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The Alpine Art Affair was held in Winter Park, CO July 20-21 in a small city park. This was the 40^th year for the show.  Show hours were 9-5 on Saturday and 9-4 on Sunday.  Winter Park is primarily a ski resort about an hour and a half west of Denver.  During the summer, mountain biking along with fishing, hiking and camping are popular activities.  A jazz festival is held the same weekend as the art show and this brings a lot of people into town.  The drive to Winter Park is pretty easy on I-70 and US 24. The latter is a typical mountain highway with switchbacks and steep grades to the summit of Berthoud Pass and down the Fraser River side. The uphill sides have passing lanes.  Going down the Fraser Valley are the towns of Winter Park, Fraser, Tabernash and Granby. Granby is at the south edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.

SET UP AND TAKE DOWN.  Set up starts at 7:00am on Friday. We were unloaded and had the truck off site by 7:30. The park has a single lane around the trees so it is best to get in and get out avoiding congestion that will occur later in the day.  Takedown was equally easy. Most were dolling to parking lots on both sides of the park or knocking down before bringing in a vehicle to load.  

WEATHER.  We got into a real mountain down pour around 3:00pm on Thursday as soon as we got off I-70.  It was fun driving up the grades in the rain.  It continued to rain most of the evening.  Friday was pleasant and in the mid-80s, and there was brief shower Friday evening.  Saturday and Sunday were clear and warm in the 80s.

THE SHOW.  This is a well-organized and managed show!  The crowds were good but not exceptionally larger.  I estimate around 5000, and there were buyers among them. The quality of the work was high and there was no buy\sell.  There was also a good mix of art without a dominance of jewelry.  Hawk Quest, a couple nonprofits, and a kid’s art experience were included.  Food vendors (4) were at opposite ends of the show.  The Lions had an all you can eat pancake breakfast for $6, and complimentary coffee for artists.  

This was the third consecutive year I have done this show and all three years I have had sales in the $2.5-$3K range.  I am a little concerned that the sales have decreased progressively by about $150 each year.  More analysis and comparison to comparable shows will tell me if I should begin to alternate this show with another.  I had several repeat clients who bought more stuff but others just looked.  Belts were the best seller with a good mix of gun leathers and personal leather goods.   As usual, I had lots of leads for special order work which may or may not develop over the winter.

The only complaint I heard was that people watching the Hawk Quest demos blocked access to a couple artist’s booths.  Management might consider moving the nonprofits down there. Nuts and bolts of the show are in the review on www.artshowreviews.com.

OTHER STUFF.   Besides Steve Appel (Bolt People), I met AFIs Weldon Lee (wildlife photography) and Fred Lunger (sculptor).  When we got home from Vail-Edwards show on Monday my allergies started bothering me. They got worse all week and I had a miserable sinus infection over the weekend. I can only remember one other show in twenty plus years when I was sick.  I lost my voice by mid-day Saturday. Got a doctor’s appointment Monday shortly after getting home and am doing better with antibiotics now.

Friday night Steve Appel came to the condo to enjoy the hot tub and meet my family, wife Jean, daughter and husband, and three grand kids. We had a barbeque in the commons area at the hot tub. I think it would be fun to get a bunch of AFIs together down the road.   I found a neat Precambrian rock in the glacial till around the parking lot while waiting for Steve. It will go in the rock garden.

Winter Park has trains. The west portal of the 6.2 long Moffat Tunnel was about 150 yards from our balcony. The tunnel through the mountains was completed in 1927.  We went through it on AMTRAK a couple years ago.  Freight and coal unit trains of the BNSF go through around the clock.  I found it neat to hear the train whistles way down in the Fraser Valley and then hear them get closer until they entered the tunnel.  Also neat to have silence then the roar of diesel engines as the west bound come out of the tunnel.  

One of my clients now retired, had a ranch in the Fraser Valley. He told the story of how he went up St. Louis Creek to check his irrigation locks but was stopped by the Secret Service.  President Eisenhower was fly fishing upstream. I remember as a kid reading about how Ike would go fly fishing in Fraser, Colorado.