|
I am an e-commerce vendor and sell personalized gifts & party decor. I do this for enjoyment and love to meet new people and connect with artists. I applied for the Torch Lake craft & art fair Labor Day weekend in Alden Depot Park as was accepted by jury. I paid the booth fee of $250 and set up my booth Friday 9/4 during the allotted time. I had only been working with Danielle Lynch until I got to Alden Park on Friday for set up until I met Richard Lynch. Only I didn’t know I had met him, because he didn’t introduce himself by name or title, just sent me to Danielle to get my spot in the park. Saturday the event ran from 10-5 and rained on and off the entire time. I was not feeling well but toughed it out. Around 4:30pm, I was feeling even worse, the park was near empty, it started to rain again, so I made the decision to pack up. My mother was helping me at my booth, but she is 67 years old, recently widowed (my father passed away 5 months ago) and doesn’t have the strength to do much because of her Parkinson’s, she just keeps me company and says hello to the customers. Richard walked by (he still had never introduced himself to me) and said it’s not time to pack up, it’s 4:30, the show goes until 5. I said I’m not feeling well and I’m going to leave. He said you’ll never do another one of my shows again and walked away. I fastened my booth and spotted him complaining about me to another artist, so I walked over to her booth where he was standing and asked, excuse me, what’s your name? He said Richard, I asked what’s your last name? He said it doesn’t matter, I’m the Director and this is my show and I’m the only one allowed to call it. I asked where Danielle was? He said again he’s the director. I explained again, I wasn’t feeling well and that’s when he started to scream at me, he said you have two people, you can leave and the other person can stay. I tried to explain my mom can’t stay without me and we have one car. I said I need to leave, he said, “oh you’re so sick are you? You’re disrespecting every artist here. I had a woman over here who just had a death in the family and she’s staying until 5 o’clock. If you’re so sick, leave, you’ll never do another one of my shows again. I said but I already paid. He continued to get louder, redder and started to spit on me. I asked what’s wrong with you? He said “this is my @#$&! show, get out of here, you’ll never do another show again.” All the other artists were staring in shock. I couldn’t find my mom, so I went back to my booth to wait for her since she had the car keys. He came back around towards me and I said stay away from me, I don’t feel safe. He kept screaming this is my show, this my show, get the @#$&! out of her. I asked two other male artists to keep him away from me because I didn’t feel safe and they said I can’t believe he’s screaming at you like this in front of all of us. This can’t go on, he won’t be doing shows for much longer if he’s going to act like this. I left, waited until after 5pm until everyone was gone, came back, packed up my booth and inventory and didn’t return for Sunday or Monday of the show. I am terrified of this man. He knows my name, has my address and my personal information. Not to mention, he thinks it’s ok to verbally harass women publicly. I think he’s a disgrace to the to towns of Alden and Bellaire MI. I do not wish this on anyone else. No artist should have to endure him. I urge you to steer clear of Blue Ribbon Events LLC. Richard Lynch is a tyrant and contradicts everything family friendly art & craft shows try to promote…joy |
