Before too much more time has passed I wanted to share our experience at Arts, Beats, and Eats this past Labor Day weekend. It was a good show for us in that we made pretty good money and we had a great time doing so.  The event is in its 19th year and as the name suggests combines music, food and art in a community celebration.  Its current venue is several blocks of downtown Royal Oak, a trendy community north of Detroit.  There is a minimal charge to get in, $3.00 before 11am and $5.00 thereafter.  Once in the perimeter you can enjoy five sound stages and the juried art show.  Food and drink including beer and wine have to be purchased via a ticket system.  

The juried art show is segregated from the rest of the festival with signs clearly marking the line of demarcation. There are 130 artists laid out on three streets in a 'Z" pattern. Those on the top of the "Z" got to set up starting at 2pm as that street was closed earlier than the rest.  The remainder set up starting at 7pm due to a delay closing the other streets. We were at the bottom of the "Z" on Lincoln street.  Set up on our street was fairly mellow.  Most left at 10pm as the show did not start until 11am leaving plenty of time to finish up in the morning. You drive right up to your spot to unload.  Our location also enabled us to drive very close in the mornings to resupply.  

The art portion of the festival runs 11am to 9pm Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.  Monday hours are 11am to 5pm.  There is competent after hours security.  A free parking pass was provided allowing us to use bagged meters on Main street just outside the venue perimeter.  We were also provided with two pages of food and drink tickets, but word to the wise bring your own water and other essentials. Even though the hours were long it was enjoyable. We had great neighbors and the folks coming into our booth had smiles on their faces and good attitudes.  Since we work as a team, we were able to take turns walking around the festival taking in some of the music. I walked the art fair three times and was very impressed by what I saw.  The festival staff was genuinely concerned about artist success. By the way, the weather was perfect all weekend.

Load out was typical with a pass required to bring vehicles in once everything was down.  There was a little traffic snafu but other than that everything went fine.

Our sales were OK.  We had one sale of $450.00 and the rest was prints out of the bins, but we sold a lot of them so we came out in the black.  We only spoke extensively with our immediate neighbors.  One was a first timer like us who said her sales were OK but not what she had hoped for.  Our other neighbors had done the show in the past and in the same locations as this year and their sales were down. I would say that there was a crowd flow problem with getting them to make the turn onto the bottom leg of the "Z".  It seemed as though we got about half the traffic as other areas.  Several of the artists spoke to staff about this issue and I think some changes are being considered.  

Lastly, there are several good eateries along Main street as well as some within the festival perimeter.  We opted to go out for dinner after the show closed.  It was definitely a party atmosphere but we loved it. We stayed with family in the area but the festival had a good deal worked out with a local hotel that was also a sponsor of the event. We will definitely apply to this one next year.  

   

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  • The whole event was Brooks' idea. He loved the Ann Arbir Art Fair and hoped to turn the event into a destination event. Artists made good money until the economy tanked. I know artists who made $10000 plus the first year of this show.
  • One year when the show was in Pontiac, L. Brooks Patterson, the Oakland County exec, bought a piece from me. He offered to drop my house and pick it up, burnt after several weeks of phone tag, and scheduling conflicts, I said that I would bring it to his office. He said, " You would do that?" Of course I deliver!
  • Thanks, Craig for the report. You may know I was on the organizational board that started this event as the "arts" representative. The hours are long but we always worked to do what we could to make the artists feel welcome. You have to have the frame of mind that it is an event and either just stick to business or go with the flow. We always attended the concerts after the show and danced in the streets. Saw the Isley Brothers and Aretha Franklin walked onto the stage to greet them. My favorite concert was George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic. In election years the politicians show up. We met the governor of the state, Jennifer Granholm, multiple times. 

    We always made good money with our photography and looked forward to the community atmosphere, such a diverse audience, nowhere else did I ever see this.

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