NC Whirligig Festival - Going Virtual
The 2020 NC Whirligig Festival is going virtual! Due to the continuing health and safety
concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival planners have made some
difficult decisions and some innovative changes. The festival will still be held on
Saturday and Sunday, November 7-8, 2020 however instead of on the streets of
historic downtown Wilson, it will be held virtually. The NC Whirligig Festival is
stretching out to include Whirligig Week and Whirligig Weekend with over 10 virtual
contests. We have several virtual tours and activities for friends and family. We've
created quite a buzz in the community.
Be part of our Festival Virtual Marketplace!
We are so thrilled to have found a way you can go virtual with us. Working with a new company, we have created an online Virtual Vendor Marketplace for vendors to showcase and sell their items. The vendors will easily be able to upload photos, descriptions and prices of items for sale. The Virtual Marketplace will open on Saturday, November 7 and remain open through December for holiday shopping - 6 extra weeks of sales! This is a win-win opportunity as it opens the door for a majority of our vendors and festival fans. We all know online shopping is quickly surpassing retail.
According to a STATISTA article on April of 2020, in the United States, Christmas shopping season traditionally begins on Black Friday, but in reality, retailers already start promoting holiday season sales at the beginning of November. In 2018, holiday season retail e-commerce spending in the United States amounted to 119.54 billion U.S. dollars, with the most money being spent online on Cyber Monday. Cyber Monday 2019 became the biggest online shopping day in U.S. history, hitting record online sales of over 9.4 billion U.S. dollars. That year, total holiday season e-commerce spending was projected to surpass 135 billion U.S. dollars. As the main contributor to the soaring sales figures, the five-day period from Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, saw an estimated sales revenue of 28.5 billion U.S. dollars during the 2019 holiday season.
We want vendors to be part of this cyber growth! We will now be able to extend the Vendor shopping from 2 days to over 45+ days! And, will include this all-time high sales day of Cyber Monday.
Virtual Marketplace booth includes:
Logo of company name
4 headline photos of art being created or service being provided
Contact information
Introductory vendor paragraph
Items for sale can vary from just a few to a large variety, all with photos, descriptions and individual pricing
Vendors have complete control over process of posting items for sale (withing festival guidelines)
Shipping and taxes handled by the Vendor (not the festival)
The virtual marketplace company does receive a small percentage convenience fee.
Application Fee - $25
Virtual Booth Set Up
We admit, it will take some effort on your part. Uploading pictures, entering descriptions and setting prices will be your
responsibility. The company we are working with makes it easy. If you can snap a photo with your phone, you can do this!!
You will have plenty of time. You will not have to do it all at once. And, this virtual marketplace will be continued in the
future. We plan to keep this as part of the festival in 2021 and moving forward. After the street fair is concluded, we will
make the virtual marketplace live thru December next year too. Again, keeping your booth open during the critical holiday shopping.
Registration Open Now!
We ask that you make sure to register as soon as you can, so you can get started on creating your booth. Friday, Oct. 23
will be the last day to register. However, you may continue to add items to your booth all the way until November 5. The
festival team will be checking in on your booth from time to time and will double check that all the booths are ready by
Monday, October 26.