First time we were accepted at this show and after hearing so many good things about this show from other artists we were looking forward to a good weekend. At the end of the weekend, everything was great, except the sales. Weather was perfect, reasonable attendance, beautiful park setting, organizers were great, show was well balanced etc. The locals were happy to be out in the sunshine and warmer temperatures, evidently this was the first really nice weekend of the spring for Spokane.
Our sales were a lot lower than we expected. Overall it seemed that sales were very mixed, one jeweler we know had her best ArtFest ever, 2 other jewelers said it was a good show for them, 2 other jewelers we knew had a mediocre show and ours didn't even qualify as mediocre. A few of the other artists (various mediums) we know that have done this show before said their sales were down over prior years, but still felt like they had a decent show. Others who were new to the show, like us, didn’t fare as well. There were at least a few that didn’t even cover expenses. We might try this show again, if we are accepted, it just seemed like a show we should be able to do well at so not sure if it’s just the current fear of economic conditions or something else that caused our sales to be much lower than expected. We had a quite a few potential customers who said they’ve seen us and/or bought from us at Coeur d’Alene’s Art on the Green which we’ve done twice in the past and have done well at both times. We’ll be doing the CDA show again this summer, hoping that some of those who saw us in Spokane, loved the new designs might return and actually buy from us in August.
We did get a chance to meet a couple of other Art Fair Insiders, Stephen and Bonnie Harmstonwere in a booth straight across from us and I had a chance to get reacquainted with Sheila Evans. While introducing myself to Sheila I also met her cousin Tim, turns out we all went to the same high school, were in the same marching band, Tim was our drum major, Sheila was in the color guard and I was a flute player. It did remind me that Spokane can be a very small place at times!
Comments
Michael, there are actually 3 shows in Bellevue the same weekend as Coeur d'Alene, we've done the 6th street show a couple of years ago and didn't do very well, it was the year they added new booth spaces, we were in the new section and the Seattle temps were in he high 90's (HOT for Seattle) so people stayed home.
If you were accepted into either the Museum show of the Bellevue Festival of the Arts, it probaby would have been a decent road trip with CDA or perhaps the Sweet Pea Festival in Montana. Both years we have done CDA instead of Bellevue we've done better in CDA. Last year it was the middle of a 3 week road trip so our expenses weren't too bad as we found a couple of cheap campgrounds for the week's between the shows and we LOVED the wonderful summer weather Eastern WA/Northern ID have during that time of the year.
Connie - this was actually my second review (NW Folk Life was the first), it was fun to meet other AFI'ers in Spokane, hoping to meet a few more this summer and maybe get a few more reviews out here for shows in this corner of the country.
What a good review. Many thanks for your first (or is this your second?) review. Yep, that is the mystery about art fairs, why doesn't what you do work equally well at similar shows? An dthat is one of the good things about doing several shows in an area, you aren't always the new guy and have a chance to build a following.
I am so pleased that you found some other AFIers there. I'd expect this in Indianapolis or Chicago. But Spokane? Who knew? I'm sending good wishes to our Western counterparts for the rest of the month, hopefully full of good shows.