Well I was in the red-headed step child section. The show runs for three blocks, two on one side of a busy road and my section on the other side. Apparently a few artists decided not to show up or the show didn’t get enough qualified applicants or something because there were quite a few empty booth spots in my section. There were two empty booth spaces between me and my neighbor on the right and then three of us together and at least two empty booth spaces to the left of them. This became really important when the wind started to blow… We did get reasonably good traffic in the area mostly due to some entertainment and the pony rides. Saturday was an okay day and if I had done as well on Sunday as on Saturday it would have been an okay show for me but alas, I did not.
The good things:
I am slightly biased because I did win an award but I think the judging was good and the judging “experience” was well done. Both judges entered my booth and asked insightful questions. A lot of shows are trying to enforce this (judges handing you a card to prove that they spoke to you, spending an enforced amount of time in each booth, etc) but I can tell when they are just going through the motions and when they are actually interested in the work. These judges seemed interested. Photographs were taken of the work chosen for judging (and they asked permission to do it) and a photograph of the award winning piece was displayed when the award was announced. I like it when shows do that because I can see what was chosen. I didn’t get any chance to walk the show (being in the red-headed stepchild section) but all of the awards seemed well-deserved.
Minor artist support was good. I never lacked for someone to watch my booth so I could run to the bathroom.
The bad things:
My friends all told me “the weather is going to be perfect” Perfect my but! Saturday was not too bad although it was 45 degrees when I got to the show. At least the sun was shining and as long as I sat in the sun I wasn’t freezing. Sunday was cloudy, windy, and cold. The wind was especially devastating to the person on my left who had the two empty booth spaces beside her. She ended up parking her vehicle in the two empty booth spaces and tying her tent to the vehicle to hold it down. Sponsor booths across from us were horribly unprepared with non-weighted EZ-ups. To their credit, once the first one went flying they took them all down. The food vendor directly across from me never showed up on Sunday leaving a poorly prepared EZ-up with billowing sides which threatened to take off toward my booth all day. Sunday was not a fun day.
I guess I would call this part – enforcement support. During setup no one was enforcing the street closure and every once in a while some civilian would fail to read the huge street closed sign and sneak in the tiny space left for us to get our vans in. Some of them became quite irate that they couldn’t get through. A person at each street closure (4) would have saved everyone a lot of grief. I was at check-in when the police told the check-in person that they needed to do that. Several vendor vehicles were parked in the street until 1PM (show opened at 9AM) until show personnel came and got them to move. The food vendor across from me was especially aggravating. They were partially set up and didn’t even show up until 9AM to complete setup. They were completely brazen, driving in and out of the show while it was open to bring stuff in and then left their vehicle parked until they were made to move it.
I was not too close to the music but a friend who was across from it said it was too loud for doing business.
Hopefully I will be moved to Virginia before this show comes around again. IF I can manage to again line up the next 3 shows on my schedule this year and IF I can procure an RV for the trip I may spend November in Florida and I would do this one again because – well what else am I doing that weekend. I would not, in a million years, travel 600 miles to do this show alone.
Comments
The rudeness of the exhibitors' not abiding by the rules, driving vehicles among the crowd past the shows clearly stated time limit, not removing vehicles as required, abandoning booths not securely anchored...or not showing up to open at agreed-to times...poses a hazard not only to the adjacent vendors but to the attendees in general.
Placement of stages and the obnoxious loudness of the noise from these areas is an age-old problem. Perhaps the committee being better aware of the entertainment genre may help in selecting more appropriate exhibitors to occupy nearby spaces.
No one can predict weather...therefore, a climate "guarantee" is ludicrous. The Halifax show has been through the full gamut of problems. Seasoned regional exhibitors and area sponsors should know this. In defense of the sponsors' tents, Halifax should emphasize tent construction with a basic list of agreed-to "Do/Not Do" stipulations.
Better communication and understanding with the law enforcement would definitely help in reducing those who do not observe road closing and parking restrictions. In support of Halifax' committees, no matter how large the sign or intense the enforcement, there will always be those who "feel the temporary restrictions and rules don't apply to them". I see this over and over, year after year.
I applaud the Halifax Art Festival in its longevity and for maintaining a high standard of excellence. They have made some obvious attempts to step out of the "this is the way we have always done it" frame of mind. Let's hope this is an upward trend.