Perhaps others have experienced this ... but ... it was a big surprise for me. I recently told a promoter about a Buy/Sell artist. Being a bit of a Pollyanna-sort of person ... LOL ... I thought the promoter would be happy to know about the Buy/Sell and that I was doing them a favor.
But .... Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
The promoter was not happy to hear about the Buy/Sell. In fact, the promoter made a face, changed the tone of voice to an irritated one and with a flourish of her hand ... produced an official complaint form.
<BEGINNING OF FORM>
Your information:
Name____________________________________________ Booth #: ___________
Address______________________________________________________________
City: ___________________________________ State: __________ Zip: ______
Phone #:_____________________________________________________________
I believe that booth # _______ at this show (date of show) ____ does not have all
hand crafted items for sale. These items can be purchased from _______________
and their address is _________________________________ and/or these items are
handled through the following catalogue or sale book: ________________________
I will be glad to go to court if a problem arises out of this concern.
Your signature is required to address this problem.
Signature _________________________________ Date: ______________________
Promoter Signature:_________________________ Date: ______________________
Thank you for your concern. We appreciate your help in stopping resale/retail items on display and for sale at our shows (when not a non-profit group). We will follow up and notify you with the vendor's response and any determination made by us after the show by phone and by letter.
<END OF FORM>
As a participant in this show, I expected that the promoter would at least take a look at the booth. The promoter had not seen the booth and would not look at it for Buy/Sale, unless I signed the form and agreed to drive back and attend court with the promoter if needed.
I guess I should be willing to put my money where my mouth is, or at least that seems to be the message from the promoter. I can understand this approach if I were making a big deal of the situation and wanted the person thrown out. My thought was that I was doing the promoter a favor by advising them of my observation. This year, previous promoters have asked me to travel the show on my scooter to look for what I believed to be Buy/Sell. It was a heads-up situation for the promoter because they believed that some folks were putting Buy/Sell away when they saw the promoter coming.
Given that I'm disabled and have to depend on others for travel arrangements, it is not a simple thing to make a promise that I will travel a good distance to attend court. Additionally, it seems that the promoter is wanting to put blame for their "removal' decisions on me or others that provide information.
I'm not quite sure what to think of this. It surprised me.
Your thoughts?
Lois
Replies
BTW Lois.. I do know many 'Christians' who get angry and rightfully so.
The point here is what many of you have stated: 'WHY do they put this clause in their application if they have no intention of backing it up??'. GRRR*#$(@*@@!!!.
I guess Ill get angry FOR YOU Lois, since Im jewish its ok eh??
Oh, Lois I just read your story about that show. How did you remain calm? I would have had a hard time not going ballistic. That is such a blatant slap in the face to all of us who are real artists. Still sticky on the bottom? I would have ripped their heads off. I commed you on not going totally nuts on those frauds!!!!
Elle,
I just don't feel that I have the right to attack an exhibitor. To my way of thinking, providing my thoughts and information to the promoter is the appropriate action. Beyond that would not be the way I wish to approach the world. Since I am a Christian-oriented exhibitor, it would not be congruent to behave otherwise.
Lois
Hi Lois,
No Problem, I am in your corner completely. It is such a slippery slope with this kind of thing. I fully agree with you that if we start seeing more and more of this at shows, we should take our money elsewhere and do the shows that don't jury the fraudulent vendors in in the first place. For all of us that lose a spot in a show to a buy/sell vendor, they might as well steal the jury fee right out of our purses/walletts.
I do a show in Chester, NJ and there was a jeweler who was selling Chinese crap right out of the boxes. The promoter marched over and told them they had a half hour to get off the grounds. And since they were deceptive on their application, they would not be getting their money back.
So Lois, you now do what others do. You toss next year's app into the circular file. You "vote with your feet" and you go your way and the promoter goes his/hers.
I understand all the legal ramifications of buy/sell but I wish the promoters would grow some balls and stop letting these people into the shows. The same way that the promoters use discretion in inviting artists that did not necessarily jury in to the shows, they could keep these "artists" out.
When the same names keep popping up on a multitude of websites with all kinds of corroborating information and paperwork, that should send up some signals. As for the woodcrafters, they are violating the "made by the artist" policy unless all the work in their booth is the work that they lasered, pieced together and glued it all themselves. If these people are in 5 different shows in one weekend and all the stuff is the same, well, this isn't passing the smell test.
Promoters and directors of shows already have all the cards stacked in their favor as far as making money is concerned, it would be nice if they made it a little easier for real artists to have a chance at making some too.
Geri said, "Promoters and directors already have all the cards stacked in their favor as far as making money is concerned, it would be nice if they made it as little easier for real artists to have a chance at making some too."
Amen, Geri.
When this form was handed to me ... I thought ... You have got to be kidding me. As a promoter you're making thousands of dollars and I am a lowly exhibitor making a mere pitance.
Thanks for your comment, Geri
Lois
With all the laws today, I guess it is a toss up between misrepresentation by the promoter and not wanting to get sued. I thought those promoting an event would want to know so that they could run an honest show, but that doesn't really seem the case. Use to be you couldn't sell anything that was not listed on your application. That is gone. Use to be it all hand to be hand made by the person selling. Dubious at best. I have not encountered a form like this, but I certainly have been met with indifference. Not sure why they list rules of selling if they have no intention of enforcing them.
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