Click here to see a copy of the 2025 Vendor Village Map! This will give you a feel for the current Vendor Village map once it’s completed about 2 weeks prior to the show.
Thank you for your interest in the St. Croix Valley Kennel Club 4 Day August Show Cluster. SCVKC is very proud of the partnership that is formed between our club and the show vendors each year. By working together, we jointly make these 4 days a great experience for everyone attending! We hear from many attendees that they enjoy our event, in part, because of the wonderful shopping experience that we provide.
For consideration as a new vendor at our show please complete the following 2 forms: New Vendor Application and the Minnesota ST19 Form and email them to Marilynn Blake at: vendors@scvkc.com Please attach a few photos of your items or provide links to a website where they can be viewed and also include a good time for me to call you. Completing the Application is not a guaranteed spot at our show but will be used to first discuss with you if your products/services would fit at the show.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE FOR OUR SHOW-RING PHOTOGRAPHERS: All others can scroll down to Timeline.
- All Show-Ring Photographers are approved first by our Show Photographer. The Vendor Chair will take care of that step for you.
- It is important for Ring-Side Photographers to take care that they do not take photos that include Judges, Ribbons, the Show Winner Photo Platform or the Show Photographer signage.
- Show-Ring Photographers can not interrupt or distract the judging or the dogs in the ring. Complaints have been received about this in the past so it cannot occur.
- On your first day at the show: The Show Photographer would like all Ring-Side Photographers to stop at their space in Building A to drop off a business card. This allows them to direct anyone who reaches out for candid shots to the Ring-Side photographers.
- While the Ring-Side Photographers do not have a physical space within the Vendor Village you are listed on the map and your contact phone number is provided for those at the show to request your services at specific rings for specific breeds to be photographed.
- There are electrical outlets that are available to you for your recharging needs. Many of these are located on posts, under the white tents for spectators, around rings 1-10.
Timeline:
March – April: The initial Vendors will receive an invitation to be at the show. Once they confirm their intention to be at the show we will start to update the list of Vendors we expect to be at the show. This allows us to know how many remaining vendor spots there are.
May – July: We search for additional vendors as needed to fill remaining spots. The Vendors will be reviewed and if confirmed to be good potential fit they will be added to the show promotions.
July 15th: Vendor payments will be submitted to the SCVKC Treasurer for deposit.
Early August: We complete the Vendor Village Map for the current year and send it and the setup instructions out to the Vendors about 2 weeks prior to the dog show.
How our Dog Show Cluster may be different from other events that you do:
Ring Times: The dog breeds are assigned to Rings based on the number of dogs that will be shown for that breed. The ring times are shown in the Judging program and are also posted at each of our rings. Only the first breed in a Ring Time group has a firm start time. Other breeds in the same ring time group will immediately follow the breed before them. There is a small break between one ring time group ending at a ring and the next ring time group starting in the same ring. This can create a wave like feel to the shopping with slow times, somewhat busy times and very busy times.
Ring Locations: You will see many people rushing through the Vendor Village on their way to a ring. They may or may not have dogs with them and they may or may not be trying to see quickly what you offer. This rushing past you doesn’t mean that they have ruled you out for shopping… It just means they have to get to the ring and show their dog(s) before they can shop.
Dog Etiquette: Because many of the dogs can take hours to get ready for the ring I request that you always ask before petting a dog. If the handler is on the way to the ring they will likely say no. If they are done in the ring they will likely say yes. Additional, many dog breeds will look similar to other dog breeds. Unless you are 100% sure of what the breed is – ask them what the breed is. They will be very happy to answer your question and tell you all about their breed if they have the time. The flip side of this is that if you get the breed wrong – they may tell their friends that you don’t know about dog breeds, which could potentially impact your sales to a small degree.
Other Information:
- Our show is located at the Washington County Fairgrounds near Lake Elmo, Minnesota. It begins on a Thursday and ends on Sunday. We use about half of the fairgrounds. For our AKC week we are the largest dog show in the country.
- Vendor setup can begin on the Wednesday prior to the show though you are also welcome to setup your space on the first day you will be at the show.
- Vendors that are accepted for our show will receive an official acceptance & setup instructions letter about 2 weeks prior to the show. This letter will be sent to the email address you provide on the application. It will include information on your specific location in the Vendor Village and a map to help you find your space, along with other information. Note: You will be confirmed as a vendor at the show shortly after we discuss if this is a looking like it will be a good event for you. If you are not accepted as a vendor, you will be still be added to our database of potential vendors for future shows and your check will be returned to you if you have sent in a payment.
- While our vendor space is a flat rate that covers all 4 days, and we prefer that our vendors be onsite for the full show, we do not require it. We understand that circumstances may arise that will not always allow our vendors to be onsite for the full 4-day show.
- Each vendor picks their own daily starting and ending times that they feel best fits the products or services they provide. Generally, the first ring time each day is 8 am. The last ring time can start as late as 7 pm but is often earlier than that. Most vendors will start around 9 am and leave for the day around 4:30 – 5:00 pm. There may be reasons for you to open earlier or stay later depending on your products or services. For example, we have a coffee vendor that opens at 6 am and a couple of the food vendors will open around 7 am to serve breakfast.
- There are 3 entrance gates into the fairgrounds, and this is where we have our 2 large general parking lots.
- Each Vendor Booth space comes with 1 vendor parking pass that will allow our vendors to park 1 vehicle close to the Vendor Village each day. Once parked you will want to display the parking pass in the car window as we monitor the limited parking space. Any additional vendor parking needed will be in general parking. The cost of general parking, per vehicle, is $5 per day or $10 for a 4-day pass.
- There is not a per person admission charge to get into the show. While the general parking is on the outsides of the fairground area it is a walkable distance to
the Vendor Village if the person is not trying to carry product in. - We have a total of 22 show rings with 12 large outdoor rings being used daily plus several buildings that also hold show rings. These rings are very active throughout the days and are located in a manner that surrounds the Vendor Village.
- We use Hooley Hall for show administration needs. This includes the St. Croix Valley Kennel Club Treasurer, the Show Superintendent team, and the American Kennel Club representatives. Hooley Hall is located directly next to the Vendor Village area.
- Thursday and Friday are the Breed Club Specialties days. We have around 40 breed and class group clubs each year that use the rings on these days. Saturday and Sunday are the SCVKC All Breed show days. Thursday is the slowest of the 4 days because Spectators taking time off of work to come will choose Friday to make a 3 day weekend for themselves.
- We normally have around 40 vendors in our Vendor Village. This includes the food vendors and our product and services vendors.
- Many of our vendors return each year. To assist our shoppers in finding these annual vendors they are placed in the same location each year. We fill in around these annual vendors with our new and non-annual vendors.
- A map of our Vendor Village is provided on our SCVKC website, The SCVKC Facebook group, the SCVKC August Show Vendors Facebook page, and is posted in several locations around the fairgrounds. If you would like to join and share our Vendors – SCVKC August Dog Show Cluster in Lake Elmo, MN with your customers
just click on the following link and like the page: www.facebook.com/SCVKCshowvendors/ Since we value our
partnership with the vendors, this is also the Facebook page that initiates, shares, and updates the information for the FB Event. - You are able to bring in A-Frame and staked to the ground Flag style signs to help promote your business.
- SCVKC promotions include the event include our Facebook event which is distributed within 100 miles of the fairground, the show premium list, the judging program. We are also listed on the Washington County Fairgrounds calendar and posted on their Facebook group. Since a lot of the promotion we do is to those in the American Kennel Club it is helpful to your own customers if you share the event with them.
- During the actual show we have a team member that will come around and visit your booth to take photos and promote your business to our attendees. We have heard, based on comments to vendors from shoppers, that this does help generate additional business for the Vendors.
- SCVKC will shut down one of the fairground roads beginning at about 9 am on Thursday. This is to better accommodate the foot traffic and vendor booth spaces since road runs through the Vendor Village area. Should you need to have temporary access to this road during the 4 days, to bring in new product for your booth, you are
able to move the road barricades at one end. Please move them back in place as soon as you have passed through them, to prevent non-vendor traffic from getting in, and be aware of people walking in road. As soon as you have unloaded your product to your booth, please move back to a vendor parking location. - Picnic tables and benches are located around the Vendor Village to provide the shoppers with an opportunity to sit down, eat, and rest during the show. We feel this encourages the shoppers to stay longer in the Vendor Village area rather than heading home when they get tired. Trash and recycling bins are also available in the Vendor Village area.
- SCVKC has a security guard that tours the area overnight.
- Our show is one of the few in the country that has both a Veterinarian and 2 Emergency Medical Technicians onsite during the show days. We ask that our vendors help keep an eye open for anyone who may need assistance. If
assistance is need, please contact the Vendor Chair, anyone on a golf cart, our club treasurer if in the show administration building (Hooley Hall). The Superintent team is also located in Hooley Hall and has radio access. - The August SCVKC show cluster doesn’t just collect money from the vendors and assign spaces. We view this as a partnership and want both the vendors and shoppers to have a good experience. As the Vendor Chair, I spend most of the 4 days either in the Vendor Village or in the show administration building. I like to make sure that things are running smoothly for all our vendors and will check in with you to see how things are going. I will choose times to briefly chat with you when I see that you aren’t serving customers but feel free to call me over if
you see me and need something at another time. - The information you provide on our New Vendor application is entered into our Show Vendor database for use with future shows. Each spring I use the database to invite vendors to the upcoming August show through email. These applications will already have your personal information filled in for the upcoming show. You need only to update the name, address, phone number(s), and products/services offered if they have changed. I send out the applications to our Vendors by email generally in the end of February – March timeframe. If you have changed your
email address, or for some other reason did not receive the application you can contact me through the SCVKC website. - Once August 1st of the show year comes, I will complete the Vendor Village map and send it out to the approved vendors by email. This email will identify your vendor space by number so you will be able to locate your space on the Map. The email will also include other helpful information such as how you will receive your vendor
parking pass. This email is typically sent out the 2nd week of August. Vendors that wish to get a head start on their set up can begin the Wednesday before the show. - For the Saturday and Sunday of our show there is also a horse show at the fairgrounds. They also come over to shop and eat in our Vendor Village.
- If you have any questions that I haven’t answered please let me know at vendors@scvkc.com While SCVKC may not be able to control the weather or guarantee that all our vendors will have a successful show every year, we do all we can to stack the deck in your favor. Given the high number of vendors that do return each year we feel that they have been happy with how they do at the SCVKC show. We appreciate the support of all of our new and returning vendors as
you really do help to make this an outstanding show for all of the attendees