"It's not my fault you can't walk upstairs" is an absolutely appalling thing for an event organiser to say, what a kick in the teeth to anyone with accessibility needs.
It's especially appalling given how many given how many people come into this hobby specifically *because* they have mobility/ accessibility issues. Even if you can't run or walk, etc, you can still create something beautiful I'd say accessibility is *more* important in events related to this hobby than most others.
I’d like to see her look someone wheelchair-bound in the eye and try to say that to their face. Like, even if she wasn’t being super accommodating to the disabled community at large, you gotta know that knitting is a big deal to older people who often have mobility issues. You gotta know that there’s at least one old woman with a walker piled up with yarn in attendance.
I've watched another video on this mess of another content creator and EVERYONE needs to tell Felicia of W&F "BYE FELICIA".. and we were all wondering if the vendors couldn't get together and file a class action suit against W&F and the actual SITE organizers to get their booth fees back and compensation for the damage to their merchandise and supplies.
The accessibility problems are especially horrifying when you think about how much the fiber art community has been traditionally populated by the elderly, the disabled, and other "homebody" types.
While I don't think of accessibility when it comes to fibre art, it is probably one of the most accessibility-focused forms of art (not saying it's THE just one of the). Especially since the general public often attribute yarn work like knitting to old women. It's wild that accessibility wasn't even a thought in the mind.
the actual quote of her YELLING “contracts change get over it” is BATSHIT like ma’am contracts aren’t just silly lil run downs of how you think the event might go those are LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENTS. you are ASKING for an insane amount of lawsuits. her basically acknowledging that she completely threw her contracts in the trash TO THE OTHER PARTY IN THE CONTRACT is a lawyers nightmare.
that's so funny the entire point of contracts is that, in fact, they do not change. the very purpose of a contract is that it is an agreement that does not change.
@valolafson6035 some have clauses saying that elements of the contract may be changed without notification, but yes. Generally, contracts don't change.
NGL when the lady from LolaBean said "That was supposed to be my friend" my heart did kinda shatter. She put her business, her name, on his event via the sponsorship and trusted that her friend would do right by her. It's not just professional hurt, it's personal. I feel for her, along with the vendors and attendees.
Yeah, people have got to realize that it's harder to speak on things with your friends, especially when your friend was personally harmful to you. 3 days to process is like. very normal
LolaBean is the GOAT. I’ve followed her through my art insta account for a while. She also had an incident where h*bby l*bby blatantly stole her extremely unique yarn dyeing designs and she handled it with such poise while still calling them tf out
30 years of working events in the fibre industry and never once have I paid to get in. Never once have I been told an event was mandatory!!! This would have been a huge red flag for me
I was just about to say this! I worked in events at a museum/grounds and we never paid to get into the events we were running. This is why it's important to hire someone with actual event planning experience!
The booth pricing seems kinda insane too. That's like, major anime convention booth pricing on a very high end of the scale. I don't know how fiber festivals compare to anime conventions in terms of cost, just my only experience with convention vending is anime cons. Most of the ones I've seen would have give you multiple booths of that size for these kind of prices. You'd probably have money left over too. I know fiber arts are more popular in this Covid influenced world but anime is more popular than it's ever been ever right now so I really can't wrap my head around $900 for a booth. How do you even make a profit on that with hotel/travel fees?
I was an attendee and both my ticket which I printed 2 days before and my friends e ticket she downloaded day of, listed the orchard location. We drove there viewed the empty wet field, watched two other cars pull in and do U turns, searched madly online and eventually figured out the venue had moved. We drove an hour north with the upside being the event was almost over (definitely was not open until 7pm) and so was way less crowded. Poor outdoor vendors. Sea of mud. One or two lightbulbs. Really insane.
I was rewatching this tonight while doing my bedtime routine and my teenager happened to catch ten minutes or so. When I reminded them they have school in the morning so they needed to get in bed, they said, "But I wanna hear more about this!" Then, as I plugged in my headphones so I wouldn't disturb my spouse's sleep, they said, "No, keep it playing. I need to know how this ends." So, Emma, that's evidence of a job well done, I reckon!
My 15 yo son has to listen when I pick him up from school and take him to and from hockey - the amount of times he said “Wow!” In one 15 minute drive was hilarious!!
I thought 700$ was expensive for the annual local art fair that happens near me. But vendors get a 10x10 space for 3 days, triple the foot traffic, police, fire, medical and free admission. 900$ is crazy
$900 is usually what some weapon booths have to buy for 3-5 day events it's because the extra money helps the event with extra insurance ridiculous for a fiber festival it's one day.
@@ayajade6683 Wow. This story is so bad, that hearing another event for 3 days is 'only' (it's probably a fair price but still it's a chunk of change) $700 with all the things accounted for, and that weapons booths pay a bit more to spread out the extra insurance without putting that cost on not-weapon artists...it genuinely felt *uplifting*
As a person that works at events like flea markets, craft fairs, history fairs, etc. no it’s not normal to have staff pay for tickets to enter. If I ever had to pay to enter an event I was working at I would immediately quit, that sounds like a huge red flag to me. Thats like making zookeepers pay for a ticket everyday in order to enter the zoo to do their job for example.
Right? In the comic/anime con scene, vendors typically get two passes per booth, with additional avalible for a discount. They should NOT have to pay full price, ESPECIALLY for the stupid rehersal dinner thing. Like, what, as if vendors were going to buy a booth and have no one running it!!
An absolute pet peeve of mine is when they say yes the event is accessible and no other info. Does that just mean step free access or is that also wide hallways? Does that include an ASL interpreter for panels, or audio description for events? Maybe a braille map? Seating so people can rest? Making sure queues are covered so people are not waiting in the sun? What if someone has an accessibility need they need to communicate, who do they speak with? ‘Yes’ is not an appropriate answer
Exactly. Also, the question should not even be “is this event accessible”. It should be “what are the accessibility options” or something similarly worded.
Frrr, "yes" is just genuinely *never* an appropiate answer. And the fact that the whole thing was in no shape or form "friendly" to like...most handicapped individuals, is just wild. Like, that wasn't even a comprehension mistake on the attendees behalves, it was a flat out lie
…one might assume “yes” generally translates into “I haven’t put any thought or effort into it so probably not but I decided to check this box for increased attendance”
Eating an apple while representing the orchard omg 😂 Also, Felicia having no empathy for those who couldn’t walk makes NO sense if she was a PODIATRIST. It was literally her job to medically treat foot and ankle issues. How did she treat her patients?! The irony.
i'm unfortunately not surprised to hear of her history in the medical field, as it's very common for doctors and nurses to lack any sort of personal empathy for the people they specialise in treating.
@@kaninekodiakI'm pretty sure lota of people who work in those fields are there for the "good sumartian" and savior complex to feel good abt themselves, my aunt is head of a whole office for nurses and she could confirm
I used to nanny for a wealthy family and one day I was talking to the oldest who was a senior and a few of her friends. I asked what they wanted to do for a living and they all mentioned jobs that make a lot of money. I asked one girl if she had a passion for her chosen career and she basically said who cares, she'll make a ton of money. Maybe Felicia was like that.
Joke answer: lol this whole thing was a scam to get more foot pain/injury customers Real answer: unfortunately choosing to become a doctor or nurse (or teacher or firefighter or any other “service” sort of job) doesn’t always mean you’re bothered about other people in the least
I'm an event planner and I meet a lot of Felicias. Love the idea of 'envisioning' a fabulous event, love making a website and designing a logo. Ignore the boring bits whilst they choose a colour for the tote bags. It's why event planning is a proper career and not something that anyone can do without first considering their skills and knowledge. Also surprised she was allowed to open. I'm not in the US but in Europe you would not be permitted to allow members of the public into a space that was unsafe and you wouldn't be allowed to exceed capacity.
I thought exactly the same as your second point Ruth - this could never have happened here. I was also struck by Emma discussing the risk of someone shouting “shooter” 😔 That wouldn’t need to happen where I am either. Edit: Sorry, I meant to say, your first comment 😂 That’s my friend who I just escaped going in to business with 😅 She was totally uninterested in plans and finances, but was all over the logo!!
My cousin went and while she can walk, she does need to sit down whenever the fatigue gets too bad. She said due to her disability the 14~ minute walk took about half an hour, something she’s never been able to do before. She then spent about an hour sitting down in a crowded, sweaty, and poorly ventilated common area. Then when she was ready to mud/hills made it impossible for her to get anything done or buy anything. Crocheting/knitting is the only hobby she has been able to do with her debilitating chronic illness. They spent close to 2k~ to go to the event and it was something her husband had planned out to make her feel better. It really fucking sucks that her FIRST yarn festival was a shitshow, hopefully this is the LAST Fyberfest because how are you gonna have such a non-disability friendly event catered to a community that is PERFECT for those with disabilities >:(
I think you're on to something with this channel. Normally when I "sit and spin", (I make pet fur yarn) I listen to crime scene videos. Now I listen to you and it feels like I'm gossiping with a friend about "crimes" in the fiber world. "Whaaaaaat" "oh no she didn't" "the yarn was in the mud" sobbing. I love you. Keep going.
@@winterwoodcottage3657 Aww i've always wanted to get my cats fur made into something like that, I imagine pet yarn would make good use for things like... mementos after passing...
Listen, I used to be a secretary for s charity, and take the minutes. All the reasons you listed for why you liked the town minutes are reasons I was told off for mine 😂 People don't like it when you capture what actually happened because then their actions are immortalised and they can't spin it around so easily lolol
I was the Secretary for a charitable trust for a few years, plus interested in creative writing and storytelling in my spare time. The most interesting part of this role, from my point of view, was building a narrative that every meeting achieved something, hopefully positive. Of course it turned sour as people wanted to keep an air of mystery around the inner workings of the Trust. In the end, I decided to burn a few bridges after an argument over a semi-colon.
Crocheting my dog a sweater whilst listening to this has me feeling like a grandma partaking in the local drama. I’m living for these immaculate vibes 😂
“There wasn’t much music, I’m not sure what happened.” I guarantee it went something like this: -Felicia procrastinated looking for bookings -“How much could booking a folk band cost, $10?” -“You’re offering us how much? Yeah okay, we’ll get back to you, I’m going into a tunnel I have to let you-” *click* For the couple of bookings that needed the money: “Hey so you still haven’t even started paying us. We aren’t going to be there” Edit you’re also understating how negligent this was. If there was an emergency this ABSOLUTELY would have killed someone. Crowd crush is incredibly dangerous
Crowd crush at the doors, slipping on the wet cardboard “walkways”, a domino situation with tents coming down if someone stumbled, seems so so so dangerous in so many ways.
definitly, you can find prices online. Its often a grand for a good band, especially for an event like this... you can get cheaper but musicians are often undervalued so when the actual cost happens (and its fair) people just don't accept it... Its funny it happens at a knitting show, you would think they would know about undervalued work.
I worked in public events over the summer, and one of the things I had to do was look for bands for an event. They are lowkey so hard to find and EXPENSIVE. Most want advance payment too, which you need to be prepared to shell out. I was with a nonprofit, so we mostly were asking if they would be willing to "donate" and take a reduced payment, which kind of sucked, but it's for a decent cause anyways. Music is hands down one of the hardest parts of an event and simultaneously one of the most important. Some things just sort of come together if things go well, but music is not one of those things. I'm lowkey impressed she had any music at all.. Also the main thing is music does not travel far. At all. I was with a mostly small place, but we had musicians planned where you can see the next one. It doesn't travel far surprisingly. Even with speakers.
I’m a fiber artist that vends and can confirm that usually staff do not have to pay. Booths often come with a few staff badges (usually 2). I’m sure every event organizer I’ve worked with would print me more upon request if I needed them. Also these booth fees are astronomical, I’ve never paid more than around $300 for a single booth for a 3 day event and it would take a LOT for me to pay over $500 for a single space at any event.
I work at a publishing house and even at one of the biggest book fairs in Europe you get free Staff badges and discounted rates for other employees attending. I can't imagine that a lot of vendors really made net profit there.
Yeah, I've staffed conventions for years, and I've never had to pay and in fact have often gotten a free additional guest badge, food vouchers, and even a free hotel room (granted, I'd have to share with other staffers, but still). This whole thing seems like a complete and utter mess which can be squarely laid at the feet of the organizers. I feel so bad for any of the staff who were trying and all of the vendors and attendees, because this is all completely unacceptable.
Last time the Minnesota Quilt Show was in St Cloud I was asked to help with staffing. Cool! And then I found out that not only was it unpaid volunteer work, but I HAD TO PAY THE TICKET FEE. They wanted ME to pay THEM to work FOR FREE!! I told them to kindly go fork themselves.
I am friends with vendors in the pop culture/anime space. Table prices can usually be high for some cons but most smaller barely touch $1k and thats for cons with a few thousands of con goers. Usually includes 2-3 staff badges (some times more depending on the company) and access to literally everything. Also they don’t PAY FOR “REQUIRED” EVENTS.
I'm an architecture student so building codes are always in my mind (not sure how this translates to temporary events) but basically the absolute smallest amount of square feet per person needed in a standing room only event is 5 net sf per person. That means this is not including the space taken up by booths and catering. If the event is 15,000sf and we subtract the 9,000sf for vendors we have 6,000sf left, that divided by 5sf per person is room for 1,200 people ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM. Realistically this would feel extremely crowded and unsafe. moral of the story they were doomed for the start,
I’ve watched enough Fascinating Horror episodes to be totally spooked out at how poorly this event was run. They are lucky nothing caused a fire or panic.
I do events and I can say there's building code capacity and then realistic capacity, they don't match. I had a venue that told me 1800...but inactuallity if you added food station you could do 600 comfortably. 1800 is nofurniture and packed in like sardines.
Some ladies in my yarn club attended this.... and I'm so glad it's getting talked about!! Everyone from the attendees to the vendors were scammed, and had aweful experiences. One lady had a friend who drove specifically to see their other friends booth for the first time and was unable to get to the booth due to the inaccessibility. She couldn't support her friend despite being at the event!
As someone who was there, I was hoping you’d do this one! Technically it didn’t rain the *entire* time, but it bucketed down more than once, and spectacularly so while people were lined up just before opening. Also, to add to the total lack of organization, some of us *did* get approached in the parking lot to have our tickets scanned and get wristbands, but then stood in line anyway because that genuinely appeared to be the only way in. There’s no way to describe the oppressive crush of people in that building during the early hours, or the complete confusion that permeated the whole event. (I was about to leave when I realized there was a whole other building?!) Bonus points: Not only we’re there only three food trucks, there was no place to sit and eat. The whole thing was so sad because the year before had been truly wonderful. On the plus side, I talked with one of the vendors at an event after W&F and they gave me a “vented with us about Wool and Folk” discount. 😂
Her saying "its not my fault you can't walk upstairs" and the other abelist things is appalling when there are so many disabled people in the crafting community. I'd seen another YTr cover this, but I'm glad to see you also cover this.
I have Ehlers danlos syndrom which affects my joints, and even though I am not in a wheelchair it's still important for me to have options if my joints lock or dislocate. It's absolutly disgusting to say something like that, I hope she never works in that industry again
I watched LolaBeans response, you could feel the anger and upset from the video, you could tell she was holding back on exactly how she felt and i feel bad for them both especially everyone's attitudes towards them for being "friends" with felicia (i guarantee they arent friends any more)
I feel so horrible for her. How awful to be treated like that as a friend, let alone as a business. I feel for the vendors too, but man, what an awful friend.
Her “that was supposed to be my friend” is heartbreaking. They got fucked over as much as everyone else but were treated as though they were at fault. It’s horrible. 😢
How sad for everyone involved. Sounds like she took the money and ran, but who really knows. The vendors should at least take her to court for refunds. And the lady who fell and injured herself should talk to a lawyer also, at least for help with medical expenses. Great job with this video by the way.
The vendors need to file a class action lawsuit, as do the disabled attendees who paid and basically got stuck in line for the elevator all day. This event was clearly in violation of both the ADA and fire code.
@@toiletfrog they wouldn't as for these types of cases it's on a contingency which means they don't pay unless they win and the legal expenses are included in the suit
I haven't finished the video yet, but the moment you told me the STAFF had to pay for tickets......BIG red flag. I work anime conventions in the midwest and I have never heard of staff paying for their own ticket. That's insane
Wow I feel so bad for these vendors. I know there were 100 bigger issues but making the vendors stop selling after an hour (or two?) on the first night is crazy; everyone knows you gotta make your rounds and scope it out first, then go back and shop! Yarn ain't cheap
my theory is that the shopping closing early wasn't the original plan. it wasn't clear to vendors until pretty late in the game that their booth staff would be paying $160 apiece to attend the dinner and once that was clarified and we all were kind of understandably annoyed, they told us attendance at the dinner wasn't mandatory, so a *bunch* of us RSVPed no to dinner and made other plans so we could eat together with our staff. So if a huge chunk of the vendors weren't gonna be onsite, how can they have shopping throughout dinner? (source: was a vendor! yes, it did suck!!)
Maybe she was stripped of her license for some reason. I wouldn't be surprised if she's lying, though. She seems like a grifter who would lie about being a doctor if she could make a buck.
@@apathybronson I don’t think she got stripped, your right the internet finds that stuff. More like she made the work environment bad that she left bc they were “mean” to her. You know the kind you can’t admit they caused the problem. You can be socially bad at your job without breaking the law or getting fired. I’ve had several coworkers like this. They always leave blaming everyone but themselves when they are the problem.
@@wolfwise1135 oh that part for sure, I'd bet on that. But if she wasn't a real doctor or had lost their license, we'd know. If somebody finds meeting notes like that, they'd find any irregularities in her career as well. I assume she's one of those people that goes into medicine for the money (I've been told podiatry has a very good earning to work balance) and then realises she doesn't like helping people.
I was supposed to go and couldn't because of a pretty serious reason. Even though the cancellation period was over, I emailed Felicia who kindly promised a refund. No such refund was ever issues, but at this point I consider myself lucky not to have gone XD
@@FS-qk5uqno if the cancellation period was over they're not legally obliged to refund their money. Promising a refund in that case and not paying out is super shitty on a human level but it's not illegal.
I attended with a friend. This very expensive festival was DANGEROUSLY crowded. There were 3 buildings. We couldn't even enter one building with the push of the crowd. The podcast tent was loud and woefully small with very little seating. I didn't purchase anything because I felt so stressed and could barely enter booth spaces. Walking down from the 5th floor with the push of the crowd made me realize I had to get out of there. I had to talk my friend into even going to the NY Sheep and Wool festival the next day (for which we had driven from Virginia to attend) because of how rattled she was from this experience. The NY Sheep and Wool festival was expertly organized and lovely and only took us a few minutes to enter (as opposed to the hour wait in line at W&F). I can't imagine W&F surviving this disaster.
From an organizational standpoint, this reminds me a lot more of Dashcon than Fyre Fest. Primarily due to the affected parties. Fyre Fest was put together and marketed towards the upper class, while Yarn festivals tend to be attended by a much more ecclectic group of people.
It was marketed *as* an event for the upper class, but it was marketed to many more. Tickets started at $500. Many round-trip plane tickets at today's price range from $400-$650. That's still a lot of money but it's a trip to the Bahamas and a music festival. Many people could do that (especially pre-pandemic), and many do the equivalent with Disney parks, multiple smaller trips throughout the year, festival season, etc. So yeah, normal working people were also screwed BIG TIME. If it were just rich people it wouldn't be so hated.
I'm a Hudson Valley local!! Both festivals happen like 20 mins from me. NY Sheep and Wool was lovely even despite the rain - because there are ACTUAL OPEN BARNS/PAVILIONS FOR VENDORS. I didn't go to "FybreFest" but I can tell you from a "local's" perspective the town/local FaceBook groups were POPPING OFFFFF that weekend 😂😂
Glad you mentioned the venue's responsibility in these situations too. I've worked event venues and unlike some organisers, we do do these events all the time. So theres zero excuse for letting things like permits and accessibility slide, management know the craic.
oy oy 🏴 but yeah i agree. the venue even allowing the thing to happen when the ticket sales were so far past their capacity is shocking. it absolutely wouldn't fly over here. feels like a bunch of moody toddlers got together to organise this event.
Even the small venue I rented for my wedding requested proof that I had obtained my alcohol permit well in advance. It's pretty negligent to just take the money and assume the organizer will follow the rules.
To bring some positivity back to this topic, I want to shout out the Flock Fiber Festival in Seattle, which has basically been doing the exact opposite of Wool & Folk. They are super well organized, and after seeing how popular the event was last year, immediately secured a larger venue for 2024. They share maps and info and even have specific periods of the festival where masks are required so that everyone can feel safe and welcome. It is clear that they really care about vendors and attendees
that booth fee sounded hella high, so i looked it up just to see a comparison -- an 8' table in artist's alley at NYCC (same state, same month) is $525 including two entry tickets (so, close to HALF), and that's a con with an attendance of 200,000
felicia is extremely lucky that there wasn’t an emergency at the event. it almost certainly would’ve resulted in even more injuries and could’ve gotten extremely out of hand considering the unstable walkways and lack of marked exits.
If you're interested in a Canadian craft show that went terribly wrong, the It’s A Christmas Market in Kitchener. The event was cancelled because the organizer gambled away all of the money given to her by vendors and ticket sales. It's now affected another market as well.
I was there, it was horrible. I am disabled. But because I it isn’t as visible. I sat in the tent and was wet. It was scary with the weather. I sat while they put the cardboard down. One thing for sure is it was dangerous. I saw Felicia several times and she just smiled and kept going. I’m sad for the vendors. I couldn’t get to most. So I just said hello to my friends. Spent what I could where I could get to. Couldn’t get any food. Lines too long in the rain the aggravated my condition. 😢 If you saw me I was smiling. I usually do no matter what.
Thank you for mentioning how much this impacts disabled folks!! When you mentioned the muddy wet cardboard I cringed; if someone with a cane or crutches walked on that... yikes. It's really lucky no one here got seriously hurt
As someone who has been to fiber based festivals of varying sizes (never costing more than $5 to get in either because the point is to go there to SHOP) and also a very large Jane Austen conference that I attended a few weeks ago, my mouth has been hanging open in shock pretty much since I started the video and I’m only halfway through! The pricing to attend this wool festival is similar to the cost of the 3 day Jane Austen conference where we got multiple main speakers, special sessions, breakout sessions, activities, shopping area, 2 brunches, formal dinner, and attendance at a formal ball! And it was impeccably run and organized at a VERY expensive venue (Gaylord Rockies). To pay a similar ticket amount for a bad dinner and not quite two days of shopping would have made me livid!
I go to gem and jewelry shows. And as you said the ticket price is never more than 5$. The most I’ve payed to enter was at the palm beach once a year antique show and that was 35$ for the whole weekend. And they have literal million dollar antiques. And paintings from the 15th and 14th century. Some people are so out of touch
Everytime your friends appears in the background of your videos it invokes the same feelings I feel when I walk into a small business restaurant and see the owner’s kids doing their hw in one of the dining tables
When I watched from another creator I was thinking “I need to see Emma’s take on this because the understanding of the yarn community will make it even more insane”💀
@notville_ But he DID include how Felicia got to be over this mess and included comments from attendees and Vendors before they were deleted and such, and shared a video of one Vendor whose employees who were denied entree because they didn't have the passes (which the actual vendors couldn't locate because the organizers just chucked their supplies and such anywhere) and how they were brutalized by security and other attendees.. it was sickening. There should be a lawsuit.
About Felicia's reaponse: she actually posted it on Instagram with comments turned on, but after about 15 negative replies in the first 17 minutes she turned off comments
Sadly there are so many people who understand event planning, many of whom would have probably helped for free (ppl forget that nonprofits have event people, it's not all $500/hr consultants & big budgets). I've tried to teach event planning to groups, and i have great results in general as a trainer, but people just put up huge blocks when they hear that event planning is 1% creativity & 99% tightly scheduled + budgeted logistics based on a tangible goal.
Most people think scheduling and event planning is easy, but they don't realize the attention to detail it requires, and many people aren't willing to do the less glamorous things or don't even think to do them. This whole thing was doomed from the start when they didn't get permits for the other location 6 months in advance and hadn't signed the contract. After that, they should have scaled down the event or picked a bigger venue for safety and logistical reasons, but they got greedy.
this reminds me of a car wash I planned in 2001 when I was 8. I wanted to donate money to 9/11 victims. planned it all out, I had signs etc... did I consult a single adult about this car wash? no I did not. it was a catastrophe. I washed one car.
Sue for what, though? And, to what end? Just for damages? For the loss of *possible*, which is impossible to perfectly quantify? The legal fees alone could possibly put some of these businesses under, especially if they’re operating in margins so thin. If they didn’t end up winning, it could be detrimental. And, if they did win, the damages paid probably wouldn’t be much at all, probably not enough to be life-changing, and possibly not even enough to help recoup losses. I think people in the US 1) are waaaay too litigious AKA sue-happy 2) often forget that, just because you CAN file lawsuits, it doesn’t mean you’ll win 3) don’t realize just how expensive a lawsuit actually is, and that’s if it even gains any momentum and goes anywhere at all.
@TCherice Easy stuff to sue for would be breach of contract for the vendors. Those who paid for 10 x 20 spots in prime areas and received an area of 10 x 15 or less can submit claim for reimbursement. I also imagine TV court shows, which pay for legal fees for people to appear, would love to get on this drama. And it's actually not that hard to calculate for potential lost wages, given some vendors had stock damaged or projected earnings from the last two years this festival was held. Legal matters are always a pain of time and money, but some people may find it worthwhile to prevent the organization from doing this again.
@@TChericebreach of contract, unsafe venue conditions, and more. For these types of cases lawyers work on contingency aka they cover the costs of the legal team but it's free until the client wins as they add the legal costs to the suit. The fact you're defending the organizers makes me think you are them trying to discourage people suing when you're actually an idiot who doesn't know how the legal system works.
@TCherice For the vendors to sue the organizer (who probably doesn't have the money). The US is overly litigious, but vendors spent money for booths and didn't get what they paid for.
@@nancyt.7134 again lawyers for this kind of stuff work on contingency the client doesn't pay them unless they win and most the time it's in the suit for the defendant to pay
30 mins is 2 seconds in car-centric USA tho (I'm American). Driving is so normalized that the difference is p much negligible. It's the lack of notification beforehand & the lack of parking that's fucked up
I was there and I said to myself “Emma is going to have a field day with this event.” It was a hot mess from start to finish. I was there off and on from about 11:45-5:30. I had to leave several times due to the crowding which my anxiety could not handle. I had friends who were vendors inside and outside and it was just so terrible for everyone involved. The only great thing was how all the vendors worked together, during and after the event. The camaraderie was a beautiful thing to see.
What the hell? Craft drama?? There is a world with craft drama?! I don't know why or how the youtube gods decided to place this video in my algorithm, but I AM HERE FOR THIS!!
Same here! I was just looking for some free crochet patterns yesterday and the next thing you know, I am eating ice cream out of the carton and learning there is a whole world of artisans posting all kinds of drama on RUclips. It is frigging awesome.
This event seems like an absolute nightmare and like it would've been *incredibly* stressful to attend or vend at. Even well-organized events can be stressful for people who don't like large crowds!!!
Aro Knits and Purls said that walking around felt like being herded around like cattle into the slaughterhouse. At one point she even felt like she was having a panic attack, a volunteer asked her if she needed help, but didn’t know where the FIRST AID was!
I attended the largest creative event in my country, with 240+ vendors, five stages and it runs for three days - but it’s in one of the biggest convention centers, and it needs it, as there’s anywhere from 20-30.000 attendees over three days. It’s well-organized, in a spacious and experienced place - but you still sometimes get stressed out by the sheer number of *people*. (The indoor space alone is 215.000+ sq feet)
When I first started hearing about this disaster, I assumed that the event must be new. Then I discovered it was their 3rd year and later that one of the original organisers had left. Clearly that person was the organisational powerhouse, but the other one must really have not been paying attention *at all* to mess the whole thing up this much. Or maybe they pissed the other organiser off so much that when she left, she took all her notes and charts and plans and contacts with her?
Surprised no one has mentioned your friend(?)'s dramatic reaction towards the end to your BREAKING NEWS. Totally made the video. Thanks for all your research and hard work!
I’ve been to so many well run events (including woman’s church conferences run by non professionals) that I take them for granted. Never again, I will start thanking the organizers for doing a good job and recognizing that when everything flows well, it out of good planning and effort and talent.
Crochet is a lot of fun, it makes you feel creative, gives you something to do in front of the TV (you aren't watching, you are crocheting😅), and best of all, people all say, "You are so patient!".
I've never heard of this festival before, live in Scotland, and have never even been to a yarn festival but you're just so good at weaving (pardon the pun) a story together so I'm HOOKED
There are few in Scotland biggest being this year in Perth; unfortunately couldn't make to it but attended small one in Glasgow recently. Good shopping opportunity 😊
@@emneeson In Glasgow? Yes. Actually both are annual events. Planning to attend the Perth one at least this year. Are you in Glasgow and knit yourself as well?
I’m not American but the cost of anything in this event is so wild. I feel for anyone there who spends top dollar for mediocre to bad experiences. You guys deserve better!
The 50% off bipoc only thing is so crazy… it’s like when you go to one of those stores where everything is always on sale and it becomes obvious that the company is over charging by such a high markup that it turns you off entirely
I find the skin colour based pricing extremely weird. If the organizers are worried about beginner businesses or businesses with less resources not being able to attend as vendors, why not have a set amount of free or lower price booths available, that the vendors would have to send an application for? I've seen something like that done in another event.
No exactly like I could maybe (?) understand for a BIPOC exclusive/focused event but for an all inclusive event that's effing crazy 😭 Also how are you even verifying for that discount? Going through their Instagrams? It all feels super extra
I doubt it covered all minorities, too. Did Jews get the discount? Muslims? Sikhs? All are small, maligned groups in the US. What about people of Native American descent who don't look like it?
@SewardWriter exactly what I was thinking too, like do we gotta submit paperwork to prove it? What stops someone from lying to get out of the extra tax? I personally wouldn't even be that mad if someone fudged on their paperwork cuz it's such a bs discount. Like what if me and my bestie both want to host the booth? Do I have to be the one to file the paperwork otherwise we gotta pay extra 🚶🏿♂️
@@SewardWriterexactly like I'm white latino. I don't look like my dark skin dad but my white mom. Like am I allowed? Is my light skin sisters who moved to America from Mexico allowed. What about my immigrant stepmother? She's light skin too. What about my dark skin brother? Do I have to parade him around as proof to be able to get the discount? Will I be shamed for getting it? My family is made of 1st and 2nd gen immigrants and many of us don't LOOK "poc". I even have a cousin in Mexico that despite having BOTH of his parents be dark and all his sisters are dark too he came out looking like Ron Weasley. (It's not albinism, has has freckles) Who in my family is and isn't too white to get that discount? Will there be a color paper strip test like in family guy? And lots of mixed race people don't look bipoc, just look at Halsey. Stuff like this just feels invalidating to mixed race people. Like we can't be included in our own heritage because of our skin color. And we don't belong in either group. When you start talking about race, things get dicey especially since it's culturally subjective. I think it would have been better to offer perks and a smaller discount to established businesses owned by people who are considering "protected minorities" cause if you're are gonna be inclusive, it should include lgbt, religion, but especially people with disabilities since they're the main demographic of the knitting community....but that doesn't make as much money👀
$900 for a vendor table is CRAZY to me!! Is that standard at some events? I vend at furry conventions and the most I've ever had to pay is $200 for a table. Sometimes the smaller "artist alley" tables are even free.
It's hard to know _how_ overpriced the vendor tables were, considering that pricing often varies by region and type of event. Vendor space pricing should take into account things like number of attendees and how likely they are to shop, how many other vendors there are, and what the average sales price of goods being sold, since a successful, repeat event wants a good number of vendors offering things that attendees are excited to shop for, who _will make enough sales and _*_profits_*_ to consider returning for future events._ $900 is a lot of sales to have to make before breaking even! Let's play with numbers: At a 50% markup, you'd be having to sell $1.8k gross to cover booth cost (not counting tickets, parking, hotel, gas, food, etc)...if a generous 1 in 20 attendees purchases from your booth, @ 3,000 attendees that's 150 sales at ~$12 each (as long as you're charging separately for tax and CC processing fees) to, and I can't stress this enough, _to break even_ on that booth fee. For someone wanting to sell handmade hair bows at a farmer's market, a $20 table might eat up the whole day's profits. For someone selling a fun, low cost novelty product like caffeinated paw-print shaped soap at a popular, well attended furry convention, a $200 table for a 2 day event might be totally reasonable. Vendor/display booths at large tech conventions like PAX or CES can easily run $4k and up. For a yarn festival, where people buy tickets and attend _to buy yarn they can't get elsewhere,_ a seller doing $15 hanks of specialty yarn when people regularly purchase multiple hanks at once for large projects, at a previously well-regarded and successful event, where you're promised 3,000 sets of captive, already invested eyes on your product...I can see how they still had vendors signing up even with slots being $900 ($450 for POC?)... ...although when the event is also insisting every staff member needs to attend and pay for an expensive dinner _and_ pay for an event ticket... 😬
I’ve seen a couple events about that price point. But they are long standing events that bring in like 10s of thousands of people over the event. An event that is going to bring in 2500 people tops I wouldn’t pay more than like $100-$150 honestly.
Definitely on the high end, but not completely unheard of. I would expect this fee from a long-running 3+ day large scale indoor-only, high-end fine craft event. (Museum-level)
The only event I've seen even close to that was Momo con in Atlanta(last I looked vendor booths ranged from $800-$3000, no idea what artist tables cost) but that one is insanely huge and has been going for years. The few people I have talked to that have done it said it was worth it but miserable because of how insanely busy it is. I can't imagine paying $900 for something that has only been going for 3 years and only expects a few thousand people to attend. I've never spent more than around $400, even for 3 day conventions, and I've certainly never paid full price for my helpers to attend!
Your friend in the background shaking her head and waving her hands around in the breaking news portion was a delight. Also, the creeper sounds FX every time the 5th floor is mentioned was funnier to me than it probably had any business being.😂
Steal millions of dollars and you'll spend little to no time in prison. Steal stuff worth a couple of hundreds or thousands and you'll be in prison for decades. AMERICA! 🌈
He was also told he can't run a company again by the US government. So he has his friend do it. People never learn. Billy boy just wants more prison time.
Those vendor prices were an immediate red flag, let alone vendor staff having to pay to get in. I'm not specifically a fiber artist, but I am an active general art vendor, also in NY, and that's absolutely outrageous. The most expensive I've ever seen up to this point was about $475-$490ish, for 3 days at a large-scale, established convention. Not once has my partner ever had to pay to get in to assist me.
I know, right? I'm an art vendor in the southern part of the US, and around $400 is the most I have ever paid. Momo con in Atlanta is the only one I have seen where the booths were $800-$3000, and that is one of the biggest conventions in the country! I can't imagine paying $900 for something of that size!
@@SamAnthem2 Legit! I've become very wary about markets that charge above a certain amount over the past couple years I've been vending, especially with those that are either being held for the very first time, or those that are trying to go really big after having been smaller in previous years. 👀
Right? Especially since they were also fielding a lot of heat for paying to sponsor their friend's event even though they had no part whatsoever in the planning and execution. They paid big money that they rightly assumed was going to be used to ensure they had the funds to run a good event. I can only imagine what kind of conversation was had off the record.
This is like the easiest, slam dunk breach of contract case for the vendors. They even have receipts of damages (lost stock, out of pocket costs for food that was promised, parking, etc). I'm not even a lawyer and I'm salivating at this.
I use a cane and I literally don't know how I would even react if I paid this much to go to a well-respected event just to get bullied and ridiculed and barely be able to participate!!!! It's all absolutely abysmal, and I'm so upset for the attendees and vendors
It would for sure be an awful experience, but remember that you are important and loved and no matter how much ignorant ableist people belittle others that does not change! Everyone deserve so much better than this event.
I run the Exhibitor Hall for a few different anime cons and I've heard some horror stories from the artists and dealers I work with (treat exhibitors with basic human respect challenge), but this is absolutely the worst situation I've ever heard of. It is, however, sadly not that shocking to me anymore. When I first took on this roll, I thought keeping in constant contact with my exhibitors before and during the con, checking on them regularly throughout the weekend, watching their table if they need to use the bathroom/get food, asking them how we can improve things next year, etc were all the bare minimum. I soon learned that apparently what I was doing was above and beyond.
I was just trying to watch a video about this yesterday, but stopped not far in because I found the creator's style very grating. And I was literally thinking to myself "Dang, I wish Emma made a video about this." And then today? BOOM! It's like the universe actually answered my entreaties for freaking once! Thank you so much for making this. Truly made my morning.
yeah i’m assuming you meant Austin and it was so clear that his entire channel is just stirring whatever pot he sees without having an understanding of the community behind it. a lot of the time he was just reading off tweets and posts. Emma is a god of breaking down fiber arts drama ❤
@@stefaniedc1128 Yes! There is such a HUGE difference between hearing from someone who just prowls the internet for content and rehashes whatever drama they find and hearing from an insider perspective. I am a complete outsider with no investment whatsoever in this community, so I need to be drawn in by the passion of someone knowledgeable and capable of providing context and perspective to the situation.
@@stefaniedc1128Hm I don’t see how he’s stirring pots? He’s not trying to start drama. He’s just covering it lol. But he’s very boring and just picks what is trending on Twitter.
@@heatherangel9700Oh I gotcha! Sorry. Autism brain. I also feel the same way about his video. It was interesting but it lacked a certain spark that this video has (and keeps pulling me in to relisten!)
Since stumbling across your channel, I have become addicted to fiber drama! No idea why, I don't even fiber craft, just very interesting and engaging videos. Especially loved your dramatization of council meeting minutes!
I live in Salem so I saw Circle of Stitches vaguely post about the mess it was but didn’t know any of the details, this sounds like a NIGHTMARE. I’ve worked markets in the rain and that alone is so miserable, I can’t imagine doing that plus having no accommodations and an event environment that is just making things harder
I’d actually say the end message is that there is a reason there are professional event planners. There are so many moving pieces to co-ordinate and it’s a skill to maneuver.
This is absolutely horrific and my heart broke for all the vendors and attendees. Running any event is hard no question asked, but this is just inexcusable. It also shows the value of any "smaller" local event or convention that is held frequently, that run decently, a lot of events seem to not care about meeting the bare minimum anymore.
Thank you for covering this! I was there and I was one of those people that was so overwhelmed I couldn’t shop. I had saved and flew to NY from Germany and I was so angry and frustrated. As a person with ND it was overwhelming and scary at times. My daughter and I left early. Had my daughter not been there to help me I truly don’t know what I would have done.
I’m astounded that the initial stated motivated for this event was to celebrate diversity and inclusivity in a community that’s predominantly elderly and disabled folks, and yet there was no perceived problem with making people walk half a mile to the venue and stick vendors in stairwells and on a fifth floor. Just ?????????? You’re right, what if there was an emergency and people panicked?? There would have been a crown crush and serious injury, or worse!
Please for the love of Peter tell me that the "Embroidery and slow stitching spaces are still drama free" because my mouth has been on the floor watching your videos the past few days. just woowwww...Also, that gentleman who peeped the situation and knew that all hell was about to break loose was me all day long. I am a question "asking fool" if things start to look or smell funny im out Im not going to keep pouring money or time in a situation i know is about to go downhill FAST ..He and his wife called IT and got out of dodge, good for them. i really feel bad for people that invested time and money and lost all around. (just wow!!!!)...
I just got done with a grad school paper that took me 3 weeks to research and write. Drinking a glass of wine and watching this has been the most incredible way to unwind! Crocheting a lace shawl while I eat my popcorn! Props to you.
Who knew that knitting community drama would be so fascinating. I have never knitted in my life, and have zero plans to ever start, but your content is so captivating. Your research is impeccable.
I just wanted to comment: you are well researched in every video, plus you usually keep it to facts of the situation and that makes for an easy summary of what ever situation you cover. Stay wonderful human! You are doing great!!
I know you might not see this (since there’s so many comments) but I wanted to just say that watching your videos lately has inspired me to try crochet again. I tend to get frustrated and give up sometimes (I’m a perfectionist) but I really, really want to learn!!! Here’s to hoping I can push through and finally get the basics down this time.
I just love that you read meeting council minutes and went to Brooklyn to see the knit shop. I'm not a knitter but I love your attention to detail and narration
I really enjoy your roommate &/or partner’s silent, gesture-based commentary so don’t even worry about baleting that chunk of footage, the replacement was very good
it honestly feels more like twitchcon (that one in 2022 where there was case of someone breaking their back by jumping in a foam pit that is clearly marked as something ou are supposed to jump in, but it was *not* safe for that purpose; as a reminder twitch is owned by amazon and had the mean and ressources to make this not happend) dashcon tbh (a bunch of nobodies attempts to make a con, does not go well, but at least there was a few attempt at making it right from what i've seen, it was a disaster but in the grand scheme of things it was just meh)
@@lakuronekobaka3951 I mean yeah I know so, but whenever theres a bad/horribly unorganized convention, Dashcon is always brought up. You should have SEEN how confused tumblr was when the Twitchcon ballpit thing became public.
Wow, thank you for going into all the for-planning on this disaster event! I haven’t heard anybody else deep dive on that aspect, and it really illustrates just how much of a disaster this whole thing was. A sh!t show from the very beginning! I so appreciate your detailed presentation on this
Oh my lord! Sounds like Felicia is a bad planner AND mean! Lol On another note, I’m always sad to see a brick & mortar yarn shop dying. They are becoming exceedingly rare.
@@cjboyothe meanness is in the accusing people of being lazy and pampered for complaining about the walking times and lack of accessibility, when she advertised this event as accessible. Overcharged people and under delivered. Let people who paid around $1000 sit out in the rain with stock that often is destroyed by moisture without any tents. This level of neglect and misrepresentation is malicious. I'm sure she was in over her head, but she had the money to hire some staff to help organize the event.
As someone who is neurodivergent and can't handle loud/crowded places this was a nightmare. I paid for a ticket (it was around $50) and when I got there I had multiple breakdowns so I left within an hour because I couldn't handle the crowds. Even when I brought some noise cancelling earplugs the crowds made me vomit. (I dont think I was the lady they mentioned throwing up in a corner, though I might have been. There were multiple people throwing up.)
Not to be extra messy, but Felicia Eve also had a recent settlement/payment to Cascade yarns you can find in the NY case search too. 2021/2022 cases with a payment of over $7k. Index #815856/2021. I hope she can dig herself out of the hole because debt can be a shitshow, but I also hope the vendors recover their wasted funds too
@@annmariebusu9924I'm not actually sure of the exact reason since I'm not adept at reading legal abbreviations, but the case is with her and her consulting company vs Cascade Yarns which was surprising to me
I had so much fun watching the video-- I used to live in this area of NY and worked in the apple industry, so I'm verrrrrryyyy familiar with Elizabeth Ryan and have heard many crazy stories. So crazy to see her pop up in my nightly hour long niche video essay!!
Someone outside the fibre art community covered this and it was was already wild without them having a lot of experience speaking directly from a fibre artist/crafter perspective. They did a great job but I was already hoping you’d cover it!
I used to live in Ulster County, and let me tell you, the impressions were pretty spot on 😂 With the apple eating, I was like, "Yeah, I knew like three people who would've done that." Granted its been like a decade since I've lived in Upstate NY, but yeah, still a vivid memory for me
I'm glad you covered this. I'm new to the fiber arts world and want to start going to some events, now I know what to look for as a disabled neurodivergent person. Even if I would have made it uphill and around the slippery ground, I would have had a panic attack with all the chaos.
I am new to wool crafting and recently looked at wool shows in the UK, so I guess it's no surprise that YT would suggest another creator who talked about this awful festival. I couldn't believe how badly this was handled. I've worked at a well-known policy org in DC that has top name attendees at its events (as in former presidents, top name). The events have to be flawless or heads will roll. I've done academic event planning, where the folks are a little more forgiving, but you still have to keep access and mobility issues in mind. I'm not even an event planner, just a policy wonk/academic who knows how to throw a nice gig for people who will take their money elsewhere if you don't. No one should ever give this Felicia another dime. The teen girls group at my church could manage a better event. I had no idea there was craft world drama, but I'm here for it. New sub.
"It's not my fault you can't walk upstairs" is an absolutely appalling thing for an event organiser to say, what a kick in the teeth to anyone with accessibility needs.
Yeah plus fiber arts are very important to many people who can’t walk??? Like the audacity
My understanding is that Felicia is/was a physician
It's especially appalling given how many given how many people come into this hobby specifically *because* they have mobility/ accessibility issues. Even if you can't run or walk, etc, you can still create something beautiful
I'd say accessibility is *more* important in events related to this hobby than most others.
I’d like to see her look someone wheelchair-bound in the eye and try to say that to their face.
Like, even if she wasn’t being super accommodating to the disabled community at large, you gotta know that knitting is a big deal to older people who often have mobility issues. You gotta know that there’s at least one old woman with a walker piled up with yarn in attendance.
I've watched another video on this mess of another content creator and EVERYONE needs to tell Felicia of W&F "BYE FELICIA".. and we were all wondering if the vendors couldn't get together and file a class action suit against W&F and the actual SITE organizers to get their booth fees back and compensation for the damage to their merchandise and supplies.
The accessibility problems are especially horrifying when you think about how much the fiber art community has been traditionally populated by the elderly, the disabled, and other "homebody" types.
For real, tho. So ridiculous
While I don't think of accessibility when it comes to fibre art, it is probably one of the most accessibility-focused forms of art (not saying it's THE just one of the). Especially since the general public often attribute yarn work like knitting to old women. It's wild that accessibility wasn't even a thought in the mind.
I think you have homebodies and shut-ins confused.
We homebodies get around just fine.😉
@@molahi5779 How do they have them confused ?? Like the disabled and elderly aren't shut-ins they just get out a bit less ?
@@molahi5779are you saying the disabled and elderly are shut-ins? Or are you just insulted to be associated with us?
the actual quote of her YELLING “contracts change get over it” is BATSHIT like ma’am contracts aren’t just silly lil run downs of how you think the event might go those are LEGALLY BINDING DOCUMENTS. you are ASKING for an insane amount of lawsuits. her basically acknowledging that she completely threw her contracts in the trash TO THE OTHER PARTY IN THE CONTRACT is a lawyers nightmare.
Yes! Like, isn't that the point of contracts? So the details DON'T change.
Yeah this just sounds completely surreal once you stop to think for like a second.
Unless you're the other lawyer, than you're clicking your heels while skipping your way into the courthouse in glee
that's so funny the entire point of contracts is that, in fact, they do not change. the very purpose of a contract is that it is an agreement that does not change.
@valolafson6035 some have clauses saying that elements of the contract may be changed without notification, but yes. Generally, contracts don't change.
NGL when the lady from LolaBean said "That was supposed to be my friend" my heart did kinda shatter. She put her business, her name, on his event via the sponsorship and trusted that her friend would do right by her. It's not just professional hurt, it's personal. I feel for her, along with the vendors and attendees.
at least her friend didn’t properly display her name
This isn't the first time she's had friends who bring trash and drama into her life.
Yeah, people have got to realize that it's harder to speak on things with your friends, especially when your friend was personally harmful to you. 3 days to process is like. very normal
I was going to say the same thing you can hear her pain
LolaBean is the GOAT. I’ve followed her through my art insta account for a while. She also had an incident where h*bby l*bby blatantly stole her extremely unique yarn dyeing designs and she handled it with such poise while still calling them tf out
30 years of working events in the fibre industry and never once have I paid to get in. Never once have I been told an event was mandatory!!! This would have been a huge red flag for me
I was just about to say this! I worked in events at a museum/grounds and we never paid to get into the events we were running. This is why it's important to hire someone with actual event planning experience!
Usually you only have to pay if you go above the staff limit which is like 10 people
@@ayajade6683 I believe they put that in place to prevent people from letting a whole bunch of friends in for free. But you are 100% correct
I've seen paid slots for farmers markets, but they weren't this expensive.
The booth pricing seems kinda insane too. That's like, major anime convention booth pricing on a very high end of the scale. I don't know how fiber festivals compare to anime conventions in terms of cost, just my only experience with convention vending is anime cons. Most of the ones I've seen would have give you multiple booths of that size for these kind of prices. You'd probably have money left over too.
I know fiber arts are more popular in this Covid influenced world but anime is more popular than it's ever been ever right now so I really can't wrap my head around $900 for a booth. How do you even make a profit on that with hotel/travel fees?
Such a small detail, but explaining the venue change in a live and not even reaching out to people directly is WILD
That's what stood out to me as the biggest red flag of all. Like omg tell people and vendors where they're gonna be!!
Plus an easily shared post. Even a simple plain text on a bright background would have done most of the work.
I was an attendee and both my ticket which I printed 2 days before and my friends e ticket she downloaded day of, listed the orchard location. We drove there viewed the empty wet field, watched two other cars pull in and do U turns, searched madly online and eventually figured out the venue had moved. We drove an hour north with the upside being the event was almost over (definitely was not open until 7pm) and so was way less crowded. Poor outdoor vendors. Sea of mud. One or two lightbulbs. Really insane.
The Hulu Fyre Festival documentary is my comfort "show". It's kinda like "life is bad but at least you didn't get tickets to Fyre Festival".
Same. It’s my go to documentary because it’s fascinating but not too sad or serious.
I feel sad for those who were underpaid from the Bahamas but aside from that it's a guilty watch
@@vanessamartin5515your comment was copied by a bot 👍
That and poop cruise
that and the WeWork documentary. those two grifters were cut from the same cloth.
I was rewatching this tonight while doing my bedtime routine and my teenager happened to catch ten minutes or so. When I reminded them they have school in the morning so they needed to get in bed, they said, "But I wanna hear more about this!" Then, as I plugged in my headphones so I wouldn't disturb my spouse's sleep, they said, "No, keep it playing. I need to know how this ends."
So, Emma, that's evidence of a job well done, I reckon!
Family likes good subjects 😊
I wish that was my family
I also stayed up way past my bedtime 😂 (I'm an adult)
My 15 yo son has to listen when I pick him up from school and take him to and from hockey - the amount of times he said “Wow!” In one 15 minute drive was hilarious!!
@@KingSugarbear we love Amanda! Her recent video on the Indy 500 kept me riveted
I thought 700$ was expensive for the annual local art fair that happens near me. But vendors get a 10x10 space for 3 days, triple the foot traffic, police, fire, medical and free admission. 900$ is crazy
Esp for a fiber event... lets be real. Wow.
$900 is usually what some weapon booths have to buy for 3-5 day events it's because the extra money helps the event with extra insurance ridiculous for a fiber festival it's one day.
@@ayajade6683 weapon booths as in they sell weapons?? the answer might seem obvious but i wanna make sure im not misunderstanding
@@ayajade6683for one day!!! Huge jaw drop! That’s extortion! 😮
@@ayajade6683 Wow. This story is so bad, that hearing another event for 3 days is 'only' (it's probably a fair price but still it's a chunk of change) $700 with all the things accounted for, and that weapons booths pay a bit more to spread out the extra insurance without putting that cost on not-weapon artists...it genuinely felt *uplifting*
It’s the Lola bean yarn co’s husband mad dogging everyone with his knitted beanie on in the background for me. That’s a supportive partner.
49:05 in case anyone needs a timestamp
yuup, you can see how pissed he is about the treatment of not only her as a person, but also her business
@@rat-gang-It’s so wholesome. If my future partner is not like this i dont wan em lol
Yknow. It really warms my heart knowing that some vendors were kind enough to share booths when the others were getting destroyed by the rain
As a person that works at events like flea markets, craft fairs, history fairs, etc. no it’s not normal to have staff pay for tickets to enter. If I ever had to pay to enter an event I was working at I would immediately quit, that sounds like a huge red flag to me.
Thats like making zookeepers pay for a ticket everyday in order to enter the zoo to do their job for example.
Right? In the comic/anime con scene, vendors typically get two passes per booth, with additional avalible for a discount. They should NOT have to pay full price, ESPECIALLY for the stupid rehersal dinner thing. Like, what, as if vendors were going to buy a booth and have no one running it!!
An absolute pet peeve of mine is when they say yes the event is accessible and no other info. Does that just mean step free access or is that also wide hallways? Does that include an ASL interpreter for panels, or audio description for events? Maybe a braille map? Seating so people can rest? Making sure queues are covered so people are not waiting in the sun? What if someone has an accessibility need they need to communicate, who do they speak with? ‘Yes’ is not an appropriate answer
Exactly. Also, the question should not even be “is this event accessible”. It should be “what are the accessibility options” or something similarly worded.
+
Frrr, "yes" is just genuinely *never* an appropiate answer. And the fact that the whole thing was in no shape or form "friendly" to like...most handicapped individuals, is just wild. Like, that wasn't even a comprehension mistake on the attendees behalves, it was a flat out lie
…one might assume “yes” generally translates into “I haven’t put any thought or effort into it so probably not but I decided to check this box for increased attendance”
This is why I assume yes means it's not.
If I arrive in my wheelchair I want to know I can get in.
Eating an apple while representing the orchard omg 😂
Also, Felicia having no empathy for those who couldn’t walk makes NO sense if she was a PODIATRIST. It was literally her job to medically treat foot and ankle issues. How did she treat her patients?! The irony.
It sounds like a good thing she’s no longer practicing.
i'm unfortunately not surprised to hear of her history in the medical field, as it's very common for doctors and nurses to lack any sort of personal empathy for the people they specialise in treating.
@@kaninekodiakI'm pretty sure lota of people who work in those fields are there for the "good sumartian" and savior complex to feel good abt themselves, my aunt is head of a whole office for nurses and she could confirm
I used to nanny for a wealthy family and one day I was talking to the oldest who was a senior and a few of her friends. I asked what they wanted to do for a living and they all mentioned jobs that make a lot of money. I asked one girl if she had a passion for her chosen career and she basically said who cares, she'll make a ton of money. Maybe Felicia was like that.
Joke answer: lol this whole thing was a scam to get more foot pain/injury customers
Real answer: unfortunately choosing to become a doctor or nurse (or teacher or firefighter or any other “service” sort of job) doesn’t always mean you’re bothered about other people in the least
I'm an event planner and I meet a lot of Felicias. Love the idea of 'envisioning' a fabulous event, love making a website and designing a logo. Ignore the boring bits whilst they choose a colour for the tote bags. It's why event planning is a proper career and not something that anyone can do without first considering their skills and knowledge.
Also surprised she was allowed to open. I'm not in the US but in Europe you would not be permitted to allow members of the public into a space that was unsafe and you wouldn't be allowed to exceed capacity.
I thought exactly the same as your second point Ruth - this could never have happened here.
I was also struck by Emma discussing the risk of someone shouting “shooter” 😔 That wouldn’t need to happen where I am either.
Edit: Sorry, I meant to say, your first comment 😂 That’s my friend who I just escaped going in to business with 😅 She was totally uninterested in plans and finances, but was all over the logo!!
It is definitely a legit career. I planned a rally and it was really challenging and stressful.
"Welcome to the USA, the 'Greatest Country In the World™️©️®️' where it's not a problem until it is! Oh, and if you get hurt or maimed we also won't give you your Social Security because...reasons? Who cares! You're poor, you'll figure it out! 'You People™️' are crafty like that, yeah? Whatever, I have tee time at the country club in fifteen minutes so bye!"
I absolutely hate living here...
@@ChristopherSadlowski ❤️
To me it sounds as if she skipped getting the actual permit, which would have required having parking, facilities, and safety etc. planned properly.
My cousin went and while she can walk, she does need to sit down whenever the fatigue gets too bad. She said due to her disability the 14~ minute walk took about half an hour, something she’s never been able to do before. She then spent about an hour sitting down in a crowded, sweaty, and poorly ventilated common area. Then when she was ready to mud/hills made it impossible for her to get anything done or buy anything. Crocheting/knitting is the only hobby she has been able to do with her debilitating chronic illness. They spent close to 2k~ to go to the event and it was something her husband had planned out to make her feel better. It really fucking sucks that her FIRST yarn festival was a shitshow, hopefully this is the LAST Fyberfest because how are you gonna have such a non-disability friendly event catered to a community that is PERFECT for those with disabilities >:(
I'm sorry to hear that she had such a bad experience I hope the next one she attends is a lot more comfortable for her. ❤
The town meeting dramatization is worth an Oscar!
putting my acting classes to good use !!!
made me crave apples
the vibe check stare at the orchard owner
Best supporting actor award: 56:12
@@sonotdown998I love their green hair.
I think you're on to something with this channel.
Normally when I "sit and spin", (I make pet fur yarn) I listen to crime scene videos. Now I listen to you and it feels like I'm gossiping with a friend about "crimes" in the fiber world.
"Whaaaaaat" "oh no she didn't" "the yarn was in the mud" sobbing.
I love you. Keep going.
I'm a digital artist, and i kinda feel the same lol. I love listening to this channel while i draw
@@denjidenji9162so do I! I just finished a really big project so im taking a break:3 what are you two working on?
Pet fur yarn?! What is this?? I’m intrigued
@@MaeMaeWorld people save there pets fur when grooming and then mail it to me and I spin it into yarn.
@@winterwoodcottage3657 Aww i've always wanted to get my cats fur made into something like that, I imagine pet yarn would make good use for things like... mementos after passing...
Listen, I used to be a secretary for s charity, and take the minutes. All the reasons you listed for why you liked the town minutes are reasons I was told off for mine 😂
People don't like it when you capture what actually happened because then their actions are immortalised and they can't spin it around so easily lolol
Lol!! I appreciate this person who took them for giving me SO much to work with.
I was the Secretary for a charitable trust for a few years, plus interested in creative writing and storytelling in my spare time. The most interesting part of this role, from my point of view, was building a narrative that every meeting achieved something, hopefully positive.
Of course it turned sour as people wanted to keep an air of mystery around the inner workings of the Trust. In the end, I decided to burn a few bridges after an argument over a semi-colon.
@@GlasPthalocyanine you understand
@@Elle-elle-elle 🥴👍
@@GlasPthalocyanine "there's no need to go into who did what, just write the general outcomes" that just sounds like a press release but sure ok
Crocheting my dog a sweater whilst listening to this has me feeling like a grandma partaking in the local drama. I’m living for these immaculate vibes 😂
I'm crocheting gnomes for a Christmas garland and feeling the same way!
@@veronicavatter6436 that sounds so cute!!!!
“There wasn’t much music, I’m not sure what happened.”
I guarantee it went something like this:
-Felicia procrastinated looking for bookings
-“How much could booking a folk band cost, $10?”
-“You’re offering us how much? Yeah okay, we’ll get back to you, I’m going into a tunnel I have to let you-” *click*
For the couple of bookings that needed the money:
“Hey so you still haven’t even started paying us. We aren’t going to be there”
Edit you’re also understating how negligent this was. If there was an emergency this ABSOLUTELY would have killed someone. Crowd crush is incredibly dangerous
Crowd crush at the doors, slipping on the wet cardboard “walkways”, a domino situation with tents coming down if someone stumbled, seems so so so dangerous in so many ways.
I agree - so many serious hazards!
The musicians did what Welcome to Night Vale did at DashCon and refused to perform without payment in advance. Smart move.
definitly, you can find prices online. Its often a grand for a good band, especially for an event like this... you can get cheaper but musicians are often undervalued so when the actual cost happens (and its fair) people just don't accept it... Its funny it happens at a knitting show, you would think they would know about undervalued work.
I worked in public events over the summer, and one of the things I had to do was look for bands for an event. They are lowkey so hard to find and EXPENSIVE. Most want advance payment too, which you need to be prepared to shell out. I was with a nonprofit, so we mostly were asking if they would be willing to "donate" and take a reduced payment, which kind of sucked, but it's for a decent cause anyways.
Music is hands down one of the hardest parts of an event and simultaneously one of the most important. Some things just sort of come together if things go well, but music is not one of those things. I'm lowkey impressed she had any music at all..
Also the main thing is music does not travel far. At all. I was with a mostly small place, but we had musicians planned where you can see the next one. It doesn't travel far surprisingly. Even with speakers.
LMAO, I was the Mayor of my town for 6 years and your portrayal of the town council meeting was perfect!
I’m a fiber artist that vends and can confirm that usually staff do not have to pay. Booths often come with a few staff badges (usually 2). I’m sure every event organizer I’ve worked with would print me more upon request if I needed them. Also these booth fees are astronomical, I’ve never paid more than around $300 for a single booth for a 3 day event and it would take a LOT for me to pay over $500 for a single space at any event.
I work at a publishing house and even at one of the biggest book fairs in Europe you get free Staff badges and discounted rates for other employees attending. I can't imagine that a lot of vendors really made net profit there.
Yeah, I've staffed conventions for years, and I've never had to pay and in fact have often gotten a free additional guest badge, food vouchers, and even a free hotel room (granted, I'd have to share with other staffers, but still). This whole thing seems like a complete and utter mess which can be squarely laid at the feet of the organizers. I feel so bad for any of the staff who were trying and all of the vendors and attendees, because this is all completely unacceptable.
Last time the Minnesota Quilt Show was in St Cloud I was asked to help with staffing. Cool! And then I found out that not only was it unpaid volunteer work, but I HAD TO PAY THE TICKET FEE. They wanted ME to pay THEM to work FOR FREE!! I told them to kindly go fork themselves.
I am friends with vendors in the pop culture/anime space. Table prices can usually be high for some cons but most smaller barely touch $1k and thats for cons with a few thousands of con goers. Usually includes 2-3 staff badges (some times more depending on the company) and access to literally everything. Also they don’t PAY FOR “REQUIRED” EVENTS.
I'm an architecture student so building codes are always in my mind (not sure how this translates to temporary events) but basically the absolute smallest amount of square feet per person needed in a standing room only event is 5 net sf per person. That means this is not including the space taken up by booths and catering. If the event is 15,000sf and we subtract the 9,000sf for vendors we have 6,000sf left, that divided by 5sf per person is room for 1,200 people ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM. Realistically this would feel extremely crowded and unsafe. moral of the story they were doomed for the start,
I’ve watched enough Fascinating Horror episodes to be totally spooked out at how poorly this event was run. They are lucky nothing caused a fire or panic.
this is actually such an interesting fact to know, thank uu !!
I do events and I can say there's building code capacity and then realistic capacity, they don't match. I had a venue that told me 1800...but inactuallity if you added food station you could do 600 comfortably. 1800 is nofurniture and packed in like sardines.
Some ladies in my yarn club attended this.... and I'm so glad it's getting talked about!! Everyone from the attendees to the vendors were scammed, and had aweful experiences. One lady had a friend who drove specifically to see their other friends booth for the first time and was unable to get to the booth due to the inaccessibility. She couldn't support her friend despite being at the event!
😢
I'd buy some of the friends products and ask for a sticker to advertise on my car. Just to be supportive
As someone who was there, I was hoping you’d do this one! Technically it didn’t rain the *entire* time, but it bucketed down more than once, and spectacularly so while people were lined up just before opening. Also, to add to the total lack of organization, some of us *did* get approached in the parking lot to have our tickets scanned and get wristbands, but then stood in line anyway because that genuinely appeared to be the only way in. There’s no way to describe the oppressive crush of people in that building during the early hours, or the complete confusion that permeated the whole event. (I was about to leave when I realized there was a whole other building?!) Bonus points: Not only we’re there only three food trucks, there was no place to sit and eat. The whole thing was so sad because the year before had been truly wonderful. On the plus side, I talked with one of the vendors at an event after W&F and they gave me a “vented with us about Wool and Folk” discount. 😂
@@warronchavers2209hahaha what a pathetic attempt at trolling, I hope nobody takes you up on this bait.
@@warronchavers2209also I’m sorry for you if your name is actually Warron
@@maddieb.4282 you had to actually stand in the rain! Oh, poo-poo. You want some cheese with that whine.
@@warronchavers2209ill be sure to bring an umbrella the next time i go to an event with no lighting and seating!
@@warronchavers2209My god dude, obvious troll is obvious. 🙄
Her saying "its not my fault you can't walk upstairs" and the other abelist things is appalling when there are so many disabled people in the crafting community.
I'd seen another YTr cover this, but I'm glad to see you also cover this.
I have Ehlers danlos syndrom which affects my joints, and even though I am not in a wheelchair it's still important for me to have options if my joints lock or dislocate. It's absolutly disgusting to say something like that, I hope she never works in that industry again
Literally i heard "fiber craft fair" and "not accessible" and i was like thats 80% of the community
Especially AFTER she said it was accessible
I watched LolaBeans response, you could feel the anger and upset from the video, you could tell she was holding back on exactly how she felt and i feel bad for them both especially everyone's attitudes towards them for being "friends" with felicia (i guarantee they arent friends any more)
I feel so horrible for her. How awful to be treated like that as a friend, let alone as a business. I feel for the vendors too, but man, what an awful friend.
Her “that was supposed to be my friend” is heartbreaking. They got fucked over as much as everyone else but were treated as though they were at fault. It’s horrible. 😢
Yeah, now I want to see if I can find a video from Toni on her channel about this.
How sad for everyone involved. Sounds like she took the money and ran, but who really knows. The vendors should at least take her to court for refunds. And the lady who fell and injured herself should talk to a lawyer also, at least for help with medical expenses. Great job with this video by the way.
The vendors need to file a class action lawsuit, as do the disabled attendees who paid and basically got stuck in line for the elevator all day. This event was clearly in violation of both the ADA and fire code.
@@SewardWriterbreach of contract is easier to prove no need to do a class action as that usually has a forced mediation clause and tend to settle
I agree but also it really sucks that they’d have to pay for lawyers and litigation, money which they may not have. It’s just a horrible situation
@@toiletfrog they wouldn't as for these types of cases it's on a contingency which means they don't pay unless they win and the legal expenses are included in the suit
@@ayajade6683 for a class action yeah. But there are still costs of time and effort
I haven't finished the video yet, but the moment you told me the STAFF had to pay for tickets......BIG red flag.
I work anime conventions in the midwest and I have never heard of staff paying for their own ticket. That's insane
Wow I feel so bad for these vendors. I know there were 100 bigger issues but making the vendors stop selling after an hour (or two?) on the first night is crazy; everyone knows you gotta make your rounds and scope it out first, then go back and shop! Yarn ain't cheap
I feel like letting the vendors go for at least 1 more hour would have helped at least a little. Like something that small could have really helped.
Exactly that’s how I do fiber festivals
my theory is that the shopping closing early wasn't the original plan. it wasn't clear to vendors until pretty late in the game that their booth staff would be paying $160 apiece to attend the dinner and once that was clarified and we all were kind of understandably annoyed, they told us attendance at the dinner wasn't mandatory, so a *bunch* of us RSVPed no to dinner and made other plans so we could eat together with our staff. So if a huge chunk of the vendors weren't gonna be onsite, how can they have shopping throughout dinner? (source: was a vendor! yes, it did suck!!)
@@atlanticgoldfish very good point sorry you had that experience
@@atlanticgoldfishWhich brings us back to our first point which is the entire thing was poorly planned
I didn’t know she was podiatrist which makes the ableism more appalling. Makes me wonder if she left podiatry for other reasons.
Maybe she was stripped of her license for some reason. I wouldn't be surprised if she's lying, though. She seems like a grifter who would lie about being a doctor if she could make a buck.
@@M123Xoxoeh, I think if that was the case people would've found out. The internet is smart like that
@@apathybronson I don’t think she got stripped, your right the internet finds that stuff. More like she made the work environment bad that she left bc they were “mean” to her. You know the kind you can’t admit they caused the problem. You can be socially bad at your job without breaking the law or getting fired. I’ve had several coworkers like this. They always leave blaming everyone but themselves when they are the problem.
@@wolfwise1135 oh that part for sure, I'd bet on that. But if she wasn't a real doctor or had lost their license, we'd know. If somebody finds meeting notes like that, they'd find any irregularities in her career as well. I assume she's one of those people that goes into medicine for the money (I've been told podiatry has a very good earning to work balance) and then realises she doesn't like helping people.
@M123Xoxo no need to go making up stuff. People quit their jobs all the time to go into yarn.
I was supposed to go and couldn't because of a pretty serious reason. Even though the cancellation period was over, I emailed Felicia who kindly promised a refund. No such refund was ever issues, but at this point I consider myself lucky not to have gone XD
You should probably still talk to other attendees and vendors about filing a lawsuit.
@@FS-qk5uqno if the cancellation period was over they're not legally obliged to refund their money. Promising a refund in that case and not paying out is super shitty on a human level but it's not illegal.
@@FS-qk5uqin what universe would they be entitled to anything as part of a lawsuit
I attended with a friend. This very expensive festival was DANGEROUSLY crowded. There were 3 buildings. We couldn't even enter one building with the push of the crowd. The podcast tent was loud and woefully small with very little seating. I didn't purchase anything because I felt so stressed and could barely enter booth spaces. Walking down from the 5th floor with the push of the crowd made me realize I had to get out of there. I had to talk my friend into even going to the NY Sheep and Wool festival the next day (for which we had driven from Virginia to attend) because of how rattled she was from this experience. The NY Sheep and Wool festival was expertly organized and lovely and only took us a few minutes to enter (as opposed to the hour wait in line at W&F). I can't imagine W&F surviving this disaster.
From an organizational standpoint, this reminds me a lot more of Dashcon than Fyre Fest. Primarily due to the affected parties. Fyre Fest was put together and marketed towards the upper class, while Yarn festivals tend to be attended by a much more ecclectic group of people.
All they’re missing is the ball pit
I thought of dash con during the intro! I haven’t gotten far in, yet
It was marketed *as* an event for the upper class, but it was marketed to many more. Tickets started at $500. Many round-trip plane tickets at today's price range from $400-$650. That's still a lot of money but it's a trip to the Bahamas and a music festival. Many people could do that (especially pre-pandemic), and many do the equivalent with Disney parks, multiple smaller trips throughout the year, festival season, etc. So yeah, normal working people were also screwed BIG TIME. If it were just rich people it wouldn't be so hated.
@@lizzyblitz07? It’s not hated, it’s mocked. And it was mocked for being a complete and utter disaster. 🙃
Tbf Fyber Fest is the better pun.
I'm a Hudson Valley local!! Both festivals happen like 20 mins from me. NY Sheep and Wool was lovely even despite the rain - because there are ACTUAL OPEN BARNS/PAVILIONS FOR VENDORS. I didn't go to "FybreFest" but I can tell you from a "local's" perspective the town/local FaceBook groups were POPPING OFFFFF that weekend 😂😂
Ooooohhh!!! The local fb groups must've been delicious with the gossip. 😂🍿
moving into the area in January and lowkey wish i was there earlier for the drama lmaoooo
Glad you mentioned the venue's responsibility in these situations too. I've worked event venues and unlike some organisers, we do do these events all the time. So theres zero excuse for letting things like permits and accessibility slide, management know the craic.
oy oy 🏴
but yeah i agree. the venue even allowing the thing to happen when the ticket sales were so far past their capacity is shocking. it absolutely wouldn't fly over here. feels like a bunch of moody toddlers got together to organise this event.
@kaninekodiak yeooo 🏴 (am no Scottish, but Norn Iron 😉)
Even the small venue I rented for my wedding requested proof that I had obtained my alcohol permit well in advance. It's pretty negligent to just take the money and assume the organizer will follow the rules.
To bring some positivity back to this topic, I want to shout out the Flock Fiber Festival in Seattle, which has basically been doing the exact opposite of Wool & Folk. They are super well organized, and after seeing how popular the event was last year, immediately secured a larger venue for 2024. They share maps and info and even have specific periods of the festival where masks are required so that everyone can feel safe and welcome. It is clear that they really care about vendors and attendees
That is a great idea about the masks.
that booth fee sounded hella high, so i looked it up just to see a comparison -- an 8' table in artist's alley at NYCC (same state, same month) is $525 including two entry tickets (so, close to HALF), and that's a con with an attendance of 200,000
felicia is extremely lucky that there wasn’t an emergency at the event. it almost certainly would’ve resulted in even more injuries and could’ve gotten extremely out of hand considering the unstable walkways and lack of marked exits.
If you're interested in a Canadian craft show that went terribly wrong, the It’s A Christmas Market in Kitchener. The event was cancelled because the organizer gambled away all of the money given to her by vendors and ticket sales. It's now affected another market as well.
Ooh, I need to know more about this. She gambled away the money, this is so messy.
Oh man I live in Kitchener and I’ve never heard of this, what the whole tea?
I was there, it was horrible. I am disabled. But because I it isn’t as visible. I sat in the tent and was wet. It was scary with the weather. I sat while they put the cardboard down. One thing for sure is it was dangerous. I saw Felicia several times and she just smiled and kept going. I’m sad for the vendors. I couldn’t get to most. So I just said hello to my friends. Spent what I could where I could get to. Couldn’t get any food. Lines too long in the rain the aggravated my condition. 😢 If you saw me I was smiling. I usually do no matter what.
I’m so sorry 🥺
Thank you for mentioning how much this impacts disabled folks!! When you mentioned the muddy wet cardboard I cringed; if someone with a cane or crutches walked on that... yikes. It's really lucky no one here got seriously hurt
As someone who has been to fiber based festivals of varying sizes (never costing more than $5 to get in either because the point is to go there to SHOP) and also a very large Jane Austen conference that I attended a few weeks ago, my mouth has been hanging open in shock pretty much since I started the video and I’m only halfway through! The pricing to attend this wool festival is similar to the cost of the 3 day Jane Austen conference where we got multiple main speakers, special sessions, breakout sessions, activities, shopping area, 2 brunches, formal dinner, and attendance at a formal ball! And it was impeccably run and organized at a VERY expensive venue (Gaylord Rockies). To pay a similar ticket amount for a bad dinner and not quite two days of shopping would have made me livid!
Can I just say that I will now have to look at the next Jane Austen festival 👀this sounds absolutely delightful
I go to gem and jewelry shows. And as you said the ticket price is never more than 5$. The most I’ve payed to enter was at the palm beach once a year antique show and that was 35$ for the whole weekend. And they have literal million dollar antiques. And paintings from the 15th and 14th century.
Some people are so out of touch
I saw a video on this and immediately thought "I hope Emma covers this". They have their finger on the pulse, people!!
I thought the same thing! I’ve been watching Emma’s channel for an upload… and here it is!
Yess same here, been waiting for this! Oh but just so you know, I believe Emma uses they/them pronouns :)
also ... is there really that much yarn drama that this event wouldnt qualify as a vid idea? lolol
Same!
@@emlapinoh my gosh, thank you for pointing that out! Completely my mistake, I've fixed it now. Thanks again❤
Everytime your friends appears in the background of your videos it invokes the same feelings I feel when I walk into a small business restaurant and see the owner’s kids doing their hw in one of the dining tables
I already watched like a 40min video of this festival from another creator but I have to watch Emma's version as well because yarn drama is amazing
When I watched from another creator I was thinking “I need to see Emma’s take on this because the understanding of the yarn community will make it even more insane”💀
@@capybaracakethe way he talked about the yarn community really made it clear that he’s not a knitter 😂 we needed an insider’s perspective
Same
@notville_ But he DID include how Felicia got to be over this mess and included comments from attendees and Vendors before they were deleted and such, and shared a video of one Vendor whose employees who were denied entree because they didn't have the passes (which the actual vendors couldn't locate because the organizers just chucked their supplies and such anywhere) and how they were brutalized by security and other attendees.. it was sickening. There should be a lawsuit.
Well-done. Thank you.
About Felicia's reaponse: she actually posted it on Instagram with comments turned on, but after about 15 negative replies in the first 17 minutes she turned off comments
Sadly there are so many people who understand event planning, many of whom would have probably helped for free (ppl forget that nonprofits have event people, it's not all $500/hr consultants & big budgets). I've tried to teach event planning to groups, and i have great results in general as a trainer, but people just put up huge blocks when they hear that event planning is 1% creativity & 99% tightly scheduled + budgeted logistics based on a tangible goal.
Most people think scheduling and event planning is easy, but they don't realize the attention to detail it requires, and many people aren't willing to do the less glamorous things or don't even think to do them. This whole thing was doomed from the start when they didn't get permits for the other location 6 months in advance and hadn't signed the contract. After that, they should have scaled down the event or picked a bigger venue for safety and logistical reasons, but they got greedy.
this reminds me of a car wash I planned in 2001 when I was 8. I wanted to donate money to 9/11 victims. planned it all out, I had signs etc... did I consult a single adult about this car wash? no I did not. it was a catastrophe. I washed one car.
My heart goes out to everyone affected! I hope they will be able to sue and get justice.
Sue for what, though? And, to what end? Just for damages? For the loss of *possible*, which is impossible to perfectly quantify? The legal fees alone could possibly put some of these businesses under, especially if they’re operating in margins so thin. If they didn’t end up winning, it could be detrimental. And, if they did win, the damages paid probably wouldn’t be much at all, probably not enough to be life-changing, and possibly not even enough to help recoup losses. I think people in the US 1) are waaaay too litigious AKA sue-happy 2) often forget that, just because you CAN file lawsuits, it doesn’t mean you’ll win 3) don’t realize just how expensive a lawsuit actually is, and that’s if it even gains any momentum and goes anywhere at all.
@TCherice Easy stuff to sue for would be breach of contract for the vendors. Those who paid for 10 x 20 spots in prime areas and received an area of 10 x 15 or less can submit claim for reimbursement. I also imagine TV court shows, which pay for legal fees for people to appear, would love to get on this drama. And it's actually not that hard to calculate for potential lost wages, given some vendors had stock damaged or projected earnings from the last two years this festival was held. Legal matters are always a pain of time and money, but some people may find it worthwhile to prevent the organization from doing this again.
@@TChericebreach of contract, unsafe venue conditions, and more. For these types of cases lawyers work on contingency aka they cover the costs of the legal team but it's free until the client wins as they add the legal costs to the suit. The fact you're defending the organizers makes me think you are them trying to discourage people suing when you're actually an idiot who doesn't know how the legal system works.
@TCherice For the vendors to sue the organizer (who probably doesn't have the money). The US is overly litigious, but vendors spent money for booths and didn't get what they paid for.
@@nancyt.7134 again lawyers for this kind of stuff work on contingency the client doesn't pay them unless they win and most the time it's in the suit for the defendant to pay
as someone from the UK where a 30 minute drive is basically a day out, it's wild that a venue can move 30 mins away from its original location
ikr?!
30 mins is 2 seconds in car-centric USA tho (I'm American). Driving is so normalized that the difference is p much negligible. It's the lack of notification beforehand & the lack of parking that's fucked up
I was there and I said to myself “Emma is going to have a field day with this event.” It was a hot mess from start to finish. I was there off and on from about 11:45-5:30. I had to leave several times due to the crowding which my anxiety could not handle. I had friends who were vendors inside and outside and it was just so terrible for everyone involved. The only great thing was how all the vendors worked together, during and after the event. The camaraderie was a beautiful thing to see.
What the hell? Craft drama?? There is a world with craft drama?! I don't know why or how the youtube gods decided to place this video in my algorithm, but I AM HERE FOR THIS!!
Same here! I was just looking for some free crochet patterns yesterday and the next thing you know, I am eating ice cream out of the carton and learning there is a whole world of artisans posting all kinds of drama on RUclips. It is frigging awesome.
This event seems like an absolute nightmare and like it would've been *incredibly* stressful to attend or vend at. Even well-organized events can be stressful for people who don't like large crowds!!!
I've been to Rhinebeck and it was well done but even still I had anxiety. I'm so glad I didn't go to this one.
Aro Knits and Purls said that walking around felt like being herded around like cattle into the slaughterhouse. At one point she even felt like she was having a panic attack, a volunteer asked her if she needed help, but didn’t know where the FIRST AID was!
@@PunkHime89 how horrid! I've felt that way at massive concerts but, I expect it there... not at a fiber festival!
I attended the largest creative event in my country, with 240+ vendors, five stages and it runs for three days - but it’s in one of the biggest convention centers, and it needs it, as there’s anywhere from 20-30.000 attendees over three days. It’s well-organized, in a spacious and experienced place - but you still sometimes get stressed out by the sheer number of *people*. (The indoor space alone is 215.000+ sq feet)
When I first started hearing about this disaster, I assumed that the event must be new. Then I discovered it was their 3rd year and later that one of the original organisers had left. Clearly that person was the organisational powerhouse, but the other one must really have not been paying attention *at all* to mess the whole thing up this much. Or maybe they pissed the other organiser off so much that when she left, she took all her notes and charts and plans and contacts with her?
Surprised no one has mentioned your friend(?)'s dramatic reaction towards the end to your BREAKING NEWS. Totally made the video. Thanks for all your research and hard work!
I loved that too 😂
I was just getting ready to comment on that as well, it was great!
I was waiting for a replay close-up 😂
I’ve been to so many well run events (including woman’s church conferences run by non professionals) that I take them for granted. Never again, I will start thanking the organizers for doing a good job and recognizing that when everything flows well, it out of good planning and effort and talent.
Yarn/craft drama wasnt something i was looking for when youtube searching 'beginners crochet tutorial' but now i am living for this channel lmao
Good luck with the start of your crochet journey
Crochet is a lot of fun, it makes you feel creative, gives you something to do in front of the TV (you aren't watching, you are crocheting😅), and best of all, people all say, "You are so patient!".
Living for this channel? Are you disabled and unable to leave the house? That was me at one time.....lived for soap operas....sad
the way that my jaw dropped at "it's not hard to walk" ?? just... wow.
I've never heard of this festival before, live in Scotland, and have never even been to a yarn festival but you're just so good at weaving (pardon the pun) a story together so I'm HOOKED
There are few in Scotland biggest being this year in Perth; unfortunately couldn't make to it but attended small one in Glasgow recently. Good shopping opportunity 😊
@@My_slow_story had no idea there was one in Glasgow! Is it an annual thing?
@@emneeson In Glasgow? Yes. Actually both are annual events. Planning to attend the Perth one at least this year. Are you in Glasgow and knit yourself as well?
@@emneeson oh..and look up 'Glasgow School of Yarn '
@@My_slow_story Yeah, I'm in Glasgow. I've knit a few times, but I'm more into crochet. Thank you! I'm gonna give it a look
I’m not American but the cost of anything in this event is so wild. I feel for anyone there who spends top dollar for mediocre to bad experiences. You guys deserve better!
The 50% off bipoc only thing is so crazy… it’s like when you go to one of those stores where everything is always on sale and it becomes obvious that the company is over charging by such a high markup that it turns you off entirely
I find the skin colour based pricing extremely weird. If the organizers are worried about beginner businesses or businesses with less resources not being able to attend as vendors, why not have a set amount of free or lower price booths available, that the vendors would have to send an application for? I've seen something like that done in another event.
No exactly like I could maybe (?) understand for a BIPOC exclusive/focused event but for an all inclusive event that's effing crazy 😭
Also how are you even verifying for that discount? Going through their Instagrams? It all feels super extra
I doubt it covered all minorities, too. Did Jews get the discount? Muslims? Sikhs? All are small, maligned groups in the US. What about people of Native American descent who don't look like it?
@SewardWriter exactly what I was thinking too, like do we gotta submit paperwork to prove it? What stops someone from lying to get out of the extra tax?
I personally wouldn't even be that mad if someone fudged on their paperwork cuz it's such a bs discount. Like what if me and my bestie both want to host the booth? Do I have to be the one to file the paperwork otherwise we gotta pay extra 🚶🏿♂️
@@SewardWriterexactly like I'm white latino. I don't look like my dark skin dad but my white mom. Like am I allowed? Is my light skin sisters who moved to America from Mexico allowed. What about my immigrant stepmother? She's light skin too. What about my dark skin brother? Do I have to parade him around as proof to be able to get the discount? Will I be shamed for getting it? My family is made of 1st and 2nd gen immigrants and many of us don't LOOK "poc".
I even have a cousin in Mexico that despite having BOTH of his parents be dark and all his sisters are dark too he came out looking like Ron Weasley. (It's not albinism, has has freckles)
Who in my family is and isn't too white to get that discount? Will there be a color paper strip test like in family guy?
And lots of mixed race people don't look bipoc, just look at Halsey.
Stuff like this just feels invalidating to mixed race people. Like we can't be included in our own heritage because of our skin color. And we don't belong in either group.
When you start talking about race, things get dicey especially since it's culturally subjective.
I think it would have been better to offer perks and a smaller discount to established businesses owned by people who are considering "protected minorities" cause if you're are gonna be inclusive, it should include lgbt, religion, but especially people with disabilities since they're the main demographic of the knitting community....but that doesn't make as much money👀
The bite of the apple was HILARIOUS to me and I couldn’t tell you why 😭
It's that "I'm so confident, I can eat this apple and not give a damn about you" entitlement feel and me, too😂.
Haha! If you’ve ever watched Cinema Sins, the creator always says it indicates they’re an a**hole
$900 for a vendor table is CRAZY to me!! Is that standard at some events? I vend at furry conventions and the most I've ever had to pay is $200 for a table. Sometimes the smaller "artist alley" tables are even free.
Based on the comments it’s very much not standard
It's hard to know _how_ overpriced the vendor tables were, considering that pricing often varies by region and type of event. Vendor space pricing should take into account things like number of attendees and how likely they are to shop, how many other vendors there are, and what the average sales price of goods being sold, since a successful, repeat event wants a good number of vendors offering things that attendees are excited to shop for, who _will make enough sales and _*_profits_*_ to consider returning for future events._ $900 is a lot of sales to have to make before breaking even!
Let's play with numbers: At a 50% markup, you'd be having to sell $1.8k gross to cover booth cost (not counting tickets, parking, hotel, gas, food, etc)...if a generous 1 in 20 attendees purchases from your booth, @ 3,000 attendees that's 150 sales at ~$12 each (as long as you're charging separately for tax and CC processing fees) to, and I can't stress this enough, _to break even_ on that booth fee.
For someone wanting to sell handmade hair bows at a farmer's market, a $20 table might eat up the whole day's profits. For someone selling a fun, low cost novelty product like caffeinated paw-print shaped soap at a popular, well attended furry convention, a $200 table for a 2 day event might be totally reasonable. Vendor/display booths at large tech conventions like PAX or CES can easily run $4k and up. For a yarn festival, where people buy tickets and attend _to buy yarn they can't get elsewhere,_ a seller doing $15 hanks of specialty yarn when people regularly purchase multiple hanks at once for large projects, at a previously well-regarded and successful event, where you're promised 3,000 sets of captive, already invested eyes on your product...I can see how they still had vendors signing up even with slots being $900 ($450 for POC?)...
...although when the event is also insisting every staff member needs to attend and pay for an expensive dinner _and_ pay for an event ticket... 😬
I’ve seen a couple events about that price point. But they are long standing events that bring in like 10s of thousands of people over the event. An event that is going to bring in 2500 people tops I wouldn’t pay more than like $100-$150 honestly.
Definitely on the high end, but not completely unheard of. I would expect this fee from a long-running 3+ day large scale indoor-only, high-end fine craft event. (Museum-level)
The only event I've seen even close to that was Momo con in Atlanta(last I looked vendor booths ranged from $800-$3000, no idea what artist tables cost) but that one is insanely huge and has been going for years. The few people I have talked to that have done it said it was worth it but miserable because of how insanely busy it is. I can't imagine paying $900 for something that has only been going for 3 years and only expects a few thousand people to attend. I've never spent more than around $400, even for 3 day conventions, and I've certainly never paid full price for my helpers to attend!
Your friend in the background shaking her head and waving her hands around in the breaking news portion was a delight. Also, the creeper sounds FX every time the 5th floor is mentioned was funnier to me than it probably had any business being.😂
Fun Fyre Fest fact: Billy MacFarland is out of prison now, and threatening a Fyre Fest 2.
What could go wrong??
“Threatening a Fyre Fest 2” 😂😂
Steal millions of dollars and you'll spend little to no time in prison. Steal stuff worth a couple of hundreds or thousands and you'll be in prison for decades. AMERICA! 🌈
He was also told he can't run a company again by the US government. So he has his friend do it. People never learn. Billy boy just wants more prison time.
Those vendor prices were an immediate red flag, let alone vendor staff having to pay to get in. I'm not specifically a fiber artist, but I am an active general art vendor, also in NY, and that's absolutely outrageous. The most expensive I've ever seen up to this point was about $475-$490ish, for 3 days at a large-scale, established convention. Not once has my partner ever had to pay to get in to assist me.
I know, right? I'm an art vendor in the southern part of the US, and around $400 is the most I have ever paid. Momo con in Atlanta is the only one I have seen where the booths were $800-$3000, and that is one of the biggest conventions in the country! I can't imagine paying $900 for something of that size!
@@SamAnthem2 Legit! I've become very wary about markets that charge above a certain amount over the past couple years I've been vending, especially with those that are either being held for the very first time, or those that are trying to go really big after having been smaller in previous years. 👀
I feel sooooo bad for the woman who felt betrayed by Felicia as a friend 😢
Right? Especially since they were also fielding a lot of heat for paying to sponsor their friend's event even though they had no part whatsoever in the planning and execution. They paid big money that they rightly assumed was going to be used to ensure they had the funds to run a good event. I can only imagine what kind of conversation was had off the record.
This is like the easiest, slam dunk breach of contract case for the vendors. They even have receipts of damages (lost stock, out of pocket costs for food that was promised, parking, etc).
I'm not even a lawyer and I'm salivating at this.
I use a cane and I literally don't know how I would even react if I paid this much to go to a well-respected event just to get bullied and ridiculed and barely be able to participate!!!! It's all absolutely abysmal, and I'm so upset for the attendees and vendors
It would for sure be an awful experience, but remember that you are important and loved and no matter how much ignorant ableist people belittle others that does not change! Everyone deserve so much better than this event.
@@moi1310 thank you! you're absolutely right, this was terrible on all fronts
I run the Exhibitor Hall for a few different anime cons and I've heard some horror stories from the artists and dealers I work with (treat exhibitors with basic human respect challenge), but this is absolutely the worst situation I've ever heard of. It is, however, sadly not that shocking to me anymore.
When I first took on this roll, I thought keeping in constant contact with my exhibitors before and during the con, checking on them regularly throughout the weekend, watching their table if they need to use the bathroom/get food, asking them how we can improve things next year, etc were all the bare minimum. I soon learned that apparently what I was doing was above and beyond.
I was just trying to watch a video about this yesterday, but stopped not far in because I found the creator's style very grating. And I was literally thinking to myself "Dang, I wish Emma made a video about this." And then today? BOOM! It's like the universe actually answered my entreaties for freaking once! Thank you so much for making this. Truly made my morning.
yeah i’m assuming you meant Austin and it was so clear that his entire channel is just stirring whatever pot he sees without having an understanding of the community behind it. a lot of the time he was just reading off tweets and posts. Emma is a god of breaking down fiber arts drama ❤
@@stefaniedc1128 Yes! There is such a HUGE difference between hearing from someone who just prowls the internet for content and rehashes whatever drama they find and hearing from an insider perspective. I am a complete outsider with no investment whatsoever in this community, so I need to be drawn in by the passion of someone knowledgeable and capable of providing context and perspective to the situation.
@@stefaniedc1128Hm I don’t see how he’s stirring pots? He’s not trying to start drama. He’s just covering it lol. But he’s very boring and just picks what is trending on Twitter.
@@asmrtpop2676 I think Stefanie meant the same thing you're saying and she just used the phrase "stirring the pot" a little out of context.
@@heatherangel9700Oh I gotcha! Sorry. Autism brain. I also feel the same way about his video. It was interesting but it lacked a certain spark that this video has (and keeps pulling me in to relisten!)
Since stumbling across your channel, I have become addicted to fiber drama! No idea why, I don't even fiber craft, just very interesting and engaging videos. Especially loved your dramatization of council meeting minutes!
Same, I don't craft but this is quality content lol
I live in Salem so I saw Circle of Stitches vaguely post about the mess it was but didn’t know any of the details, this sounds like a NIGHTMARE. I’ve worked markets in the rain and that alone is so miserable, I can’t imagine doing that plus having no accommodations and an event environment that is just making things harder
I’d actually say the end message is that there is a reason there are professional event planners. There are so many moving pieces to co-ordinate and it’s a skill to maneuver.
This is absolutely horrific and my heart broke for all the vendors and attendees. Running any event is hard no question asked, but this is just inexcusable. It also shows the value of any "smaller" local event or convention that is held frequently, that run decently, a lot of events seem to not care about meeting the bare minimum anymore.
Thank you for covering this! I was there and I was one of those people that was so overwhelmed I couldn’t shop. I had saved and flew to NY from Germany and I was so angry and frustrated. As a person with ND it was overwhelming and scary at times. My daughter and I left early. Had my daughter not been there to help me I truly don’t know what I would have done.
I can’t even imagine how bad this was.
Investigative journalism is NOT dead 😌✨
I’m astounded that the initial stated motivated for this event was to celebrate diversity and inclusivity in a community that’s predominantly elderly and disabled folks, and yet there was no perceived problem with making people walk half a mile to the venue and stick vendors in stairwells and on a fifth floor. Just ?????????? You’re right, what if there was an emergency and people panicked?? There would have been a crown crush and serious injury, or worse!
Please for the love of Peter tell me that the "Embroidery and slow stitching spaces are still drama free" because my mouth has been on the floor watching your videos the past few days. just woowwww...Also, that gentleman who peeped the situation and knew that all hell was about to break loose was me all day long. I am a question "asking fool" if things start to look or smell funny im out Im not going to keep pouring money or time in a situation i know is about to go downhill FAST ..He and his wife called IT and got out of dodge, good for them. i really feel bad for people that invested time and money and lost all around. (just wow!!!!)...
I just got done with a grad school paper that took me 3 weeks to research and write. Drinking a glass of wine and watching this has been the most incredible way to unwind! Crocheting a lace shawl while I eat my popcorn! Props to you.
I'm SO SO SO GLAD you're covering this!!
Who knew that knitting community drama would be so fascinating. I have never knitted in my life, and have zero plans to ever start, but your content is so captivating. Your research is impeccable.
I just wanted to comment: you are well researched in every video, plus you usually keep it to facts of the situation and that makes for an easy summary of what ever situation you cover. Stay wonderful human! You are doing great!!
I know you might not see this (since there’s so many comments) but I wanted to just say that watching your videos lately has inspired me to try crochet again. I tend to get frustrated and give up sometimes (I’m a perfectionist) but I really, really want to learn!!! Here’s to hoping I can push through and finally get the basics down this time.
I just love that you read meeting council minutes and went to Brooklyn to see the knit shop. I'm not a knitter but I love your attention to detail and narration
I really enjoy your roommate &/or partner’s silent, gesture-based commentary so don’t even worry about baleting that chunk of footage, the replacement was very good
Fyre Fest is like what Dashcon is to unorganized/bad conventions. Or what Watergate is to bad petty tiktok drama. Amazing!
I think you might have meant conventions, not conversations
@@denjidenji9162 haha yeah i did
it honestly feels more like twitchcon (that one in 2022 where there was case of someone breaking their back by jumping in a foam pit that is clearly marked as something ou are supposed to jump in, but it was *not* safe for that purpose; as a reminder twitch is owned by amazon and had the mean and ressources to make this not happend) dashcon tbh (a bunch of nobodies attempts to make a con, does not go well, but at least there was a few attempt at making it right from what i've seen, it was a disaster but in the grand scheme of things it was just meh)
@@lakuronekobaka3951 I mean yeah I know so, but whenever theres a bad/horribly unorganized convention, Dashcon is always brought up. You should have SEEN how confused tumblr was when the Twitchcon ballpit thing became public.
As someone who has to go to town board meetings often for work, your recreation felt just about right lmao. 10/10 no notes
Wow, thank you for going into all the for-planning on this disaster event! I haven’t heard anybody else deep dive on that aspect, and it really illustrates just how much of a disaster this whole thing was. A sh!t show from the very beginning! I so appreciate your detailed presentation on this
Note to self: when tickets and booth rentals are more expensive then other festivals, then be very suspicious and do a hard pass.
Oh my lord! Sounds like Felicia is a bad planner AND mean! Lol
On another note, I’m always sad to see a brick & mortar yarn shop dying. They are becoming exceedingly rare.
not dying, Emma updated that apparently they are just moving, but it is to a less than optimal location. 👍🏽
I assume a lot of dyeing happens in yarn shops /j
Sucks that she probably isn’t THAT mean. This whole event has the vibe of someone doing their best and just being bad at their job
@@hopesauce3324 😂 dyeing AND dying 🤣
@@cjboyothe meanness is in the accusing people of being lazy and pampered for complaining about the walking times and lack of accessibility, when she advertised this event as accessible. Overcharged people and under delivered. Let people who paid around $1000 sit out in the rain with stock that often is destroyed by moisture without any tents. This level of neglect and misrepresentation is malicious. I'm sure she was in over her head, but she had the money to hire some staff to help organize the event.
As someone who is neurodivergent and can't handle loud/crowded places this was a nightmare. I paid for a ticket (it was around $50) and when I got there I had multiple breakdowns so I left within an hour because I couldn't handle the crowds. Even when I brought some noise cancelling earplugs the crowds made me vomit. (I dont think I was the lady they mentioned throwing up in a corner, though I might have been. There were multiple people throwing up.)
Not to be extra messy, but Felicia Eve also had a recent settlement/payment to Cascade yarns you can find in the NY case search too. 2021/2022 cases with a payment of over $7k. Index #815856/2021. I hope she can dig herself out of the hole because debt can be a shitshow, but I also hope the vendors recover their wasted funds too
Interesting. It would suck to get such a big inheritance and then struggle. I am outside of usa can you summarize why she owed this money.
@@annmariebusu9924I'm not actually sure of the exact reason since I'm not adept at reading legal abbreviations, but the case is with her and her consulting company vs Cascade Yarns which was surprising to me
Based on the descriptions I've seen it's a breach of contract. Haven't read the details but yeaaah not the best sign.
I had so much fun watching the video-- I used to live in this area of NY and worked in the apple industry, so I'm verrrrrryyyy familiar with Elizabeth Ryan and have heard many crazy stories. So crazy to see her pop up in my nightly hour long niche video essay!!
Someone outside the fibre art community covered this and it was was already wild without them having a lot of experience speaking directly from a fibre artist/crafter perspective. They did a great job but I was already hoping you’d cover it!
Austin Green lol?
@@name.333yes! I’m really bad with names and they’re not a channel I watch normally so I couldn’t remember off the top of my head😅
Same! I watched it and was waiting for this video 😂
@@lisahoshowsky4251Same. And I get his channel confused with nickisnotgreen
I used to live in Ulster County, and let me tell you, the impressions were pretty spot on 😂 With the apple eating, I was like, "Yeah, I knew like three people who would've done that." Granted its been like a decade since I've lived in Upstate NY, but yeah, still a vivid memory for me
I'm glad you covered this. I'm new to the fiber arts world and want to start going to some events, now I know what to look for as a disabled neurodivergent person. Even if I would have made it uphill and around the slippery ground, I would have had a panic attack with all the chaos.
Yep. I'm neurodivergent and seriously disabled, and this event would have broken me.
I am new to wool crafting and recently looked at wool shows in the UK, so I guess it's no surprise that YT would suggest another creator who talked about this awful festival. I couldn't believe how badly this was handled. I've worked at a well-known policy org in DC that has top name attendees at its events (as in former presidents, top name). The events have to be flawless or heads will roll. I've done academic event planning, where the folks are a little more forgiving, but you still have to keep access and mobility issues in mind. I'm not even an event planner, just a policy wonk/academic who knows how to throw a nice gig for people who will take their money elsewhere if you don't. No one should ever give this Felicia another dime.
The teen girls group at my church could manage a better event.
I had no idea there was craft world drama, but I'm here for it. New sub.