I'm not the best with making time to review shows, but since this was the 1st year for this show I figured it would be good to write one. 

I just got back from the Flats Festival of the Arts in Cleveland Ohio (Aug 18-22).  Although it wasn't a smashing show for me (or anyone else that I heard of) I do have hope for it.  After all, this was the first year for this show, so you have to give it a bit of a handicap.  Here's the details.

LOCATION: An absolutely GORGEOUS venue called the Flats East Bank.  This used to be a crappy industrial area but has recently been renovated and turned into this really trendy area.  There are very expensive apartments in the middle of the site (think $1000/mo for a 600 sq/ft apartment up to $4000), lots of cool restaurants (expensive though, like $14 for mac n cheese), night clubs, and the like.  Most people walking around were dressed in really nice clothes and at least looked like they had money especially when getting off their million dollar yachts, but apparently they spent all their money on their $500 shoes or their $4000 rent because most didn't seem to want to buy art.  My booth was backed up to the river and all weekend I had beautiful boats and yachts sailing behind me.  It was definitely the best view I've had at a show.  I'll try to attach some pics I took with my phone later.

HOURS:  Grueling.  The worst hours I've had at any show.  Setup Thursday then the show hours are Thursday night 6:30-8:30, Friday and Saturday 11a-10p (!!!!) and Sunday 11a-5p.  30 hours!  Plus setup time, that's a full friggin work week not even including the drive. Although they say this will be revised next year and there will be no Thursday show.  I'm hoping they will shorten Friday to starting at 5 or 6.  There's no need to sit there while everyone is still at work.  The hotels in the area are also expensive, so shortening it another day would definitely help with expenses for those of us who had to pay for 3 nights in a hotel and parking for 3 nights too.

SETUP:  Was supposed to be staggered.  We got our booth assignments like the week before the show with our setup information.  Each booth number had a setup time.  Mine was the last group at 1:30.  Supposedly you had 2 hours to get in, unload, and move your car out.  That was definitely not enforced.  When I got there I had to drive around 3 times to finally find a spot about 15 booths away from my location, and hand carry most of my booth over (no dolly since we were supposed to be staggered so we could be close) until someone finally moved.

ARTIST PARKING:  This was I think the craziest thing for me. I talked to Scott, the Director, and he said that originally the artists were supposed to be in a parking lot right by the show site but the owners of the site or whoever moved us to another lot, and then another lot farther away, and finally we were put across the river.  And although I could see the parking lot right across the river from my booth, to drive there took quite a few turns and a lot of time, especially in traffic.  It was at least free for artists, and there were two shuttles running back and forth for artists, but when there are 120 artists all arriving at the same time and leaving at the same time, you could end up waiting for a long time.  Once it took me 45 minutes between waiting my turn for the shuttle, being stuck in traffic, and then walking to my booth.  One artist who was running late did find a creative way to get to show though... she asked the water sport rental guys to help and one brought her over on a jet ski lol.  You could be valet parked in a lot right by the site, but it was $10/day.  $40 extra expense was too steep for me considering my hotel expenses and I was already paying $18/night parking at the hotel.  Maybe next year I'll just rent a boat and dock behind my tent ;).

WEATHER:  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were hot with occasional downpours, but generally pretty nice.  Sunday was cooler in the 70s and beautiful.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance was ok considering it was the first time for the show and they were charging a $10 entrance fee.  The fee went to helping Cleveland School of the Arts and H.E.L.P.  But in my mind, it should have just been a donation bucket at the entrance, not $10 per person for a first year show.  Maybe once you're established you can get away with that, but I saw a lot of people turn away Friday when I was waiting for a shuttle after they heard about the fee.  The bad thing is that it couldn't really be monitored correctly. Because there were restaurants and homes within the show site, people would be given yellow or green wrist bands if they had paid to see the show, or pink or orange if they said they were just going in for a restaurant.  Do you know how many people I saw walking around with pink or orange wrist bands... or none!  It was hard enough to catch everyone coming in the gates, but impossible to regulate everyone coming in via boats. I saw several attendees complain on the Facebook page about having to pay and then seeing people walking around who didn't.  One girl said she wouldn't return again due to it. I think the fee strategy needs to be rethought. 

From what I could tell, they did a lot of advertising around the area though.  I give them credit for that.  Attendance was almost zero Thursday night.  The show was running alongside another charity event called Bites, Booze, and Boogie.  I think there was some confusion in that advertising where everyone thought you had to attend B.B.B. to get into the show (tickets for that event started at $200) so I don't think many people knew they could come.  Very slow during the day Friday but then the crowds really started to come out in the evening, although they were mainly there for the clubs or to drink on the pier.  Saturday was alright, again picked up in the evening.  Sunday I thought attendance was good.  It was the only day that I really felt good about the crowd energy.  Maybe it was mainly due to the nice 75 degree weather though.

SALES:  Not great but not terrible.  I made money at least.  I sold mainly prints and two originals, but the originals were from some of my Boston Mills regulars who specifically came out due to my mailing list.  If it hadn't been for them, Id be singing a different tune.  Sunday there was good energy as I said, and I thought I sold a $1400 painting twice, but they didn't pop.  *sigh*.  One painter friend did about $900 total, my neighbor only sold one or two smaller photographs but had leads on possibly two bigger ones, my neighbor across from me did end up selling a larger painting for $1800 I think, and one of my fuse glass artist friends had her single best day ever Saturday but almost nothing the other days.  I heard a lot of grumbling Saturday, but Sunday I saw quite a few larger pieces being carried out, so maybe by Sunday close more artists were leaving happy.  I hope so. 

THE BOTTOM LINE:  I really want this show to do well and continue to grow.  Its a beautiful venue and one I'd like to be able to look forward to doing.  I think it has great potential once the kinks are worked out and there is more organization.  Probably will just take a few years to build up a following.  I like the director and I think I will give it another shot or two, especially depending on what changes are made going forward to the hours/organization.

Votes: 0
E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of Art Fair Insiders to add comments!

Join Art Fair Insiders

Comments

  • I also was at this show and generally agree with Britts comments. A few additional comments:

    When I applied early spring, it was stated that they were negotiating for artist rates at area hotels; the rates never materialized. The rates for area hotels were outrageous, I think the hotels got swelled heads from the recent Republican convention and haven't come back to reality yet. Consequently I had to get a Super 8 in the suburb of Beachwood, a 45 mile round trip commute. My commuting miles almost exceeded my round trip miles from my Columbus (OH) home. On the plus side, at least Super 8 now has waffle machines in the breakfast bar.

     

    The venue was beautiful, I had one of the better spots across from the river and Coastal Taco. I heard that several exhibitors placed on a side "alley" on soggy grass either moved to vacant spots elsewhere; some may have packed up and left before the show was over. There were several unhappy campers.

     

    The Thursday eve opening included a reception for patrons ( someone said at $450/ ticket ! ), the benefit to me was a few-very few-of these people walked around glancing at the booths. A group stopped to look in my booth and left behind 4 very sophisticated mixed drink glasses, so I am $1800 worth of drink glasses richer. On balance , the Thursday eve opening was a bust for the artists. That same evening had 1 a Reds home game; 2 a Browns pre-season game, and 3 a Paul McCartney concert. I assume this explains the "Special Event" parking rates as high as $30 in the downtown area.

     

    This was the first street fair I have ever done with an admission charge; I wonder how organizers were able to pull that off-maybe the entire development is privately owned. I suppose it is easier to charge admission right from the start of a new show than starting free and charging a few years later.

     

    On balance, I hope this show can continue with minor tweaks, such as Friday eve opening (saving 1/3 on motel costs),getting rid of the soggy grass alley-there was plenty of room on the paved areas and a little better policing of setup time slots. Of course, exhibitor parking closer by would be appreciated. Last but not least-artist rates at nearby hotels.

     

    Would I try this again? Only if I get follow-up orders from attendees who ooh and ahh over my domino sets and chess/checkerboards. The vast majority of my sales were my yo-yos @ $11.00 to $21.00, which saved the show for me, netting somewhere in the neighborhood of 50+ cents per hour profit considering the expenses, travel time, and hours there. Would I have done any better at the Columbus, IN "Beer, Brats and Tar Squealing Festival" ?  Likely not, but for with the right merchandise mix, some might do gangbusters there.  I think this pretty well covers my thoughts on the Flats Festival, I'm tard and need to take a break, thanks for reading.

     

     

  • This a good review. I've read several other reviews of this show on Facebook, and it seems to have the most divided opinions I've ever seen about one show. Some had a great show, others terrible. Some think it has potential, others say "never again." Some thought the director was trying to help, others thought he was a total loss. Definitely interesting.

  • I thoroughly enjoyed reading your review of this show, Britt.  The constructive criticism and the overall depth of your recap was spot-on!  Thanks for sharing this with us and I do hope you'll give it another go-round.

  • I believe that some shows would be able to get the artists they want if they would consider shorter hours.

    I have wondered if the shows feel they are doing us a service, thinking that more days equals more hours to sell for us-a better buy for us?

    I love when shows have shorter hours for Sunday!

  • Thank you, Britt, for this thorough review. We all like to hear about new shows that have a solid organization behind them. Your constructive criticism is also very helpful and I know the show organizers will be reading it. So many good details that they are probably aware of but so busy attending to the running of the show this will be a good review for them. 

    Personally, I think only the very best shows need to be this long. I totally agree with you that a Friday set up day and then open at 5 pm would help a lot, cutting artist expenses and not hurting the gate at all. The Sunday hours are good, but those other days more of a challenge. 

  • Thanks for reviewing. I did Cain Park in July and one of my neighbor artists was excited about going to the Flats show. Cain Park charges $5 entrance, and I think that $5 did not stop people but $10 is a bit much, especially for an unknown show.

    As a comparison, Cain Park had a decent crowd but not overly busy. Enough people, though.

    I would say a modest to moderate amount of buying.

  • Thanks for taking the time to write such a thorough review. 

This reply was deleted.