Squonkapalooza 2025
Hello Friends!
William here :-) We had the fortune to be able to take part in Squonkapalooza yesterday here in Johnstown, PA at Bottle Works Ethnic Arts Center. The managers and promoters of this event put on a fantastic festival full of good vibes, diverse crowds, and strange and wonderful creatures that are rarely seen (many of them came out for the event, though!).
As a business that takes part in shows like this from time to time, I have to say that not all are created equal. Putting on a show of this size takes a lot of work. When a show is exciting to the participants—both the vendors and the guests—and goes off without a hitch, that’s the sign that someone behind the scenes worked very hard for many months to make it happen smoothly. That was definitely our experience with Squonkapalooza! It was a fantastic show that brought people from so many places.
If you’ve ever seen us at a show, you know we’re chatty people. I try to talk with anyone who even comes close to our booth. Even though I’m an introvert for the most part, being at a show behind a booth brings something out in me. I love the energy. I love the people. So, if you’re even close to my booth, I’m going to try to chat you up and see where you came from, how the show is going for you, and (of course) if you like anything at our table! I talked with hundreds of people yesterday. 80-90% of them were not from the area. Many came from, at least, a few hours away just to be there. I talked with people from Delaware, Massachusetts, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Florida, and more. Many of whom say they came to Johnstown just for this festival. That’s an huge tourism boom for this area! And the energy in the air proved it! It was dynamic. People were so happy to be there. The crowd was considerate and respectful of the place and vendors. People were so happy to support artist and artisan-made items. I always ask people what their favorite thing at a show or festival is, and it’s always a good sign when they say there’s too much good to point to just one or a few things—and that was the reaction of everyone I asked at Squonkapalooza.
And, as far as business, we had a great day. Many of you know that I had to rush a bit to get ready for it because we were on the waitlist as a vendor in case someone dropped out. Well, thankfully for us, someone did, but we only found out on Thursday that we’d be in the show on Saturday. I worked hard to pull things together that I thought would work for the show. Andrew also created some creature ornaments before he left weeks ago just in case we got in, so that I would have something fitting to the show (and if not, we’d have them at the store to try to lure people here). Thankfully, the items I chose to take seemed to make people really happy. There were lots of good smiles, laughs, and compliments about the work that we do. Everyone seemed to have a great time looking at all of our merchandise.
All in all, there’s not one thing that I can say about this event that’s negative. Normally, I try to balance my gleaming reviews with some “reality”, but the reality of this event was that it was amazing. If you missed it, I’m not sure when or where the next one will be yet, but I highly recommend you go check it out. From the communication of the promoters, to the helpers they had around all day, to the helpful videos showing where vendors can park, unload, and load up (which really helped take my anxiety away about that process), being a vendor at this show was a piece of cake—and definitely an easy choice to make again and again.
I’ll be adding more items to the website this week that we featured at Squonkapalooza. If you’d like to check them out, visit our collection here.
