This is hypothetical: if you are free to move anywhere in the continental US, which place would have the most art fairs within, say, a nice day drive? Somewhere in Florida?
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Here is a Top 50 list from the survey I took last year of art fair patrons, mind you, artists don't always agree on this list. http://www.artfaircalendar.com/art_fair/best-art-fairs.html
I think Barrie has done a map or Richard Sherer. Lots of analytical stuff going on with those guys.
The West is the worst when it comes to that. I live in AZ and there are only a couple decent shows and your looking at a minimum 6 hour drive to get anywhere else.
I am relatively new to this, but I heard about those "Top 100 Shows" type of lists. Are those lists publicly available or only by subscription? Also, has anyone done a map of those 100? It would be interesting to see if there is a cluster of those in a particular area, or they are equally dispersed across the country.
Indianapolis is likewise situated well with I-65, I-69, I-70, and I-74 intersecting through town. A six hour drive will get you up to Madison, anywhere in Chicago or the rest of Illinois, anywhere in Ohio, most of Michigan, St.Louis is 4 hrs away, Nashville is between 4 and 5 hours away, Louisville is 2 hours away, and Columbus, Ohio, is about 3-3.5 hours away.
I live in central Virginia and it is a long drive but I can get to central Florida in a day and New England. Plus there are a lot of shows within a 3 hour drive for me. I can't get to the midwest in a day though.
We live in a small town in south central Michigan. We moved here for its accessibility: less than 2 hours to Ann Arbor and the Detroit area, 2 to good shows on Lake Michigan, 3 hours to Cleveland and Indianapolis, just a little farther to Chicago.
An easy day's drive gets us to Madison, Louisville or Des Moines We're at the intersection of the 80/90 Toll Road and a major north/south freeway.
I live in Vermont and I've been able to fill a 40 show schedule all within a 6 hour drive. But I'm not like everyone. If I have an open weekend and there's a show within an hour's drive that I can make say, a mortgage payment with the sales, I'll go do it. That's more money than I would have made sitting on the couch.
When I was doing 40 shows per year I was spending over $18,000 in booth fees. But I was making almost $100,000 in sales.
Over 2/3 of those shows were with 3 promoters. I learned early on to do as many shows with as few promoters as possible, and their schedules came out in February, and only required a $50 deposit per show. I had 3/4 of my show schedule complete by March 1st. The rest were open weekends that I would fill at small local shows like school shows. Those were the ones where if I could make $400 to $500 in a day I was happy. $75 space fee, no hotel, I got to do what I love to do, and I'm home for dinner.
My first show of the year was In January, and I still do Flower and Garden shows in winter. I'll set up right next to the guy selling lawn tractors, although some flower shows have a separate area just for artists and craftsmen. January through March is a great time to sell!
I don't do 40 shows anymore because I'm now an old fart and the body just doesn't want to do it. I'm down to about 20. From this weekend until the first weekend in December I think I have 2 weekends off.
I have thought of this situation since I live in Wyoming and mostly show in Florida. That's all changing now since I might not be able to do shows anymore at all due to a health condition. But to answer your question, I considered moving to Greenville, South Carolina, or somewhere in that vicinity after spending a few years doing their Artisphere show in May.
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