06/04/2026
I purposely left out the name of this event, the city, and the organizers, because I was impressed with their willingness to take responsibility, handle constructive criticism, and refund me my vendor fee. Please don’t publicly out them on this post if you recognize the event 😊
I’ve learned a lot during my time as a full time vendor! Having been on the hosting side of things as well, I run a tight ship. Some hosts are really meant for the job, going above and beyond for their vendor community. Some hosts make honest mistakes and take accountability because they value their vendors best interest. Some hosts get greedy and drop the ball because they think collecting vendor fees is just easy money.
We pay to be vendors, then it’s up to the event host to do their part. I think vendors often feel defeated when events go to the wayside due to lack of management and advertising because our contracts make it pretty clear the host doesn’t have to refund us under any circumstances. I encourage you to stand up for yourself and express your concerns regardless. What we do isn’t always easy, and we deserve reciprocation of the hard work we put into these events 🤙
