Who should I trust?

[galaxyMLP]

Ok, remember that show I attended last month? It went great and I want to do it again this month. Thing is, that I was told this event should have no vendor fee and, I paid $25 for it last month.

I was emailing a person with an email for "art scene" last month but was told to get in free, you need to email "art walk"??

I did that and a man named Frank said I only needed to provide my phone number and I did.

Fast forward 2 weeks. "art scene" (the same event) is advertising a Facebook event. I posted and said I would be there. They replied that I needed to register and pay for a space. They also emailed me and requested the same.

I emailed art walk about it and haven't received a reply. I don't know who to trust at this point. Its not about paying the $25. Thats not an issue. I'll happily pay it. But, I don't want to pay if I dont need to or its just being pocketed by someone.

Rumor has it that:

The lady who is running "art scene" was a previous employee with "art walk" and is actually scamming people out of their money.

Oh and I met the Frank guy during the show and he personally told me that for next month we would not have to pay. He said I needed to contact art walk directly?

The show is tomorrow. Any suggestions??

Oh also let me know if you are as confused as I am...

 

[not_ally]

It does sound pretty confusing. Can you call the original/art scene folks and see if you can hunt down some information through a real person? It doesn't seem like you have enough time to do this through email anymore.

 

[galaxyMLP]

I'll call when I get out of work. I don't have any phone numbers though. I'll facebook art scene and see if I can speak to someone directly/get some straight answers although I don't know that I will since they are the ones charging people. I'd like to get into contact with Frank.

ETA: Aha! I found a phone number on the art walk website. Hopefully they pick up at 5:30!

ETA 2: I called and they didnt pick up. I emailed art scene. We will see.

 

[Aline]

I would probably pay this time, just to make sure I got in, but still pursue the issue....

But let us know what happens?

 

[galaxyMLP]

Aline, thats exactly what I was thinking...

 

[TeresaT]

I would only pay via PayPal. This way, if it is someone scamming, you really won't be out the money because PayPal can go after them. More importantly, your bank account or credit card number will not be in the hands of a scammer. If it is legit, then you won't have anything to worry about because so many people use PayPal for transactions.

 

[cmzaha]

Is this connected to the city in any way? Here almost all markets have city permits, agreements etc and the city can intercede.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Thanks for the thought Carolyn. Don't worry Theresa, I paid through PayPal.

I got into contact with the girl from art scene. It seems to me that she seems to be the one in the right.

However, I'm not sure if she has permission from the city. Apparently art walk is a city organization but art scene is not. She has permission from all the businesses in the area but, unfortunately that's not really their call. This could get ugly but I'm interested to see how it pans out.

 

[cmzaha]

I do a monthly Art Walk that has a similiar scenario or did, the free one was shut down by the city. Anyway the city runs one and someone just down the street decided to set up a free show on their property. This in an art district, the free one was shut down this year.

 

[Relle]

Confused, I'm no help.

You said - who do you trust -

dh says all the time - Trust no one and halve the list.

 

[galaxyMLP]

Relle, good advice! Thank you.

Alright, the show is over now! It sort of boiled over right when I got there and they were mid battle when I showed up. Since I had registered with both, I didn't care much anyway. The artwalk people ended up being the "winners" which means no payments but I'm afraid of this whole "first come first serve" thing for a craft show. How does that even work?

Anyway, the show went (very) well and that's all the matters! I hope they keep advertising on social media like this month.

 

[not_ally]

Yay! It sounds like whatever the battle was about it ended up being a best-case scenario for you. I agree, I would want to get on board early for next mo. to figure out what the heck is going to happen (if you can.)

 

[maya]

I would want to do future shows just to see what happens.

 

[Aline]

Sounds weird but I'm glad it went well for you. Just imagining vendors surrounding the two organizers chanting 'Fight, fight, fight...' LOL

 

[galaxyMLP]

Aline, you would not be wrong. Thats pretty much what happened.

But, I'm not giving this show up. Wayyy too good of an area/demographic for my soapies.

ETA: Oh, btw, art walk (city owned) ended up "winning". So I'm thinking that between Carolyns experience and mine, its probably a good bet that the city will always win.