Waterfront Invitational Art Fair, Saugatuck, MI

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Permalink Reply by Connie Mettler on February 9, 2012 at 8:08pm

Nope. When I saw your headline I immediately 'read' Charlevoix, whose Waterfront art fair is possibly the best West Coast show in Michigan. Sorry, I'm coming in here with the wrong information.

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Permalink Reply by Larry Berman on February 9, 2012 at 9:59pm

If that's what the July Fourth weekend show is called, there is also a good show the next day in Southhaven, a half hour away. I used to do both shows.
Larry Berman
http://BermanGraphics.com
412-401-8100

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Permalink Reply by Warren Townsend on February 10, 2012 at 12:39pm

I use to do this show many, many, many years ago. I decided to do this show a couple of years ago after the prior year I did the later show and sales were okay. But his show there was not much buying of art.  Most of the crowd is from the boats and folks are in the bathing suit attire, the  men seem to be hiding somewhere. There is a mixed bag of art, some fine some okay, lots better than the later show where there is a lot of buy and sell.  I won the mayor award and it was not for that I would of lost money. What I did not like is that you have to carry your stuff from the one street to your booth location and then after unloaded try to find a parking spot.  You have to pile your stuff in your booth location because it is very crowded, really tight areas, walkway not large enough to even put your stuff.  Worse set up I have ever done.  Break down is just as bad, best to just grab a couple of beers and wait for the rush to get over. 

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Permalink Reply by aron lowe on February 10, 2012 at 12:41pm

I will tell you my experience with it. I have participated in the show for the past 4 years. And for the first 3, my sales went up each year, but last year were down to my first year's numbers, I don't know if it was just the economy catching up to my customers finally? It is juried and fine art and in a good location (but load in and out do take a while because there is just one road, but they organize it the best they can).There are a lot of people in town for the weekend and they do buy. My mom actually runs the show with another fellow from the art club, as well as the craft show on Venetian weekend. And so I can tell you that it is very well organized and they do try their hardest to choose the top work that applies and keep out buy/sell. They have actually asked a guy to leave during the show. As far as the other person's comment on South Haven, I think that show can be good for some people. It depends on what kind of work you do. A lot of people will do the Waterfront on Sat. and then the South Haven one on Sunday because they are only 20 min apart, but I stopped doing the South Haven one after 2 years because it was getting too crafty, and it was always the same artists there, and my sales were not much the first year there and then went down from there the second, it is more of a jewlry and crafty crowd of buyers, so if you make some jewlry in the $20-$50 range you'll probably do well because I did see a lot of that sold. It is always well attended and always very hot, but there is some shade. Neither show is very expensive to try out one year. Feel free to ask me more about either Saugatuck show...

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Permalink Reply by Virginie Rolland on February 10, 2012 at 1:40pm

Thanks for your answer Aron. Very helpful.

I know economy is not helping. Some shows I usually do good were down last year, and some were really bad. I am trying to shop around more this year.

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