I did better at Fort Myers than I expected to, although my expectation were quite low. Lots of low end prints, a few larger pieces, but mostly small stuff. I got lucky with the load-in, being at the Heitman end of the show. Got to the staging lot early, and checked in at Harborside. Found out where the artist parking was (about 3/4 mile down Monroe at the courthouse jury lot), and hightailed it back to the staging lot. Since I was toward the front of the numbers, they let me pull in with my trailer, dump our stuff and get out again.
When we got back to the booth, the volunteers had let our neighbors park their van and trailer in our two spots, so we had to wait a bit while the camper behind them finished and moved, so they could move. One key thing to note here is that booths are on the sides of the street, facing each other, so there is room to get vehicles in and out if one side loads and then the other. But the volunteers didn't have much experience in working this situation. I heard that the situation in the center of the show where the booths are back to back was extremely poorly managed.
Load-out was even easier, since people were able to use some of the surface lots near us. Again, in the center of the show, there is now a waterway, and a large grassy lot that you cannot bring vehicles on to. Very difficult to manage since there is only a narrow driving lane with no passing room. Saturday 1 PM
We had good crowds on our end. Not a very high bag to customer ratio, lots of lookers, and sales were brisk from about 11AM to about 2PM. After the rain on Saturday, it cleared out. Artists started closing around 4, and I heard that the show told the Harborside section that the show was officially closed at 4:30 due to rain. We never got that word, but we closed up anyway. Sunday morning awards breakfast has been good in the past. We didn't attend, choosing to get some work done and sleep a bit longer. Congrats to the winners! Sales on Sunday were a bit better for me, but with the exception of a couple of larger pieces, about the same flurry of smaller matted multiples. (I'm a photographer).
Saturday 4PM
This is a show I'd like to love, but can't. Lots of out-of-towners, which is a double edged sword. The loading logistics here need work. The volunteers are all very pleasant, and like many shows, fairly untrained. The load-in captain at our end knew what he was doing, and it helped. Parking was far away, but the shuttles did run constantly. It worked for us a couple of times, and it was a ten minute walk otherwise. Never saw Sharon McAllister (the director) or Jeanne Seehaver (the hands). I always judge a show by how visible on the street the director and her staff are. They try to be artist friendly, and the twice daily email updates from Jeanne were extremely helpful.
I hope that is useful to those who didn't go. The Jesus imitator was a blip on the radar. The megaphone preachers were annoying as hell, but no more annoying than the elevator music guy across the street from him with the John Denver songs.
Comments
I, too, was in the middle isle. I do the Friday night thing for the prime booth space and it seems that the exposure, a sale or two, sets up the rest of the event. I had low expectations. I did sell something Friday night. Nobody else around me sold anything that night. Saturday started out well. The crowd was complimentary and knowledgeable. They were buying. At one point it was a lock that I would make my minimum by Saturday night. Then the rains came. It wasn't supposed to start raining until 4 PM. The rains came at 1 PM. My show was pretty much over at that point. Sunday was for the most part a low end crowd, distinctly different than Saturday. On Saturday, I had many nice conversations as I was allowed to talk about my work. Sunday was the walking zombies. I don't remember a decent conversation is anyone except a few people. The quality of the show was high. If you come down to escape the winter for a few months, it's better to do a show every weekend. You can always find a show to do because there are so many. This is the best show for that weekend, hence, the best work.
In assessing whether you want to do this show, you can't expect the same results as Geoff. First off, photography sells well at Ft Myers and Geoff has the perfect images for the Florida market. Other mediums, like clay do not do as well. Having said that, there was a mixed bag of results from the other artists in other mediums. Some said they did really well and some not so well. An award winning potter who I talked to did not do so well. Another metal sculpter who does large wall pieces had a great Friday night and Saturday, maybe his best single day ever. I would have had a solid show if it hadn't rained on Saturday. It was a totally different crowd on Sunday. I'll go back next year. I had a lot of friends here and because they were so far away, I didn't get to see them, like Jim and Karen.
The setup problems can be easily resolved and I intend to let Sharon and Jeanne know my plan.
I flew from Missouri just to see this show. My son just moved there and I wanted to check it out to see if it would be a good one to apply to. As a visitor, it was chaotic. I asked repeatedly where to find a brochure and where to find anyone in charge. No one knew. I finally found brochures, which were done very nicely.
The quality of work at this show was very impressive, so big bow to the artists. We were among the masses that left when it started raining though. I've been in shows when there were more artists than buyers due to weather, so I feel for the artists in this one. I think umbrellas and ponchos would have been the top sellers.
It always takes us much less time to break down and load out. We had a double booth at this show, and setup is usually around 5-6 hours minimum. This was our first show of the season, and we thought we were kicking b*tt and takin' names when we were unloaded in 30 minutes and on our way to park the trailer. We got back and discovered that I had put the double canopy roof back on the trailer instead of the single roof. Whoops. Took 2 3/4 hours to break down and load up. We were at Miller's eating ribs & drinking beer by half time. At least I was eating ribs. Kozo had a nice non-pig-or-cow dinner.
Happy to see Jim wrote in with his fine review. This show rocked for me--15% over last year (and last year, it was my best FL show)...and I've got pending customer orders that ought to make this a top-3-ever show for me. But then, there are lots of new homes being bought, I am as local as it can get, and white birds (my specialty) are always good sellers.
I wasn't near Jim; I was up on Hendry St., having spent an extra $100 to open up on Friday night for the VIP Event. Sales are not strong for the Friday night event, especially as cold and windy as it was, but I made several sales later in the weekend from folks who had seen me then. The biggest plus, though, is that signing on for Fri. night assures you a prime location in the center of the show, within close proximity of the VIP tent. Plus, the show supplies electricity for your lights.
The show is extraordinarily well promoted, and it's a gift that keeps on giving year-round: I got two advance sales from the festival's Artist Roster web page the week before the show. In each case, folks had been to the show before, previewed me on the Roster page, clicked through to my website, and ordered in advance. I got the work ready and they picked up at the show. Easy-peasy.
The setup situation is pretty much a broken delay-riddled process, especially for artists in the center part of the show (yes, the very ones who have to open up on Friday night). I arrived on time at 10:15 (I had a 10-10:30 arrival window) and didn't get into the show until after 12:30, thanks to artists on my narrow, one-lane street who arrived earlier and didn't heed the request to drop their stuff curbside, park, then take a shuttle back to set up. If the show doesn't enforce their rule, that procedure ain't gonna work. But it's asking a lot of (mostly minimally trained) volunteers to play "bad cop" and roust them.
The show knows this doesn't work well; they just can't think of a better way to do it. So I let the assistant director, Jeanne Seehaver, know I could put her in touch with the Va. Beach Boardwalk folks, who can give her the benefit of their experience. To her credit, she's eager to have the information.
Jim covered the rest of it really well. I don't think ANY show should stay open 'til 5 on Sunday Super Bowl or no. A Broncos fan since the early days of Elway, I would have loved to be at a friend's party for the opening kickoff, but there was no way. Still, I got outta there in 2 hours, not counting the 15 minutes it took me to walk back to artist parking and fetch my van.
Interesting that it took me three hours less time to pack out than to set up. There's gotta be a reason. . .
Yes, the SuperBowl is usually first weekend in February, and so is Boca, Mt. Dora, Hobe Sound and ArtFest. I don't think it had any effect on the crowd at Ft. Myers... my sales were slightly better on Sunday. The game doesn't start until evening, and it's not a tailgate affair, like so many college games, so that's not an issue. Ft. Myers has a lot of browsers, and I think since the weather was cooler, we had more people than we might have if the beach had been more inviting.
Is this show often on Super Bowl weekend? Do you think that affected the crowd on Sunday? I have no idea when the game started -- not on my radar, but just wondering about its effect. I remember being in Chicago in the fall on Sundays when there was a Bears game. Forget the art fair!
We went to the Connection on First Street had a nice steak and some laughs Saturday night. Miller's Ale House for baby back ribs and Super Bowl after the breakdown. They had a full rack for $13, not bad.
Did ya eat anywhere special?