Damp Squib
May. 17th, 2025 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeThis morning I went to the Wigwam at opening time, well before the Music, Murals and Margaritas festival main events were scheduled. I walked back home via the site of the main event and took some pictures. The weather was overcast (which I liked) but the forecast was for rain later in the day.
These signs were all over town for the past few weeks, but unless you already knew what M3 meant, you couldn't easily read them unless you got very close to the signs. The local weekly newspaper, The Fernley Reporter carried a front-page story in this week's edition about the event, though.
Center Street was deserted at this early hour, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.
This was the smaller of the two performance stages set up on Center Street. The schedule called for alternating performances on the main stage (which wasn't set up when I came by) and this smaller one throughout the day.
This building houses ACES, the group that runs the M3 event. This included one of the few new murals downtown this year. Most of the others were spread round the city in places I don't go that often, so I didn't know about them.
Here's the East Lot before the vendors started to arrive.
Craft fair vendors and food trucks started to arrive and the complicated process of getting people slotted into place began. This did remind me of a Dealer's Room move-in at a convention, except it was all outdoors.
Incidentally, the silver cylinders next to the dumpster were unpainted trash cans, as one of the things going on during the festival was a trash can painting contest.
Vendors and early arrivals started parking. Somewhat to my surprise, our yellow tape and signs seemed to discourage people from parking on the street, aside from the head-in vendor parking on the east side of the lot. Eventually people did start parking there, and some of them double-parked, trapping my van. I wasn't expecting to go anywhere today, anyway.
After going out and repairing places where the yellow safety tape had come loose overnight, I sat on the porch and had a light "second breakfast" of raisin toast and a banana while watching the vendors set up. Lisa came out later and joined me on the porch. We did spend some time on the south (First Street) side of the house fretting over people blocking our driveway, although the event organizers tried to keep it clear. Next year, we'll get a sawhorse and make "Do Not Block Driveway" signs. We didn't expect to have to pull the pickup out of the garage, but we would prefer to have the ability to do so if necessary.
The wind started to pick up, and our north (Front Street) signs and tape blew over. We tried to put it back up, but it wouldn't stay put. Next year, Lisa thinks we should get some plastic barrels, which we can tie to the barriers and then fill with water to hold things in place. Fortunately, even this attempt at blocking off the north and south sides seemed to discourage people from walking across our land. Again, parking on the east side is on a street easement and we don't worry about that. Besides, there's so much growth there that it acts and a sort of fence.
Later in the morning, Lisa and I went over and browsed the food trucks (I bought a coffee from one of them) and the craft fair vendors. I forgot to take pictures closer in. We didn't see much that caught our attention, and then the wind started to blow and we decided it was better to head back to the house until the wind died down.
Around the time we got back inside, my phone blew up with a National Weather Service Dust Storm Warning. This photo does not do it justice. Dust got in our eyes and started blowing down the vendors tents. Then it started to rain, heavily for a while. Those of you who were at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki might remember the freak storm that passed through on the final day of the convention and the havoc it played on the people who were working in the plaza outside of the convention center. That was about what it was like today.
By the time the wind and rain had stopped, more than half of the vendors had given up and bailed out. The food trucks stayed, they being less susceptible to being blown over. Lisa and went back over, and I bought a couple of pairs of earrings. That was the only non-food purchase I made.
I got this from Fryday's Food Truck: chicken and bacon with ranch dressing over french fries. They don't use the term, but I called it poutine by a different name. I took it back to the house and had it for lunch, then returned to working on WSFS business and helping Kayla with Westercon stuff.
We could continue to hear various performances coming from the stages, although actually the prevalent sound was the various generators from the food trucks. As I write this, the event is not over (performances are scheduled into the late evening/early night). Whether the forecast additional rain ends up discouraging the rest of the evening remains to be seen. I do actually feel bad for the vendors and organizers, though. A storm like this is unusual. The weather being uncomfortably warm, not cold and windy with dust storms, was much more likely. If we didn't live right next door to the event, we certainly would not have gone to it.
These signs were all over town for the past few weeks, but unless you already knew what M3 meant, you couldn't easily read them unless you got very close to the signs. The local weekly newspaper, The Fernley Reporter carried a front-page story in this week's edition about the event, though.
Center Street was deserted at this early hour, but it wouldn't stay that way for long.
This was the smaller of the two performance stages set up on Center Street. The schedule called for alternating performances on the main stage (which wasn't set up when I came by) and this smaller one throughout the day.
This building houses ACES, the group that runs the M3 event. This included one of the few new murals downtown this year. Most of the others were spread round the city in places I don't go that often, so I didn't know about them.
Here's the East Lot before the vendors started to arrive.
Craft fair vendors and food trucks started to arrive and the complicated process of getting people slotted into place began. This did remind me of a Dealer's Room move-in at a convention, except it was all outdoors.
Incidentally, the silver cylinders next to the dumpster were unpainted trash cans, as one of the things going on during the festival was a trash can painting contest.
Vendors and early arrivals started parking. Somewhat to my surprise, our yellow tape and signs seemed to discourage people from parking on the street, aside from the head-in vendor parking on the east side of the lot. Eventually people did start parking there, and some of them double-parked, trapping my van. I wasn't expecting to go anywhere today, anyway.
After going out and repairing places where the yellow safety tape had come loose overnight, I sat on the porch and had a light "second breakfast" of raisin toast and a banana while watching the vendors set up. Lisa came out later and joined me on the porch. We did spend some time on the south (First Street) side of the house fretting over people blocking our driveway, although the event organizers tried to keep it clear. Next year, we'll get a sawhorse and make "Do Not Block Driveway" signs. We didn't expect to have to pull the pickup out of the garage, but we would prefer to have the ability to do so if necessary.
The wind started to pick up, and our north (Front Street) signs and tape blew over. We tried to put it back up, but it wouldn't stay put. Next year, Lisa thinks we should get some plastic barrels, which we can tie to the barriers and then fill with water to hold things in place. Fortunately, even this attempt at blocking off the north and south sides seemed to discourage people from walking across our land. Again, parking on the east side is on a street easement and we don't worry about that. Besides, there's so much growth there that it acts and a sort of fence.
Later in the morning, Lisa and I went over and browsed the food trucks (I bought a coffee from one of them) and the craft fair vendors. I forgot to take pictures closer in. We didn't see much that caught our attention, and then the wind started to blow and we decided it was better to head back to the house until the wind died down.
Around the time we got back inside, my phone blew up with a National Weather Service Dust Storm Warning. This photo does not do it justice. Dust got in our eyes and started blowing down the vendors tents. Then it started to rain, heavily for a while. Those of you who were at Worldcon 75 in Helsinki might remember the freak storm that passed through on the final day of the convention and the havoc it played on the people who were working in the plaza outside of the convention center. That was about what it was like today.
By the time the wind and rain had stopped, more than half of the vendors had given up and bailed out. The food trucks stayed, they being less susceptible to being blown over. Lisa and went back over, and I bought a couple of pairs of earrings. That was the only non-food purchase I made.
I got this from Fryday's Food Truck: chicken and bacon with ranch dressing over french fries. They don't use the term, but I called it poutine by a different name. I took it back to the house and had it for lunch, then returned to working on WSFS business and helping Kayla with Westercon stuff.
We could continue to hear various performances coming from the stages, although actually the prevalent sound was the various generators from the food trucks. As I write this, the event is not over (performances are scheduled into the late evening/early night). Whether the forecast additional rain ends up discouraging the rest of the evening remains to be seen. I do actually feel bad for the vendors and organizers, though. A storm like this is unusual. The weather being uncomfortably warm, not cold and windy with dust storms, was much more likely. If we didn't live right next door to the event, we certainly would not have gone to it.
