It was awful. There is no nice way to put this. The blame unfortunately lies fair and squarely with the organisers. They happily took our money and then crowbarred as many people into a room as was possible. They did no advertising, locally or otherwise, and then charged people money to get in.
It was for charity and that took the edge off slightly until one of the organisers from NICHS stood up and spoke. During her introduction she told the stall holders to save the complaints until the end and then proceeded to remind us that the money we had paid was for charity. It was scheduled to run until 6pm and at about 4pm they told us to pack up. A few hardy characters did a sit in, after all if we stayed they had to stay.
Here's my grip. The event was for charity, however we as businesses had paid the money for a service. It may have ultimately went to charity but it wasn't a donation, it was a charge. At no stage did they do anything to manage this nightmare on the day.
Bad craft fairs are part of the deal from time to time, but when the organisers don't do their job that's unforgivable.
