Piedmont Part Arts Festival was this past weekend. It is in Piedmont Park in Midtown Atlanta. This is the 6th year for the show and my fourth time doing the show. I live just a few miles from Piedmont Park so I am always happy to do a show in this location. There are two other art shows in this Park throughout the year. Atlanta Arts Festival, a fine art show, Dogwood Festival, mega monster festival, and this show. PPAF is a mix of fine art, some fine craft, craft and other stuff. There are around 250 artists booths. . The booths are set up around the lake. There is a small area with acoustical music, a nice backdrop to the arts. A guiness book of world record hula hoop contest takes place in the sports oval which attracts a lot of people and is a fun event but doesn't compete or distract from the art show. I actually mentioned this event to many patrons who came for the art and they were excited and many decided to stay the day and join in the event, which means they had more time to shop for art. The food trucks there are a higher end type food than normal festival food. I know there are other events and attractions to bring people in but I am usually in my booth area so I don't get around to see it all. These thing are unique to this show so it attracts a different type crowd than the other two shows. There is a ton of advertising . Newspaper with artist interviews, billboards, radio and Saturday morning the entire 30 minute CBS 46 morning show Public Affairs on Peach was dedicated to Piedmont Park Arts Festival. Around 55,000 people came out. Now this is August in Atlanta so yes it was hot, but not as bad as it can be. It was in the high 80s Friday, Saturday and Sunday with no rain. We can't ask for much more than that and I think everyone was ready to enjoy a day outside.
Set up this year was 9am-9pm all day Friday. The show ran Saturday and Sunday. Those of you who do shows in the park are use to being marshalled in. I know many people like this but I am not a fan. One it cost the show $$$ which means it costs us $$$ plus it takes forever. This show you arrive between the set up hours, drive in the park to your booth spot and unload. After you unload you need to go park your car. This is where everyone who isn't from the city gets nervous but there is a bunch of parking along the streets. I have always found a space within 2 blocks of the park. The booths are set up on the street that runs through the park and most people have a ton of room in the back. You can even bring a second booth to set up behind you if you wish. There is also a lot of room on the sides of the booth and you can walk between the booths in most cases. This is not a tight set up. There are booths only on one side of the street.
Now to the fun part, sales. Saturday morning we arrived early. People love to run and walk their dogs in the park. Open up early or at least open the front of your booth early so they can get a sneak peak. This is the case for all shows in this park. I very often have people who are running or walking their dogs early morning then come back later to buy. The show opened at 10 am but people were making sales much earlier. I had serious buyers right off the bat for the big ones. Before lunch time I had already met my goal for the show. The rest of Saturday was strong and that night after I got home I had people contact me who wanted me to deliver Sunday morning. Sunday there were the be backs who needed to go measure. Needless to say this was an awesome show for me. Best of the year for a local show and if I close some of the opens I have than it will be the best of the year so far. Of course not everyone had a stellar show but many did. A sculpture practically sold out, another 2d artist sold over 20 original pieces. Many of my jeweler friends were doing the happy dance.
Load out. It is never fun loading out of a park, especially this one. Normal drill, break down and get your stuff off the road. Receive a load out pass then get your vehicle. Drive up to your booth and park in your booth spot and load up. The show ended at 6pm. They started letting people in around 6:20 if you were broken down. This show is usually a nightmare with people blocking the road but it was better than usual. We broke down our double booth and packed it up and drove out by 7pm. That is not bad at all for a Piedmont Park show.
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Thanks Melanie. $400 is too pricey for this artist at this time. I'll keep it in mind for a later date. Thanks again.
I was there as well, booth 231. Sales were not that great, but I did make some good contacts. I was disappointed by some of the "art," glass former beer bottles made into candles, make-your-own-necklace for $10. I thought it was a juried show.
Get a cooler, cut round hole in top to fit a desk fan and place fan face down into cooler. On other side cut hole to place a 4" pvc elbow pipe and place in hole sticking out. Fill with ice and bottled water and you got yourself A/C! Cost about $50 if your thrify
Melanie, You commented that you bought an outdoor a/c unit. Can you provide info regarding where you purchased it, the cost, etc.? How efficient is it? Thanks!
Nice review Melanie. I normally do PPAF but had to pass this year as I had just finished a 10 week run of shows through the Midwest. I had done the August show the past two years. Last year was a great show for me, in 2013 we had weather challenges so not so much.
Steven, Chastain Park is a decent show for me. I've done it the past three years but still uncertain about this year. It is early November in Atlanta and the weather can vary wildly. Last year, Saturday was cold, 52 and VERY windy so very few people came out. Sunday was upper 60s and sunny and we all had a much better crowd. The best-of-show artist was about 5 booths down from me. Traditional beautiful landscape oil paintings, he had come down from DC and ended up zeroing out for the weekend. :(
Pictured above is the couple that purchased my one of a kind "Marilyn" painting. She fell in love with the art so he purchased it for her, then bought another one for himself!
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