I’ve been to Asheville a couple times and have friends that live there! I wouldn’t doubt there’s some great festivals downtown! I’m in the food vending (kettle korn/lemonade) so I’m not as well versed as to what shows cater more towards your product but wouldn’t doubt you have an advantage given the amount of indoor shows you can do in the colder months. For me personally, it took me close to 10 years to develop a solid circuit of shows so at this point I’m not actively pursuing new shows. Below are some ways I found solid shows. -festivalnet website but only to find show names and never used the paid service. Once I found the shows I would copy paste them into google and find contact info. I also google image the show name given pics can often show attendance. -news sites sometimes have community calendars I’d look on as well to see what’s going on in that area. -networking with other vendors -city of commerce websites often have shows listed especially if they are organized by the municipality. -I’d search other vendors on social media. Some out there events on their pages which I never do given I don’t want competition knowing where I am. -simply googling city name and festival to keep it vague for better search results. -I’m in the NE but do have connections to NC and at one point was close to moving back. I found a lot of shows in the Eastern part of the state but I don’t know how they stack up to shows I region. At this point every show I work is 20-50k people.

Overall it’s always keeping an eye out. The amount of screen shots on my phones of various events is astounding. I’ll then go and research them. Also, my rule of thumb is never believe a director on average number of attendees. If they say 10k, I’ll go with 1-2k.

What kind of vending? Food, arts/crafts? Are you in a big city or smaller town? What are you currently doing as a vendor?

I don’t operate out of a food truck, but have a tent set up. My responses are limited to outdoor festivals and not day-day setups in parking lots or city streets.

I’d say one thing many food truck owners don’t think about before getting into large outdoor festivals is typically you are paying for a 10x10 space, so trucks are usually bigger and need to pay for 2 spots, which can be pricey and hurt your net profit. Other general thoughts:

1. Knowing how much inventory to stock given food trucks usually have perishable items that cannot be carried over too long, so eventually become waste.
2. Permits and code for different areas. For example, one area we do many festivals changed their requirements for food trucks/trailers to have ANSUL systems, which can be very expensive. That change caused many people to stop operating in that city.
3. Know what sells at events. I’ve seen people try to introduce novelty food items thinking that alone would drive sales. In my opinion, things as simple as fries are some of the best sellers at outdoor events.