was the busiest day by far, but there was a constant stream of festival-goers to the yard over the three days, with a good mix of loyal customers and new visitors. 

Special thanks goes to Annabel (aka Flo the Coffee Van) for providing her ace ginger cake and flapjacks!

Our official festival photographer, Deb Turk, popped in on Monday and took these lovely shots - thank you Deb!

[all images above: Deb Turk]

Bizarrely, at the same time Mike Radcliffe popped in (there was a lot of camera envy going on), and he took some wonderful photos too! See them all here, on his Facebook page.