festival of the photocopier 2020

Number eleven on my twenty-five by 25 bucket list can be officially ticked off!

I tabled at the Annual Festival of the Photocopier in Melbourne this year held at the Meat Market. I've attended as a festival goer the past two years but this time around I actually had a table (technically half a table) selling my zines.

Mum and dad were around to help me out, but we arrived at least an hour too early so I took a wander around the block and found some really cool street art and this little place that looked like it was an artists studio.

When the Meat Market opened for stallholders and distributers at 11am, we were in there pretty much a minute later looking for the elusive table 56B. When we found it, I put pretty much everything that I was carrying onto the table and looked around, promptly having a small anxiety attack.

I've never done anything like this before unless you count the artist stall I had at a university event a few years ago. I think the reason why I started to panic is that I was surrounded by a large group of incredibly talented artists, creators and zine makers who I had been seeing at events like this for many years and in my mind, I didn't measure up to the talented people around me.

I tried to push past it by setting my stall up, but I couldn't really shake the feeling for a majority of the day. Which sucks, because I had a really good time and apart from the humidity (it was not fun and I severely regretting leaving my hair down for the most part of the day) and my anxiety it was a brilliant day.

When the doors opened at 12, mum and dad went off to explore and to get something to eat whilst the crowds poured through. I had a few people pick up some of my zines, flipping through them before smiling and putting them back down, before moving on to the next stall. Lunch came around and while the filling of the baguette was really nice, the baguette itself was possibly the crispiest and hardest piece of bread I have ever had.

The first sale I made I was super excited, especially when they picked up three of my zines in quick succession and paid, a massive smile on their face. When you had as much self-doubt about why I was doing what I was doing as I did that day, that smile was so worth it.

Mum took over the stall for a bit so that I could have a break and a wander around the festival. I was keeping myself on a fairly tight budget this time around, so I couldn't just buy whichever zine really caught my fancy, only the ones that I really wanted.

It was incredibly difficult.

There were so many beautiful zines, filled with stunning art and photography with stories and poems and interesting facts. If I had an unlimited amount of money, you can bet I would have bought as many of those zines as possible; supporting local artists (or local enough since many travelled from all over Victoria and even interstate) is something that I want to be able to do more of.

I ended up purchasing seven zines about varying topics from photography to plant poetry to a reflection on Rome, a bookmark, a print and a really cute handmade brooch. One of the things that I noticed was that there was a lot more risograph printed zines this year, as well as photography with fewer poetry zines.

I didn't take as many photos as I normally would have, but the venue itself was really nice and definitely added to the general ambience of the festival (and I'm always down for fantastic ambience, just look at my YouTube history...) There were a few talks done by some of the stallholders, but I hadn't been able to catch any of them which was a shame since they were something that I was interested in listening and learning about.

Despite my anxiety throughout the day, I did meet some incredibly friendly people and the general environment around the festival was upbeat. It's hard for a first-time stallholder to know what they're going in for, even if they've attended the exact same event as an attendee before; I'm grateful for the experience and I would definitely love to do it again!

Number eleven on my twenty-five by 25 bucket list can be officially ticked off!

I tabled at the Annual Festival of the Photocopier in Melbourne this year held at the Meat Market. I've attended as a festival goer the past two years but this time around I actually had a table (technically half a table) selling my zines.

Mum and dad were around to help me out, but we arrived at least an hour too early so I took a wander around the block and found some really cool street art and this little place that looked like it was an artists studio.

When the Meat Market opened for stallholders and distributers at 11am, we were in there pretty much a minute later looking for the elusive table 56B. When we found it, I put pretty much everything that I was carrying onto the table and looked around, promptly having a small anxiety attack.

I've never done anything like this before unless you count the artist stall I had at a university event a few years ago. I think the reason why I started to panic is that I was surrounded by a large group of incredibly talented artists, creators and zine makers who I had been seeing at events like this for many years and in my mind, I didn't measure up to the talented people around me.

I tried to push past it by setting my stall up, but I couldn't really shake the feeling for a majority of the day. Which sucks, because I had a really good time and apart from the humidity (it was not fun and I severely regretting leaving my hair down for the most part of the day) and my anxiety it was a brilliant day.

When the doors opened at 12, mum and dad went off to explore and to get something to eat whilst the crowds poured through. I had a few people pick up some of my zines, flipping through them before smiling and putting them back down, before moving on to the next stall. Lunch came around and while the filling of the baguette was really nice, the baguette itself was possibly the crispiest and hardest piece of bread I have ever had.

The first sale I made I was super excited, especially when they picked up three of my zines in quick succession and paid, a massive smile on their face. When you had as much self-doubt about why I was doing what I was doing as I did that day, that smile was so worth it.

Mum took over the stall for a bit so that I could have a break and a wander around the festival. I was keeping myself on a fairly tight budget this time around, so I couldn't just buy whichever zine really caught my fancy, only the ones that I really wanted.

It was incredibly difficult.

There were so many beautiful zines, filled with stunning art and photography with stories and poems and interesting facts. If I had an unlimited amount of money, you can bet I would have bought as many of those zines as possible; supporting local artists (or local enough since many travelled from all over Victoria and even interstate) is something that I want to be able to do more of.

I ended up purchasing seven zines about varying topics from photography to plant poetry to a reflection on Rome, a bookmark, a print and a really cute handmade brooch. One of the things that I noticed was that there was a lot more risograph printed zines this year, as well as photography with fewer poetry zines.

I didn't take as many photos as I normally would have, but the venue itself was really nice and definitely added to the general ambience of the festival (and I'm always down for fantastic ambience, just look at my YouTube history...) There were a few talks done by some of the stallholders, but I hadn't been able to catch any of them which was a shame since they were something that I was interested in listening and learning about.

Despite my anxiety throughout the day, I did meet some incredibly friendly people and the general environment around the festival was upbeat. It's hard for a first-time stallholder to know what they're going in for, even if they've attended the exact same event as an attendee before; I'm grateful for the experience and I would definitely love to do it again!