Fourth Street Festival, Bloomington, IN --- great weather, friendly folks, nice show!

Labor Day Wknd 2010: This was my first time at the Fourth Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts. This is a good, solid show and the weather was PERFECT both days. It was nice to do a show that made a good profit. The show is well managed and the community is involved! The committee running this show is invested in making it a positive for both artists and patrons. The Patrons....wow!... they support this show in numbers. The show claims 48K attendance, I'm not sure if it got to that number but there were hordes of people attending the show. The image above shows the attendance on Saturday around noon and it was much this way on Sunday.

The organizers have kept the show small, 120 artists. I think that's perfect. Booths are all in a line, up both sides of the tree shaded 4th Street, so no bad spots...patrons walk the entire show. Plenty of storage behind your tent and artists parking is near for easy access to inventory. Bring shims... you will need to level but not too much. This is a Zapplication show: jury fee was $25 and booth fee, $200.

Sales were strong for me on Saturday and if things had continued on Sunday, the show would have been outstanding. For many artists I spoke with, sales were down on Sunday though attendance was equally strong for both days. There was a lot of energy and enthusiasm for the art. A lot of folks come out to enjoy the creativity with a nice mix of young and old (no gate fee). Sales for me were mostly for small stuff, under $100, though I did sell a few pieces for $200 and one piece for $300.

This is a well juried show and deserves its top ranking. I would return if given the opportunity.

Cheers, Leo

P.S. Restaurants in Bloomington are FANTASTIC. I usually pass on the vendor food... but not here... fabulous.

P.S.S. Judy Goskey, good to meet you at dinner!