I go to a retreat with my sister every spring. It is held in a church auditorium and has ample electrical fixtures, tables and chairs plus a dining room and well stocked kitchen (cutlery and dishes plus an industrial dishwasher). Each attendee is assigned to help set up, serve and clean up after one meal.
This is a slightly different retreat as we do not sleep there. Most of us live withing 20 km (except for me--I'm more like 2500 km away and take the opportunity to combine the retreat with a visit to my family)
Some things about our retreat:
-the lunches and suppers are catered and absolutely delicious. No one goes hungry and special dietary needs can be accomodated
-show and tell is held in the afternoons and relatives/friends/locals are encouraged to attend
-there are several short demos put on by the attendees.
-there is always a table of 'your trash my treasures'
-we have had a masseuse who charged by the 1/2 hour. No tipping as far as I know, just pay by cash or cheque
-for a group of 35 people, there are usually 3 ironing stations plus one exclusively for applique.
-for the last several years we have had the same two vendors and they always have some sort of sale/incentive for attendees
-door prizes are a combination of donated items, items purchased by the committee and items provided by the vendors
-we are asked to bring specific sized fabric for a mystery block which are won by one of the participants
-Strip Poker!! oh what fun!! and the chance to win upwards of 50 themed jelly roll strips. I have heard rumours that there will be more than one game at the next retreat. Yay!