Manatee Art Festival--Apollo Beach, Florida

First off. This show is not out in a dung-infested cow pasture--anymore. A few years back it was moved to a scenic county park right on Tampa Bay.You can smell the salt air, feel the cooling bay breezes wafting thru your booth.I have done this show off and on over the 25 years it has been held. It is only a thirty minute drive from my Ybor house.On this date, everybody would love to be at Vero Beach art show. But alas, those old art ladies will not let all of us in, so other venues need to be sampled. There is Howard's Juno Beach, there is scenic Leesburg (good luck), oh there is Brooksville ( I tried to warn John Leben) and there is Apollo Beach.Put on by the local chamber. Nice prize money, a decent patrons program, two free breakfests, a free Sat. Nite dinner, a laid back Friday setup, a low booth fee, only 96 artists, equally mellow load out, a show where you could easily sell $1000-$3000.there is a lot to like about the show.The crowd buys mostly traditional beach imagery. They love metal sculptures especially of fish. There is not an overwhelming number of jewelers there.I had one keen patron drop $900 on me on Sunday, I ended up having my best show there, ever.It is a great filler show.
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 had signed up to do this one and was juried in, but a personal engagement that changed dates forced me to back out. Wish I could have done it! And it sounds like a lovely show, and with my stuff, I feel I would have done well. Next year!

  • Smaller shows are awesome when they work. They are stress free and cheap. I have always been a fan of a good small show that an artist can make $$$ at.
  • Sounds wonderful. Sleep in your own bed, be creative, low booth fee, easy to do, some $$$, sounds like a job many people would like. Ferreting out these smaller events is an art in itself, but can be worthwhile. I wonder if anyone uses our site callsforartists.com, where a bunch of these smaller events are listed ... thanks for this tip. Those filler shows are the ones that keep the bills paid. 

  • Sounds like a wonderful time to be in Florida and a pretty cool little show, Nels.  As I look out my window here in Michigan right now, big fluffy flakes of snow are falling gently to the ground, which makes thinking about the salt air and sea breezes sound awesome indeed.  I was in Ybor last month on my way to Long Boat Key with friends (who picked us up at the Tampa airport), we stopped for lunch at the original Columbia restaurant in Ybor.  At the time, I thought this sounds familiar but I'm not sure why...now I know, it's from reading it it your blogs!  Glad you did well and thanks again for sharing it with us.

This reply was deleted.