I'm looking for some midsize shows close to home, and haven't tried these two. The Carmel show is late September, 27/28, and the Columbus show is August 23/24.
My only info on the Carmel show was from its early days which were pretty bad, with most of the fair goers being parents of little kids who were up on stage, and after the performances every one made a bee-line for the parking lot. I've heard since then it's gotten much better, but that was vague hear-say from 7-8 years ago about the bad conditions.
The Columbus show, if memory serves correctly, was started by the late Dixie McDonough when she and the city of Madison, IN had a falling out over the Chautauqua show and she opened up a show in Columbus. I had heard it was mostly crafty work a few years ago, but would like to hear from someone who has been there.
Both these shows are close, 20 minutes in one direction and 45 minutes for the other, so these are sleep at home shows with minimal expense, and booth fees are reasonable. I just don't want to show up and have hand made brooms on one side of me and foam cut-out critters on the other side.
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I hear ya; you can't do well selling Neiman-Marcus level work to a Walmart crowd.
On the other hand, maybe those would be good for all those hand made books I started and never did finish. I did some larger books for weddings that I received a lot of good feedback on. Those might be a place to try that out. Thanks for the help on these shows :-)
I did the Carmel show with block prints for the last 2 years, and hope to do it again this year. The quality of art was high, the show was very well run, and my sales last year were good. Not so the year before, but they had put me and 3 other artists on a side street that got very little traffic. We complained and they promised to never put booths on a side street again.
I did the Columbus show 3 times back when I was a potter, and the third time I was so disappointed with the way the level of crafts had slipped I never went back.
I think the Madison Chautauqua runs the same weekend as the Columbus show. Any experience with that one?
yes, I did both Madison and Carmel 2 years ago when they were on different weekends. I chose to go with Carmel last year and this for several reasons; closer to home for me, lower expenses, easier to do and better sales for fine art. Madison has huge crowds, several other concurrent shows, and a LOT of crafts. My sales were slightly better that year in Madison, but the bottom line was about the same.