Monsterologist will once again be setting up at the Oddities & Curiosities Expo in Saint Louis, Columbus, and Indianapolis this April.
New events for 2024:
Spruce Pine Alien Festival in Spruce Pine, NC on Jun 8
Darkside Oddities in Edison, NJ on Nov 16
Lots of requests for the "Sisters Of Samhain" design as a smaller patch, and it is now available! And the full back patches have also been restocked.
The Krampus Face and Krampus Bell & Chain patches have been restocked.
A new design, Bigfoot Cute, is now available as a patch and sticker.
The Paranormal Places book has been reprinted, and now available from the online shop.
In the works: Squonk patches and stickers!
Monsterologist Recap
So far in 2024, I have done 3 Oddities & Curiosities Expo events (Louisville, Atlanta, and Charlotte), as well as setting up for the first time at the Frogman Festival in Loveland, Ohio.
Oddities & Curiosities Expo
Oddities & Curiosities Expo in Lousiville, Kentucky was the first vendor event of 2024. This year, the Oddities & Curiosities Expo has increased all events to 2-day shows. Overall, I am pleased with the change as these shows can get incredibly busy. The second day allows for the crowds to split up into two days, making it much more manageable. Especially for us solo vendors.
All three O&C shows went very well, and looking forward to the rest of the year as my schedule starts to ramp up. I will be doing some new O&C cities via plane this year (Seattle, Portland, Sacramento) after a successful test run in 2023.
Frogman Festival
This was the second year for the Frogman Festival, but my first time setting up at it. They changed locations to be right in Loveland, OH (just north of Cincinnati). The show went well, and I will be back next year if my schedule allows.
Monsterologist Booth Setup
I also had my first chance to set up my artist table with the new pipe-and-base frame I invested in for print display at shows where backdrops are not provided. It extends to an imposing 14 feet high! But also looks very cool, and displays the prints very professionally.
The uprights telescope, from 6-foot to 14-foot, allowing for car transportation. I will be adding a black drape to the setup to visually isolate the prints for future setups.
I will be displaying 3 huge (36" x 54") fabric banners of the travel posters at the Oddities & Curiosities Expo using this frame. Roswell, Point Pleasant, and Loch Ness. Since I have pipe-and-drape supplied with my booth space at those shows, I don't need my own setup to display the prints. But wanted to take advantage of this new equipment as much as possible.
Each fabric banner will be the size of 4 of the large 18x27 prints at the top of the display!
The Monsterologist booth remains relatively unchanged from the last few events. The new custom tablecloths I picked up in Summer 2023 really make a huge improvment in the look of the booth. The overhead table banner which I got in Spring 2023 continues to be a great addition.
The giant Mothman standee which was initially created for the 2023 Mothman Festival continues to be popular at the events. I am working on a companion Bigfoot standee as well.
I retired the previous "island" table/racks layout, where the display racks were set up back-to-back as it led to a lot of customer confusion about where to check out, and didn't offer me a lot of space for running the booth and keeping restock inventory.
I also experimented with just a single set of three display racks for this new table setup, which I was transporting fully assembled and stocked. However, it was obvious after a few events that this wasn't ideal as the patches and stickers are the most popular items, and having two identical sets on display was the correct approach. Much more room for more customers to browse at the same time.
I am always critically evaluating the booth display, but for now I feel like I have worked out an ideal setup, both functionally and visually. And having tested other layouts, it puts to rest any "what if" thoughts about the other layout ideas I had.