I am posting this discussion primarily for newcomers about what can be found close to home to learn the ropes before moving on to larger shows. I learned that they are also shows favored by folks that are doing their art part time and cant travel far. This show was held in a church fellowship hall and a historic one room school house across the road. Booths were 5x10 and 6x8 indoors and 10x10 outdoors. Booth cost was $25 and they had 28 indoor spaces and unlimited outdoor. I think they sold all of the spaces except for three, and they did not accept any last minute buy/sell calls to fill those spaces (YEA). There was live entertainment by a guitarist, pianist, grade school choir, and youth dance company. Food was sold by the church, school historic group, and the church's Boy Scout Troop (yummy Dutch oven peach and apple cobbler baked on site). Set up was Friday afternoon before the show and Saturday, 2 hours before show opened. Take down was also easy. The show ran from 10 am to 4pm. There was a variety of art and craft: painting, photography, fabric, jewelry, wood, pottery, glass and leather (me). The weather was 70 and sunny, on one of those nice Colorado days between spring snow storms. The church and school are in a rural residential area immediately surrounded by 20-40 acre horse properties, 2-5 acre home sites farther out and then typical town density farther away. It is a fairly wealthy area.
I normally do not do these small one day shows anymore but I took two booths($50) to help out the church ladies. I did not set up my 10x10 booth, instead just put my belts, gun leathers etc. on tables and a couple pews. I felt confident I could do 10X booth fee and was nicely surprised with 15X. A saddlemaker friend was there with his wife's jewelry, and he sold $400 of his wood pens. Those are the only hard numbers I have. The youth activities definitely brought in the buying crowd. My average sale was $78 for belts, suspenders, canteens, flasks and some small items. I reconnected with some clients and have solid leads for follow-up chap and gun leather appointments.
My advice to newcomers is to watch the newspaper and community bulletin boards for show announcements. Do these shows to learn to sell and work out the bugs in your display. These are good shows to do if you cannot leave a full time job to travel during the week. Look at the other displays for ideas for your own, and talk to the other artists about other shows they do for new leads. Last but not least, have fun.
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