Arts, Beats & Eats - Part II

Sunday morning brings the artists breakfast where Lisa and I get to have our little party visiting and feeding the artists. We love to pass out the awards and our ceremony includes lots of stories about artists and art fairs. I do believe a good time was had by all. This show starts with setup on Friday morning and then runs from 3 pm to 9 pm that day; 11 am to 9 pm on Saturday and Sunday and 11 am to 5 pm on Monday. It is an easy setup, drive up to your booth for unloading and loading up again. Free parking is nearby. Show fee includes 1000 watts of electricity so the show looks beautiful in the evening, like a small village. We have a terrific PR team and artists are interviewed on various TV stations, radio stations and thoroughly covered in the Detroit Free Press. The streets are full of viewers all the days. Now the tricky part, sales. No one will be surprised to hear there are economic challenges in this part of the country. We have made the show smaller each year to correspond to this. From a high of 195 exhibitors some years ago this year we had 135 spaces. We listen, we hear and do what we can. I got involved in this event in 1998 because I wanted to help build a quality venue where artists could make money. There is no shortage of art fairs, what there is is a shortage of top-notch events where artists can count on decent sales. This year's festival walked the usual line with some artists having their best show ever, many in the middle, and some not so happy. We had beautiful weather until 4:30 pm on Monday just when those last minute sales were heating up. I'd guess that Monday is the best sales day. There is no lack of an audience. There are plenty of qualified buyers in the crowd and Michigan's knowledgeable art fair lovers. ABE is set in the heart of Oakland County the nation's third wealthiest county. If you've got the stuff you can find a buyer here. Our many thanks to the members of this forum who joined us this year: Jim Parker, Peter Katke, Mike Barnes, Jan Kaulins.
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