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This show was last weekend. Melbourne is by the Intercoastal on the Atlantic Ocean in Florida.

The Show has been going on a long time, and until two years ago, it was always held on the streets in downtown. Right by all the bars and restaurants. It drew big crowds and they bought.  They also had one of the largest Patron Purchase Awards system, over $100K pledged.

Then two years ago the show moved to a municipal park, northwest and miles away from downtown. I have done the show many times and always came home with a $3K-plus paycheck and a shitload of Patron ribbons.

This year was my first time doing it in the park.

Frankly, I think it sucks.

Did not even break $1K for the two days.  Never saw even one patron carrying a ribbon.

The Show layout is troublesome.

Basically, this is two different shows.

If your booth is on the left side of the lake (west) you get surging crowds who steadily walk between the rows of booths that face the paved walkway.  Customer parking is over here.

The live music is here. Consequently, this side did much better with sales.

Now, if you are on the right side of the lake(east) you do not have the same experience.

There is the same paved walkway as on the west side. But here is the catch.

on the one side of the walkway booths are at its edge with their front openings facing it.

But on the other side of the walkway, booths are setup almost sixty feet away.

So patrons have to make a serious detour and walk across shell and dirt to get to them.

I was in this area along with about 45 other booths.

Similiarly, further north of our area another 20 booths were set back like us. They died too.

We lost at least 50% of the crowd.

The Show needs to have all the booths equally set back from the paved path so everybody gets a good look.

Moving the show out of downtown has affected the quality of the crowd. When it was downtown we got the beach people, with money, to come and they bought.

In the park we have a different, cheap, low price point crowd. Some got pissed that I would dare to charge $30 for a 8x10 matted photo. Most would not even consider anything priced over $100. Sorry, but this show is attracting a bunch of tire-kickers with no taste.

I could go on, but it will just sound like sour grapes.

Stay away from this turkey until they figure out how to make it flow.

It is really sad to see a once great show sink to the depths of this one.