Roots and Blues Recap
So, let's talk about Roots and Blues...(spoiler alert, it was the most fun)...
- We sold out of our 1,000 planned tarts by 10 pm on Saturday night. GULP. We were certain that after choosing a goal of ONE THOUSAND TARTS, we would be just selling and having all the fun this weekend. We just didn't consider a super early start to both Saturday and Sunday morning in the PJP kitchen to make more of whatever we could make the fastest before the 11 am festival start.
- In the end, we ended up selling about 1,250 tarts, 150 baby pies, and 16 nine-inch pies. We also stocked the hospitality tent for artists, VIPs, and volunteers with pie. It was so much pie, any way you slice it. See what I did there?
- Next year, we should plan for 1,800 tarts at a minimum. Someone remind me of this post next September, please.
- Everyone has been asking our opinion on the cashless tag system the festival required this year. My initial reaction? LOVED IT. It was great to not worry about change in our cash box and we were able to process transactions so much faster and keep our line moving. We also received a report early every morning of our sales from the previous day, which was surprisingly helpful in planning our pie supply for the day.
- That said, I won't officially give it a green light until I'm holding our proceeds check in my hot little hands. No word on when that might happen, but as long as it is this week, then I'm giving the whole deal two enthusiastic thumbs up.
- Unlike last year's celebrity encounter (I still heart you so much, Jason Isbell), I spent most of my time in the PJP booth because we were busy. That said, I was able to hear Amanda Shires perfectly well AND one of my Inner Circle besties spent the whole day with me yesterday selling pie, so that's a win.
- Our only anxiety really stemmed from our lack of stellar booth preparations. We so rarely take the PJP show on the road that we lack in attention getting banners, flags, and lights. I am not even kidding you when I tell you that the person in the booth next to us dressed up in a bee costume covered in Christmas lights and then walked around sampling their product.
- Everyone on Team PJP is going to break into a cold sweat when they read this, but I googled "pie costumes" late on Saturday night.
- Thankfully, people sought out our booth and seemed really happy to see us despite the lack of a carnival light show on our tent topper or a chorus line of dancing pies holding the menu board.
- Always when we spend the week prepping for this event, we swear we can never do it again because of the work involved. And then we have so much fun and meet so many new friends that not doing it again seems completely insane. So I already wrote in our calendar for next year. Jason Isbell, I'm waiting for you to confirm...