This is another Amdur show and while it used to be the 2nd best, after Port Clinton, it didn't seem nearly as good as in previous years.
When you have been to one Amdur show, you have pretty much been to all Amdur shows so I won't spend a lot of time on the show. It did have fairly solid artists, was laid out in a manner that made it easy to get around and see all the booths. There is plenty of close by parking and in addition to the usual food booths, the area itself has many restaurants at a lot of price points. The streets are wide and there is no cramped feeling as you walk around.
Sadly, the watch guys were there. They have the crummiest booth possible. they have a gorgeous commercial booth that they probably use at the big commercial shows but they barely have more than a card table and a couple of displays. the most impressive thing at their booth is the box the watch comes in. It has an international guarantee card, another card that I can't remember what it is for.
The best thing about the show was where the stone birds and the candle people were located. They were sandwiched in between two commercial vendors. I loved the irony of it although I was possibly the only one enjoying it. Why they are in a show for artists that make individual pieces when they are both more of a production shop than anything else, I don't understand and guess it is one of those things I am not meant to.
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Connie, this was the first show in a long time where I bought NOTHING!!
I go to the shows cuz they are relatively easy for me to get to and they are pretty much the only ones around.
All the production people are still at the Amdur shows but she obviously is more concerned about filling booths and getting booth fees. I have access to all kinds of info on various production people but whenever I have written to her about any of them, I have received no response. The closest was a response to someone who is doing Port Clinton AND Long Grove this year but I don't know what the final determination is about them showing in two places at once. There is production at Port Clinton this year.
It is my understanding that a lot of the better artists are not applying to her festivals any more which may be why the production is still there.
There are still a lot of good artists that do the shows. A lot of people have developed a wonderful following in the different suburbs so they do the shows.
The problems with production people is just as bad as ever if not worse. There are people working on providing proof of them but the show directors still don't want to hear it. Don't know if it is an inability to admit they made a mistake, don't want to admit their jurors aren't paying attention to the myriad of facebook pages where where it is discussed or sadly, they don't care what is in the booths as long as the spaces are filled. It is the directors and their ever-increasing jury/application fees (so much for Zapp making things easier and more economical, but look at who owns Zapp) and booth fees who will kill their own golden eggs.
Whoever did the layout may have had a sense of humor but those booths being in the show indicates they didn't get it enough.
I've always heard this was a fine show, Geri. Did you buy anything, or are there people you specifically go to see at the Amdur shows?
There has been so little complaining about the production people this summer at these shows that I thought maybe they had disappeared, but it seems whoever is doing the layout "gets" what it is all about.