Mother Earth News Fair - CANCELLED!

[Gardenarian]

I was soooo disappointed that the California Mother Earth News fair was cancelled! The whole family was looking forward to doing some hands-on straw bale building, soap making, and all sorts of stuff.
There is no info about why it was cancelled (just a few weeks in advance, too.)
Anyone have any inside info?
Bummer!
:confused:

[KayLR]

That's weird. There's no info at all on their FB page.

I guess you might call the 800 number to see if they'll tell you. 1-800-234-3368

[Erica Binns]

Hi, this is Erica from the Mother Earth News Fair office. We announced the cancellation of the California Fair about two months ago on our website, Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/#!/MotherEarthFAIR/status/83167156199620608) and Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/MotherEarthFair/posts/10150225333542010). Here's the notice from the front page of our website (http://www.motherearthnews.com/fair), which is still up:

Due to a variety of circumstances the MOTHER EARTH NEWS FAIR in San Rafael, Calif., scheduled for Sept. 3-5, has been canceled. Tickets already purchased for San Rafael are fully transferable to the Fair in Seven Springs, Pa., Sept. 24-25. If you purchased tickets and are interested in a refund, please contact our customer service call center toll free at 1-800-234-3368 Monday through Friday, 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., or Saturday, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., Central Time.

At the time of the cancellation, we only had about 20% of the interest that the Pennsylvania Fair had at the same time, and it would have come 3 weeks sooner. I know it's a bummer - I wish we could have made it out, too.

If you have any other questions about the Fair, feel free to email me at ebinns //at// ogdenpubs (dot) com.

[Gardenarian]

Thank you Erica!

I'm surprised at the lack of interest! We had not purchased tickets, but were planning to, and had some friends who were going to carpool with us. Maybe the lack of interest was from the vendors?? I'm going to email Erica and find out. I'd love to have it around here sometime!

[Erica Binns]

It was a combination of both vendors and attendees. I'd love to visit the Bay area again sometime - I haven't been out there since I was in fourth grade! - and a Fair would sure be a great reason to go. I'll keep my fingers crossed for all of us. :)

[Amaranth]

I think a lot of what you wanted to do with the MEN fair on the West Coast is covered on a regular basis by the Real Goods Solfest. So it might be that people in that area wouldn't see the need to go to both as either vendors or atendees.

In areas where the info is harder to come by but where there is already some movement toward care of the environment and sustainability, there might be a stronger interest.
Some other possible areas:
Asheville, NC
Chapel Hill, NC
Columbia, MD
Davis, CA (but again Solfest may overlap too much)
Decorah, IA (possibly on the same weekend as the Seed Savers Conference to draw in other family members)
Indianpolis, IN
Lousianna
Sonoma/Napa, CA (could piggy back some vinyard workshops with this one. again, close to Solfest)
Virginia Beach, VA

[Bastelmutti]

Chicago, IL!