October 16-18 
Bella Vista, Arkansas
8am-5pm
325 Artists
Deadline: July 31 or till filled
The Bella Vista Arts & Crafts Festival is known for the highest quality, fully juried, art and craft work. Since 1969 the Bella Vista Arts & Crafts festival has been steadily growing in size and reputation!
Nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks, our exhibitors say: "This is the friendliest and best organized arts & crafts event I attend!"
The highly-regarded Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art has featured many of our exhibitors.
- Arkansas' Premier art & craft festival
- Booth fees: $130-$190
- Extensive advertising
- Early setup: drive close to your space; high school students available for a donation for assistance
- Artist amenities include volunteers
This event is part of 10 local shows held on the same weekend with over
200,000 people attending. The Bella Vista show is known as the Premier event for the quality work where everything is handmade, bringing loyal buyers back to this event year after year. Exhibitor applications (no jurying fees) may be downloaded from the web site at: www.bellavistafestival.org
Denise Williamsen, Director: (479)855-2064
Comments
Thanks CZ...My wife and I figured we would give it a try and apply. Seems it is done old style with a paper application and printed photographs of our work and booth. Just mailed the application. It is a Thursday, Friday & Saturday show and not Sunday.
Greg, I applied right after the applications were available & was accepted. It is a juried show, in fact they jury it twice, once to get in and again after set-up to make sure there is no buy sell or copies. They have a good reputation because of this. I understand there are only about 30 spaces left so if you are going to apply you should do it right away. Like you said, it is a beautiful area. I have a friend a couple of hours from there so I'll be spending a week with her and we have hotel reservations near the festival.
CZ...the application deadline is July 31st and I would imagine the jurying would be done after the application deadline to determine who is in the show...or is it a non-juried show ?
I will be doing this show for the first time this year. I'm really looking forward to it as I have heard good things about it. More than half of the artists are repeats. If it doesn't turn out as I expect, I can at least say I had a great vacation. It's a beautiful area close to Branson and Springfield Mo. Most of my work is tropical so I'm trying to get a decent inventory of generic, mountain, & wildlife ready.
I believe it is part of the "War Eagle" extravaganza. Separate, but probably not equal. If you look for that you might be able to get a better picture of the overall goings on.
Has anyone done this festival before? it is a beautiful area and I have been through there before.
They don't seem to be listed on Zapplication.
Sometimes that is a bad thing and sometimes that is a good thing, Greg. Right? I think this is the "Ann Arbor of the South" -- but a little more heavily leaning on crafts perhaps. I'd love to spend a weekend going through this maze of events. The one advertised here is supposedly the one with the highest quality. I spoke with an artist who does one of the other ones at Ann Arbor this week and she said, she did that one because about 100,000 people attended, whereas the Bella Vista show here only gets about 40,000 ... (is that a bad thing?)
This show sounds nice, but 10 local shows on the same weekend sure sounds like a lot going on at the same time
And while you're there, don't miss seeing the Mildred B. Cooper Memorial Chapel at 504 Memorial Drive in Bella Vista, designed by the late great world renowned architect E. Fay Jones (1921-2004).