I am a photographer and have just finished my 8th festival. My work is different than that of most outdoor, landscape photographers, in that I present a more intimate, painterly view of our world. It has been very well received and so far, sales have been good for me as a "newbie". Last weekend I did the Marin Art Festival, which at a $600 entry fee, was my most expensive fesitval to date. It was dreadful! No one came (well, few came) and those who did come all seemed to visit my booth and ooh and aah, but I only had measley sales over two days, which barely covered the cost of admission.
All the other artists told me that this is typical for Marin - lots of lookers and very few buyers. I cannot figure this out - Sausalito and the Mill Valley Fall Arts Fair do well, and the Marin show is in a great location.
I do not see much discussion of California fairs at this site, and am beginning to wonder if the rest of the country is, on the whole, a better climate for art festivals. I have a hunch that if I took my work on the road, I might do well - that, for example, there may be fewer photographers in the midwest that there are out here.
Does anyone have any insight into why the Marin fair is so dreadful - and why aren't more California fairs and artists disussed here? I look forward to more participation with you all - I learn so much from others! Thanks for having this forum for us.
Barbara Lee
www.barbaraleephotography.com
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How disappointing Barbara - that's a very high fee for a show with next to no sales. Hope your next show makes up for the lack in the sales department.
Barbara - thanks for the post! We were actually accepted into Marin and one other show in June in CA, but cancelled the trip when we were accepted into Edmonds Art Festival (Edmonds Wa). We had a good show in our own "backyard" so I'm glad we didn't travel down there for this show.
Suggestion - within the Groups on this site, there is a West Coast / Southwest Artists group. A lot of the CA shows have been discussed there and there are a few of the forum members who don't post in the forum much, but post regularly within just that group site. Join the group, scan the old conversations and ask questions there.
We're trying 3 shows in CA this September, our first trip to CA for shows. We'll be in Mammoth Lakes (Labor Day weekend), then Mountain View Art & Wine, then Mill Valley. We're looking forward to our first experience there.
Pat Falk > Ruth FinkenbinerOctober 24, 2012 at 3:52pm
Ruth, Did you ever do a review on your three California shows in Sept.? I'd be interested in hearing about them.
Pat - check under the blogs or search for the ones I've submitted. I submitted blogs for 2 out of the 3 shows we did, and I think I also filled out the form for Art Show Reviews for all 3 of our shows. Bottom line, we want to try Mill Valley and Mountain View again next September, still reserving judgement on Mammoth Lakes just because it's such a long drive.
Barbara Lee > Ruth FinkenbinerJune 20, 2012 at 12:42pm
Be thankful that you did not come to Marin. The furniture maker next to me had driven down from 2 hours north of Seattle and sold nothing! I have been having terrific sales with Pacific Fine Arts. Troy and Dana, the promoters, are wonderful and run a high class show. Also, check out California Artists. I did the Sunnyvale show and it was my best show yet. It was a mixed bag of art and craft, but heavy on strong art. The Saratoga Rotary Art Show (a one day event) was very profitable for me as well. Look for the good zip codes (think Silicon Valley) and I don't think you can go wrong. Sausalito it extremely hard to get into and a high booth fee, but an artist I know sells in the $40,000 range on one 3 day weekend! I hope to do Mill Valley next year, I have been to that show and it is lovely, under the redwoods. We are headed up to the Tahoe area to do two shows with PFA and I think they should be good. Time will tell!
Hi Barbara, I too have been looking for some good California shows. Although I live in the Midwest, my kids live in the San Fran area and I would like to do a road trip with a few back to back shows there. We all know about Sausalito but I hear it is difficult to get into and expensive to do. I've been doing some research on CA shows and they all seem to have very high booth fees. I even had my daughter check out a couple shows and the report was alot of buy/sell, commercial and food booths with not much art being sold. A CA artist told me that Sausalito and La Quinta are the only shows worth doing. I see alot of art and wine festivals out there. Does art sell or do they come for the wine? Hopefully some CA artists can give us some pointers on CA shows.
Replies
How disappointing Barbara - that's a very high fee for a show with next to no sales. Hope your next show makes up for the lack in the sales department.
Barbara - thanks for the post! We were actually accepted into Marin and one other show in June in CA, but cancelled the trip when we were accepted into Edmonds Art Festival (Edmonds Wa). We had a good show in our own "backyard" so I'm glad we didn't travel down there for this show.
Suggestion - within the Groups on this site, there is a West Coast / Southwest Artists group. A lot of the CA shows have been discussed there and there are a few of the forum members who don't post in the forum much, but post regularly within just that group site. Join the group, scan the old conversations and ask questions there.
We're trying 3 shows in CA this September, our first trip to CA for shows. We'll be in Mammoth Lakes (Labor Day weekend), then Mountain View Art & Wine, then Mill Valley. We're looking forward to our first experience there.
Ruth, Did you ever do a review on your three California shows in Sept.? I'd be interested in hearing about them.
Pat - check under the blogs or search for the ones I've submitted. I submitted blogs for 2 out of the 3 shows we did, and I think I also filled out the form for Art Show Reviews for all 3 of our shows. Bottom line, we want to try Mill Valley and Mountain View again next September, still reserving judgement on Mammoth Lakes just because it's such a long drive.
Be thankful that you did not come to Marin. The furniture maker next to me had driven down from 2 hours north of Seattle and sold nothing! I have been having terrific sales with Pacific Fine Arts. Troy and Dana, the promoters, are wonderful and run a high class show. Also, check out California Artists. I did the Sunnyvale show and it was my best show yet. It was a mixed bag of art and craft, but heavy on strong art. The Saratoga Rotary Art Show (a one day event) was very profitable for me as well. Look for the good zip codes (think Silicon Valley) and I don't think you can go wrong. Sausalito it extremely hard to get into and a high booth fee, but an artist I know sells in the $40,000 range on one 3 day weekend! I hope to do Mill Valley next year, I have been to that show and it is lovely, under the redwoods. We are headed up to the Tahoe area to do two shows with PFA and I think they should be good. Time will tell!
Hi Barbara, I too have been looking for some good California shows. Although I live in the Midwest, my kids live in the San Fran area and I would like to do a road trip with a few back to back shows there. We all know about Sausalito but I hear it is difficult to get into and expensive to do. I've been doing some research on CA shows and they all seem to have very high booth fees. I even had my daughter check out a couple shows and the report was alot of buy/sell, commercial and food booths with not much art being sold. A CA artist told me that Sausalito and La Quinta are the only shows worth doing. I see alot of art and wine festivals out there. Does art sell or do they come for the wine? Hopefully some CA artists can give us some pointers on CA shows.