We think we're the big cheeses with our cool art fairs that, but I'm sure you know there are international "art fairs" in big deal convention centers and chi-chi locations where the galleries show up and individual artist booths start around $5000. Think Frieze Art Fair, Art Basel in Miami, SOFA in New York and Chicago, etc., where millions of dollars change hands.
Last weekend there was a new "international art show" in LA at the Convention Center with and prices ranged from $5,069 for 8-by-12-foot spaces to $53,856 for 24-by-48 feet. Guess what folks? No one showed up. Were people unhappy? Whose fault was it?
Were the organizers scammers or just inept?
Front doors of the LA Convention Center on the "busiest" day of the fair
Was it the promoters who took advantage of naive exhibitors? Was it the artists who were hoping for a great show?
It's a great story. Read it here and don't neglect to read the comment below from another show promoter: http://www.laweekly.com/publicspectacle/2014/10/21/hardly-anyone-showed-up-at-this-la-art-fair-was-it-ineptness-or-a-scam
Replies
It was a scam, less likely the promoters were incredibly stupid and naive. The tip-off is their vanity press operation. That's the bottom of the barrel for ethical publishing practices.
Ahh ... that is the tip off, Robert. A very big clue that I missed totally. You're probably right. They are out of the country according to one of the comments -- took the money and ran I guess. Geez ... I was trying to do the math on how much they had to have taken in. The LA Convention center can't be cheap, but if they were the promoters and handled the PR, that keeps that expense down.
With 40 booths at the cheapest rate, it was at least $200K, and more than likely around $400K with a few larger booths tossed in. Yep, take the money and run. There's no excuse for not spending 20-30K on advertising. Not to be crass, but I will, in the words of Ned Beatty, "I hear banjo music" (Deliverance movie reference)
Sausalito art festival makes most people hear the little banjo kid at 3200 a booth fee.
Another odd tip off was that the artists were told they might get attendance of up to 2,000 people a day. And, they somehow were optimistic about it until nobody showed up. What? I get more trick or treaters than that.
My hunch is that they are inept. They live in Santa Barbara and can be found very easily. They have already opened up applications for the same time, same place next year, so I don't think they are running away and changing their name.
I'm going to read this article again in an hour and shake my head slowly
What was very strange to me was that the convention center garages were closed. What's that about? It would seem that whoever runs the garage would know what events were happening there and be prepared. It would be part of their contract with the convention center.
Thomas, don't only read the article, read the comments also for more insight and info.
Thanks for doing the math, Robert. Seems I could have done 64 x 5000 and come up with something. Geez. Getting people to attend a first year event seems to be as tricky for these events as ours.
A few years back I remember you did a first year show in Nashville, IN, with not great results. There was a good conversation on here about that. I'm sure you remember.
Oh, man do I ;-) It was a first and last year show. Just because you put one on doesn't mean they will come.
But it didn't cost you $5000 either, did it?
Here's that thread. It is very telling compared to this one in LA… http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/foxfire-park-fall-fin...
There were a few artists at that show who drove across 4 or 5 states to get to it, and they were the ones who took a bath on it. I drove home every night so I was out about $30/day for gas and the booth fee which wasn't terribly high as I recall. It was cheap enough that I bailed on the second weekend after I saw they didn't correct their mistakes. The sales at that show were highest for the ones at the sidewalk on the street and dropped off quickly the further you went toward the back rows. When I saw I was still on a back row, that was it. I saved gas money by not going back and cutting my losses.
I don't want to seem cynical, but I suspect the artists at that LA show were of the same cloth as the ones the promoters suckered in with their vanity press operations; talented perhaps but incredibly naive. They should read more reports on here ;-)
It is such a judgement call. People are apt to point fingers and say it is someone else's fault. Maybe these guys just took the money and ran. Maybe they were inexperienced, copied what they'd seen others do and it didn't work as they hoped.
I've had conversations with well known show promoters who got accused of doing the same. Doing the work to put a show together and it didn't work. A very well known one called me and said, "why would I do all that work and not do the advertising?"
Others said they misjudged where to put the advertising, sort of like these folks.
If you read the article be sure to read the comment near the top from another show promoter which kind of tells both sides of the story.
Got to say I've worked very hard on events with the very best of intentions and they didn't come out well for anyone.
You know it can also happen on the level of shows we do.
In 2002 the Shadyside show, new location with original promoter, tried to pull a fast one on the artists. He had already lost the show a few years prior and then moved to a new location for a few years and was thrown out from there also. His third try was a school about a mile from the actual location and was advertised to unsuspecting artists as getting over 100,000 attendance.
Some of those artists who did fall for it were interviewed by one of the local TV stations. I captured the TV clip and offer it for viewing on my web site.
Here's the clip:
http://bermangraphics.com/files/shadyside.wmv
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100