April Ghouls 2026
The deets
Where: Athens, GA
When: April
Table Cost: $155 (10x10 space with power)
Attendance: estimated 300
The venue
This was our first outdoor market, and the host venue made it very easy. Spots were clearly marked with numbered flags and spray painted corners so you knew exactly where to set up. The grounds were flat and clean, and the event organizers did a good job giving everyone lots of breathing room.
Parking is on-site and free with easy load-in access to the event grounds with no stairs. There is a permitter fence to separate the grassy area from the parking lot, and there is extra parking out back. Bathrooms are on-site inside the brewery.
The market
This was an outdoor mixed market with horror theming. There unfortunately were some vendors selling items that we suspect had AI generated imagery on them, but it was like maybe 1 or 2 out of the approx 20 vendors.
The audience
Turnout was not at all what we were told to expect for a 2-day event. The crowd was extremely thin, with no path ever feeling full. The crowd felt like it leaned more towards and older crowd, though we did see a good number of families and teenagers.
The sales
This has been our poorest performing show this year, we made around 1.5x our space expense. We had a total of 20 sales with an average purchase of $12.15. Most of our sales were made on Saturday.
For this 2-day event our total time investment was 14 hours of active vending (2pm to 10pm Saturday, 2pm to 8pm Sunday) and 5 hours of combined set-up and break-down time (total of 19 hours).
Items that sold the best were stickers. Purchases were predominately made using card instead of cash.
Pros
Nice outdoor space
On-site food options, though slim variety
Staff checked in with us several times
Good amount of programming to keep people in the area longer (musical performances, people in costumes, a little train pulled by an atv)
Cons
No tent, table, or chairs provided
Event goes late, so you need lights for your set-up
Low foot traffic
Weather was warmer than forecasted
We learned that our stickers curl if in the heat of the sun, so make sure you can keep your merch in the shade as the sun moves