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Kansas City Plaza- beautiful weather- great art- lots of people- good music- good time.  I was in KC this weekend on vacation so I was not in the show but I stayed in a hotel down on the plaza and saw the show go up and I saw it go down so I thought I would write a review as a spectator.  I am originally from Kansas and my family is in the area so I try to make it to KC on this weekend every year.  Usually the weather does not cooperate but it was incredibly beautiful this year after a one long hot summer in KC.

It was a little windy on Friday, but hey its Kansas!  This show starts at 5 on Friday nite and did the elite of KC ever come out in droves for the opening which lasts until 10 at night.   I loved walking the booths early and getting to see everyones best art displayed and ready to go for the big weekend.  Every booth has electricity and with the lighting, they all looked like mini- galleries.  The 27 Plaza restaruants all had mini booths in the art show so there was plenty of good food and alcohol.  It seemed like everyone had a drink in their hand Friday night.  I did not see alot of art selling but they were definitely looking and drinking and socializing.

There is always great top notch mixed media 2D and 3D in this show of 240 artists.  This year there seemed to be more jewelry than ever before.  There were 40 jewelry booths.  It was all incredible top notch work but after awhile I stopped looking at the jewelry just because there was so much of it.  They had three huge stages set up with non- stop bands playing,  a kids art area and one whole section of the show was just food and drink.  I could not even walk thru this area on Friday night as it was so packed. 

I did not walk the show again until Sunday at 3 when I returned to the area.  I found a tall pale ale at half price and walked the show till it ended at 5.  The crowd was completely different than Friday nights crowd.  There were more families with strollers and older couples.  My favorite figurative painter had done well, she had several missing pieces and many red dots, one ceramic guy had hardly any inventory left.  The photography booths were packed with people and I am sure they did very well.  I  talked to mostly 2D artists, several were very happy, some were not.  One artist was very dissapointed she had not made one sale.  Several of my favorite pieces from Friday night were still hanging in their booths.  I would venture to say that the art that was selling was to a younger hip crowd, the more macabe,  mysterious, gothic kind of art seemed to be doing well.  I was surprised to see giclees and prints this year over other years at the plaza as it used to be only originals.  There was also a belt buckle guy who made no effort to decorate his ez-up booth and cardboard table with handwritten signs whose work I would question as being mass produced.  I watched the artists pack up and many seemed to have a lot of inventory  at the end of the show.  I also watched several armored trucks pull up and pick up huge bags of money from the food and alcohol vendors so I am sure they did very well...........