A Little Ray of Sunshine

A little ray of sunshine flashed through my inbox on an otherwise drab and rainy day yesterday. I received my vendor package for the Dundas Cactus Festival - pretty much the biggest party of the year.

Spaces are allotted on a first-come-first serve basis and it is always very popular so it came as a relief to find out that my application had been received and accepted (you'll remember from this post last week, that I've been experiencing some minor setbacks: http://marcrisdale.blogspot.ca/2014/07/dancing-with-municipal-act.html).

Interestingly, I still don't know where my 10'X10' patch of King Street will be. Locations are a closely guarded secret and participants only learn where they will spend the weekend once they visit the festival office after 2PM on Friday. No exceptions!

I spent years volunteering at the information booth for the Toronto Outdoor Art Show and I can only imagine how much wrangling would occur with people trying to change their locations. Too close or too far from a stage, at the wrong end of the street, too near a similar booth... I think the Cactus Fest organizers are wise to keep it to themselves.

Me, I'm just happy to be there. I took a bit of a chance ordering so many postcards, stickers and balloons without knowing for sure if I'd even have a place to hand them out!

I also wasn't going to "dump" more money into a shelter and banner until I received my confirmation. That being said, I had to act quickly to make sure my banner got here on time. So, this morning I promptly ordered a banner I'd previously designed. It should be here by the beginning of next week.

Sharp!

Now, about that tent. I am the keeper of a very sturdy tent that belongs to the Hamilton Cycling Club. We bought it with part of a Trillium Grant and it's the nicest 10'X10' tent I've ever seen. Sadly though, it is the property of the club and clubs and charities are not allowed to make campaign contributions. As we learned last week, borrowing a tent can be interpreted as a donation under the Municipal Elections Act. Bummer.

I'll figure something out!

One final note, I received the meeting notice for this Saturday's (August 9th) forum for the People's Platform. Please note that the time and place for the event are different than I originally broadcast. The Dundas regional forum will be at Dundas Lions Community Centre at 10 Market Street South. It will be going from 1 to 5PM. Please plan to attend - it should be very engaging!