IMPORTANT- PLEASE READ AND ACKNOWLEDGE THE FOLLOWING FESTIVAL RULES AND GUIDELINES:
Booth spaces will be assigned by festival management and decisions are final. The festival layout process is complex and designed to maximize the guest experience while creating a favorable business environment for our vendors. Each booth includes a footprint within the festival grounds and your entire booth must fit within the booth borders. You may not place merchandise outside of your booth boundary and you may not solicit customers from outside your booth space. In many cases, your booth may share a boundary with an adjacent booth, so please be courteous with your booth design and setup. Signage that impairs visibility to your neighbors, excessive volume, fumes, or other attributes from your booth that impede the success of your neighbors are prohibited.
STANDARD BOOTHS: Standard booths include ONLY the booth footprint and canopy. Vendors are responsible for providing their own sidewalls, lighting, and furnishings. Electricity and water are available for purchase for an additional charge. Since access to power and water are dependent on proximity to those utilities, these services must be ordered in advance and are not available to add on show site.
PREMIUM BOOTHS: Premium booths offer premium placement within festival grounds and INCLUDE a professionally built shade canopy with sidewalls, lighting, 8 foot table, 2 folding chairs, and 500 watts of 120V power.
HOURS OF OPERATION: Vendors are required to be open and present during all daylight hours of the festival, each day. Loading out early is forbidden. Any vendor who violates these rules may be forbidden from future participation.
PARKING AND VEHICULAR ACCESS: ALL vehicles must be removed from the event site 60 minutes prior to opening. At load out, NO vehicles may enter the festival space until we have received authorization from the police department. Vendors may only park in legal, designated parking areas. Festival management will not be responsible for parking fines or towing fees for illegally parked vehicles. Please place your vendor parking pass on the dash of your vehicle, and be sure to write your phone number on it in case we need to contact you about your vehicle. While operating a vehicle inside the festival boundary, please drive slowly and use your hazard lights. Do not back trailers without using a spotter to assist you.
GOODS FOR SALE: Vendors may only sell the goods and services as described in the initial application. Vendors may not sell the following: Alcoholic beverages, food, controlled substances, counterfit products, fireworks, firearms, weapons, or any products that may be lewd, offensive, discriminatory, vulgar, or that festival management deems "unsuitable for a family friendly environment". Vendors may not sell or solicit customers in any area outside of their purchased booth space. It is the vendors responsibility to protect their merchandise from theft, weather, and children.
SIGNAGE: Vendors are encouraged to use attractive signage for their booth. However, signage may only placed inside the booth or affixed to the vendor tent. All signage shall be secured in such a manner to protect from high winds. Festival management reserves the right to remove signage that is deemed insecure or dangerous.
PETS: Vendors are strongly discouraged from bringing pets to the festival. However, festival attendees are permitted to bring freindly pets on a leash into the festival.
INSURANCE: Vendors are required to have general liabity and property damage insurance naming Ennis Main Street 501c3, the City of Ennis, and Mesmeric Entertainment as co-insured in an amount not less than $1M US Dollars per occurrence, $1M aggregate. Vendors who do not already have insurance in place may purchase a policy to cover the festival dates through the festival vendor website.
SUBLEASING: Vendors may not sublease any portion of their space to other merchants.
PERMITS, LICENSES, TAXES: It is the vendors responsibility to collect any applicable sales taxes and to secure any permits or licenses required by any authority having jurisdiction. The current Sales Tax rate for Ennis is 8.25%.
TENTS/CANOPIES: STANDARD & PREMIUM BOOTHS include professionally built canopies. STANDARD BOOTHS do not include sidewalls and vendors must bring their own if desired. Vendor supplied tents must be properly secured to protect from wind gusts. Engineered tent weights, concrete, sand bags and water barrels are suitable tent weights. Gas cans, ice chests, and objects that can easily come loose are not acceptable. Tents may NOT be secured to trees, buildings, benches, or any other private or public property. Management reserves the right to remove any canopy deemed unsafe. Vendors who provide their own canopy assume full responsibility for injury or damage in the event their canopy securement fails for any reason.
OVERNIGHT SECURITY: The festival will provide overnight security during festival dates. However, vendors are solely responsible for securing their assets when not present in their booth. Please make sure your space is secured and protected from inclement weather before leaving each evening. In the event of overnight inclement weather, the security team will NOT be able to protect your assets.
WATER: non-potable water, if purchased, will be located within 150 feet of your booth space. Vendors are responsible for supplying their own hoses. Gray water must be collected and contained within the booth, and removed from the festival by the vendor. Vendors who allow water to drain onto the street or into the strom drains will have their water service terminated withour refund, and may be liable for environmental fines if applicable.
POWER: The only power available to Arts & Crafts vendors is 120V AC power (just like what you have at home), and is supplied to you through a single NEMA 15R (Edison/Straight Blade) receptacle (just like what you have at home) located within 50 feet of your booth. Vendors are encouraged to bring a 50 foot 3-prong heavy guage extension cord and a power strip for connection to the items in their booth. The standard power allocation is 500 Watts, and the dedicated power allocation is 2000 Watts. Vendors who exceed the power allocation they have purchased will be asked to unplug items until their demand is at or below the power allocation allotted. How much power do you need? The standard power allocation of 500W will power a laptop, phone charger, and a handful of LED light fixtures. The larger dedicated power allocation of 2000 Watts will power these same items plus a small heater OR crock pot. To determine how much power you need- look at the Ratings Label attached to all your applicanes/electrical equipment- the label should indicate the device requires 120V and _____ Watts. Simply add all of the watts numbers from your devices together to determine your total need. If an item does not show Watts, but instead shows Amps, then multiply the Amps by 120V to get Watts. For instance, if your fan is 120V 0.6A, then your watts would be 120 x 0.6 = 72 Watts. Please be advised that the National Electrical Code requires all outdoor outlets to utilize GFCI outlets, and during rain, vendor power may be adversely affected. Our electrical team will do everything possible to restore power as quickly as possible, but no refunds will be provided in the event electrical power is affected by weather. Also note that certain devices with motors or compressors may not be compatible with GFCI outlets and thus may not work. The vendor is responsible for checking compatibility prior to ordering power. Vendor power will only be available from 2 hours prior to festival doors to one hour past festival close each day. Vendor power should not be used to protect perishables overnight! Generators will not be allowed without written permission from Festival Management!
SURFACE PROTECTION: Vendors are responsible for preventing wax, paint, grease, oil, or any other byproduct of their booth from coming into contact with the sidewalk or street. Vendors at risk should consider laying down a protective tarp and then plywood on top to protect the underlying surface. Any vendor who leaves a mess behind will be responsbile for cleaning charges.
NOISE LEVELS: Some vendors want to be placed in a quieter area of the festival grounds in order to better communicate with customers, while other vendors want to be next to the stage where noise levels are substantially higher. Festival management will do our best to accommodate your requests during the booth assignments exercise, but unfortunately cannot make changes on site once the festival has begun loading in. It is really your preference on where you want to be, there are pros and cons to both sides. Next to the stage is loud at 2PM in the afternoon and you may strain your voice shouting all day. However, at 8PM at night the main stage is the center of activity and the most heavily congested area of the festival. If you have a preference, let us know in advance and we will do our best to suit you.
TRASH: Vendors are responsible for collecting their trash, into heavy duty trash bags, and placing trash in the designated areas for our teams to collect. Please do not leave leftover food in your booths overnight to prevent critters from visiting. At load out, please leave your booth space clean. This includes any cable ties you may have clipped from signage!
VENDOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION: From time to time, neighbors can diasgree on things. Should this happen, please notify festival management.
ICE: Bagged ice is available for purchase at the festival beer booths for $5 per 20 pound bag
FAMILY FRIENDLY ENVIRONMENT: The Ennis Bluebonnet Trails Festival is designed to be a fun, family friendly environment for all ages. Therefore, vendors are expected to maintain a booth presentation, attitude, and bahaviors that support this theme. Lewd behaviour, inappropriate language, violence, threats, intoxication and other behaviors deemed undesireable for the festival environment will be grounds for vendor expulsion without refund. If you smoke, please step behind your booth to do so.
FESTIVAL LOAD IN & LOAD OUT: Festival load in will begin on Thursday afternoon April 13 at 4PM, and will be complete by 9PM. Vendors may also load in product on the morning of April 14 between 6AM and 8AM but no vehicles will be permitted to enter the space. Vendors may NOT bring vehicles into the event boundary for load out until the ALL CLEAR is provided by Police after close of the event on April 16th. As a reminder, Festival Operating Hours are as follows: Friday April 14 9AM-9PM, Saturday April 15 9AM-9PM, and Sunday April 16 Noon-6PM.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR A SUCCESSFUL EVENT
Festivals are fun but they can also be stressful. Here are some key tips, tricks, and a punchlist of things to remember.
Be Inviting and Engaging! A well lit, well signed booth, with a smiling face and a friendly salutation is the best way to get customers to notice your booth and engage in conversation. If you act interested in people, they will become interested in you. Do not sit behind your table, staring down at your phone for half the day, and then come to the management office and complain about slow sales.
Dress- Hot afternoons can turn into cold evenings, so be sure to dress for the weather and bring a jacket for later.
Hydration- Be sure to drink plenty of water throughout the day to prevent dehydration and earely fatigue.
Here is a short list of commonly forgotten items you might need:
Bug Spray
Phone Charger
Cable Ties
Chair
Tarp and Rope
Extension cord and power strip (if you ordered electricty)
Change (management cannot make change on site)
Your Smile
VENDOR AGREEMENT
I hereby make application to exhibit at the Ennis Bluebonnet Trails festival, presented by the Ennis Main Street 501c3, a non-profit foundation, in Historic Downtown Ennis, Texas on April 14-16, 2023. I understand that my application is subject to approval from the festival management team, and that my participation is not guaranteed until I receive a signed acceptance letter from the Ennis Main Street.
If accepted, I agree to adhere to the Vendor Rules and Regulations aforementioned. I also agree to hold harmless and indemnify the Ennis Main Street 501c3, City of Ennis, and Mesmeric Entertainment from any claims resulting from my participation in the festival. I understand that failure to comply with the rules and regulations may result in expulsion from the festival and disqualify me from participating in future events.
I acknowledge that upon acceptance, my payment will be desposited and I will receive a vendor packet by mail with my receipt, booth selection, credentials, and parking passes.
I certify that my goods and services are as represented in my application, and I will not sell counterfit merchandise, or goods that are used, remanufactured, B-Stock, or factory seconds without disclosing them as such.
I agree to collect sales tax as applicable and to submit those taxes as per the Texas Comptroller. I will display my Sales Tax Permit in my booth at all times.
I understand this is an outdoor festival and will be held rain or shine. In the event of inclement weather, festival hours may be modified or cancelled. There will be no refunds in the event fesitval hours are reduced or cancelled.