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I was a first time exhibitor at Gasparilla this year and I must say, I was honored to be there. I live in Tampa and I have been going to this show as a patron for years. Back in October when I got the acceptance letter, I was in shock. Because to me, the best of the best are in Gasparilla. I am relatively new to the art show scene, but I have quite a few shows under my belt. All in all, I had a great experience at this years Gasparilla, but unfortunately, a few others didn’t fare as well as I did. Here’s how the weekend went:

Thursday- Set up Day

Over the past few weeks, we have been receiving emails and information about the load-in/load-out process. Basically, you could request a load-in time from the selection of time slots given to you. The catch was, the earlier you chose to set up, the later you were allowed to load out. So, for example, I chose to load in at 10am on Thursday (very first load in time) my load out was 7:30 pm Sunday night (2 ½ hrs after the end of the show). I’ll get to that later.

I arrived Thursday morning at 8:30 am at the off site Check in that was just about a half mile from the festival grounds. Check in began at 9 am. At 9:45am, they lined us up by booth number, caravanned us to the festival and led us directly to the front of our assigned spot with a 2 hour time limit to set up. Smooth. Easy. Uncomplicated. I have no idea how everyone else felt about set up, but I thought it was great.

Friday- Another Set Up Day-

I was not here that day so nothing to report.

Saturday- First Day of the Show!

I arrive at my tent to start my day. It was a warm day in Tampa. People were already at the event well before the 10 am start time. By noon, the place was packed. At around 11:30am, the judge came around to each tent. My art, as well as, four other artists around me were given yellow ribbons that said that our art was selected to be juried. (More on that later) For me, Saturday was a fantastic sales day. I had 6 sales (my art ranges from $75-$500) and lots of interest for commissioned pieces. My buddy next to me (collage art) and a fine jeweler in front of him didn’t make a sale all day. By 3pm, the winds started to really pick up. Chatter about the upcoming storms was everywhere. By 6pm, we battened down the hatches and went to the artists hospitality tent for some beer, wine and munchies.

Saturday Evening- Awards ceremony

Anyone who was given a yellow ribbon had to take their piece to the Tampa Museum to be juried by 2:30pm on Saturday. We were given info about the new event the were trying called galaRE: This event was to give distinguished patrons the opportunity to view the festival juror’s selected artwork and to rub elbows with the winning artists. We received one free ticket to the event and anyone else who wanted to go had to pay $40. When we arrived at the museum, our art was displayed on tables and easels. The distinguished patrons were over in the VIP section with food and cocktails. We were standing around our art with a few hors d'oeuvres and wondering what we were supposed to be doing. If you won an award, a ribbon was placed next to your piece. I did not win, so I promptly headed to the door to go home. The next day, I was told that there was no “awards ceremony” at all. You picked up your prize money with your art on Sunday.

Sunday- The day the rains (and winds) came

At 4:00 Sunday morning, I woke up to the sound of wind howling and torrential rain. I had a sinking feeling that my tent was not going to be where I left it. As I drove to the show, you could see the tents that were set up by the road took a beating during the night. Someone’s tent had flown across the street, weights and all. Many of these artists decided to pack it up and go home. I don’t blame them one bit. My tent was fine because I was in the middle of the park. Sunday started out much slower than Saturday. The festival workers told us at 10 am that the show was not officially opening until 12pm because of the weather. Seeing as though we have all been here since about 7:00 am, this was slightly annoying. But what can you do? A few brave people were walking through the show with the gale force winds and cold temps. By noon, the weather was beautiful. Mr. Sun came out and shined on us. It was still extremely windy but people were there and buying. I sold an additional 4 pieces and ended the weekend making a fantastic profit. My buddy next to me still didn’t sell anything. But he won an award, so he was happy. I had the Best of Show winner’s booth right in front of me. He won the $15,000 check. Needless to say, he was pretty stoked.

Sunday Load Out

There was no way that I was waiting for my 7:30pm load out time. So I decided to cart out. I parked in a very close by parking garage and it only took 4 trips to get everything packed up. The show ended at 5pm and I was out of there by 6:15pm. Many other people did exactly the same as I did. Unless you had a great load out time given to you, I think this was the best way to do it.

The people in charge were very nice, the had free food for us both days and volunteers were constantly coming around asking is you needed a booth sitter. All in all, I had a great weekend at my first year of Gasparilla and I hope to be invited back next year.