We moved to our current, larger venue Uffculme Centre in 2018. It was exciting to be in a bigger space with opportunities to grow and develop the festival.
We always measure the rooms to be used as marketplace and make a paper floorplan to lay out the stands. Unfortunately, our measurements weren’t quite right the first time.
This was reflected in the comments received in feedback – aisles too cramped, lack of space between the stands. We knew this before the show happened, but not until the day before when it was too late to change it. On paper, our plan worked perfectly. In reality, it didn’t.
In response to this and to the feedback received after the show, we went back to the venue and started again. We purchased a trundle wheel (pictured above, being pushed by Sara) and measured more thoroughly to try and work out where we went wrong the first time.
We discovered that the main hall wasn’t a rectangle, as we had thought. The two long sides of the room curve in slightly, making the room narrower in the middle than at either end. The curve isn’t visible to the naked eye, but is enough to make a difference to our original layout.
We redesigned the marketplace for 2019 using these new measurements and it was a much better fit. Lesson learnt – measure more carefully in future!
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