My gig at the Sioux Falls Sidewalk Art Festival was totally awesome! My parents and I were in Sioux Falls by 7 in the morning ready to unload and set up my booth. After my dad set up the canopy, card table, a couple of chairs, a bench, and my keyboard, amplifier, and of course stuff needed to sell CDs, he said using the nickname he's called me since I was a kid, "Swish, my job is done, and your's is just beginning." I liked the idea of playing piano for the passers by. I sold CDs from 8 in the morning until 5 o'clock that evening. It was really cool to hear people's stories for why they wanted my albums. One lady said she was going to have her daughter who is a figure skater pick out one of my songs for her routine. Another guy who told his wife, "If you see Holly at the festival, get her new CD for me, because "Holly from the Heart" is my favorite CD in my collection." And this kills me; two ladies said they were going to play my CDs in their "garage cabana." The sun was shining most of the day. Then about 2 o'clock that afternoon it started raining. I thought I had pretty much lost my chances to sell Cds. But there were die hard festival fans, who loved the rain. It turned out; I sold 11 CDs in the rain! What a shock! I gotta talk about the boy next door. Just like last year, my neighbor was a vendor named Isaiah who was selling magnetic jewelry. While it was raining we all had some down time. He came to my booth and bought my CD after he'd been listening to my music all day. Isaiah gave me a 5 dollar tip and the most beautiful bracelet he had made. All I can say is- he's a pretty sweet boy next door! You can see us in the PHOTO GALLERY section of my website. We all said goodbye and then we went to Szechwan's my favorite Chinese place for a nice relaxing dinner. Robert, the guy who owns the place has known me since I was a kid. Both postcards I sent him for my CD Release Concerts are hanging up on his bulletin board in his restaurant. I thought that was really cool! After all the good things that happened throughout the day plus dining on Crab Rangoon and shrimp Chow Mein, I thought, "WOW, this event was a smashing success, and I hope to be back next year." Please check the PHOTO page for the Slayton Autumn Boutique put on by Slayton Women of Today. Lot's of cool stuff to buy and the grounds was decorated in a harvest motif.