Posted by Nels Johnson on January 11, 2016 at 12:00pm
There was mucho trepidation about this show.Highway construction bisected where this show was held. This meant there was one street of artists on the east side of Old Highway 41. Then patrons had to cross a narrow path over the construction to get to the rest of the show which was in a park and along a paved street.When we set up on Friday, everybody on the east street, me included, were a little worried we would not get any traffic. It is never good to split a show into two sections.Director Barry Witt felt that since the bulk of parking lots were before us on the east side, then we would get plenty of people coming and going.Guess what? He was right.The onenice thing about the east side was that booths on the north side of the street got to park their vans behind. That was a real plus.The weekend weather report called for rain both days. Luckily, it only happened on Sunday, ending around noon.Saturday sales started briskly and held strong until about 2pm which is the norm for Bonita.The crowds came in serious numbers.a lot of people did very well on my street. A glass artist two booths down sold a $2000 glass table to a young well-heeled couple. I sold six large framed pieces, I ended up having having my best Saturday since when the show changed locations.Bonita first started at the Promenade Shopping Plaza years ago. Then the Plaza got sold and the show relocated to its present site. The site is ideal for artists but the monied localsDo not come and buy like they did at the Promenade. That is not just my opinion, most artists will tell you they made better money at the Promenade.Not everybody was happy with Saturday sales. My neighbor, a longtime famous sculptor, zeroed then and on Sunday too.I saw lots of 2-D work float by me all day Sat. My clay neighbors had an excellent show selling their vases and lamps.Overall, everybody I talked to were happy with the crowds and with their sales.That night we ducked getting hit with a big storm, booths at the nearby Cape Coral show were not as lucky.Sunday morning dawned with slight drizzles and no sunshine.The weatherman said the rain would be gone by 11am, as usual, he lied.People never really showed up in any numbers the rest of the day. Our sales sucked Royal Canal Water. We packed up wet tents and got the hell out of their with profits that were good for a one-day show but not for a two day. You cannot control the weather.Here is my bone of contention with the art league.One, the booth fee, in excess of $400, is not realistic, most of us are not getting that good of a return on our money.Two, there will be another show in the same site three weeks from now. Not good.Too many people held off buying, assuming we all would be there later. Not good, because most of us will not be there. The next show is too close to the first date.Unfortunately, the powers that be are hunky-dory with the present arrangement.It almost seems that they only care about renting temporary booth space and could care less about how the artists are supposed to make money.Unfortunately, that is the sad state of affairs in our industry at present, and I do not see things getting better in the future.Next weekend I will be at Richard Sullivan's Sanibel Island Show. More rain is expected.El Niño really sucks.
Connie, I know you were addressing Nels, but I find that at 2 day shows, Saturday is always better. Usually on Sunday we have learned to expect sales to be 1/2 of Saturday's sales.
Usual great report, Nels. Thanks you. I'll bet there was great work at this show, basically it had no competition last weekend. The great thing about Florida is that the attendees are always changing, new folks coming in for the sunshine. A friend of mine is spending a month in Key West! Geez ... can life get any better? Then she'll be gone and the next group will be there.
Yes, the locals are probably the folks with the big bucks, and or, new folks filling up their new condos, but those tourists surely help the bottom line, which I know gets smaller and smaller.
I was in San Diego last week (family time) and the weather people were really excited, there was something to report! Sucked for my visit, but what are you going to do?
Don't you usually find that at two day shows your best day is Saturday?
Thanks Cindy and Jeff for stepping up to the plate . Enjoyed reading your comments,.
The rest of you are just a bunch of slacker lurkers, I mean this was a pivotal show and no comments from anybody who did it..
About ROI for a 2 day show. I really love the idea of a 2 day show and usually have at least 1 per year, usually in the fall. What I have found is that my profit at 2 day shows is good for a 1 day show but not 2 days. It seems the traffic is much more brisk on Saturdays than on Sundays.
We do live in a more religious area, as the south is in general (compared to the north and in particular, urban areas). So this means the crowd is really thin till lunch time.
All this may be due to the fact that these are not well know shows. I have never seen any of them discussed here or come across them in reviews, except when I have brought them up. Many of the shows discussed are many, many hours from us and we cannot travel that far. (Not complaining or bitter, just stating a fact.)
Every time we do a two day show with a poor showing on Sunday, I tell myself we will not ever do a 2 day show again. But then a few days or a week out from the show, I change my mind. I remember the good showing on Saturday and want to go back.
About the weather ... I have a friend who has done tons of shows selling their family recipe pickles, toppings and sauces. Almost every show she does there is rain. I have told her she is just a rain magnet. On the opposite side of that scenario, we have had rain at only a hand full of shows.
At one of my shows this past fall we had rain at a long running show. The show's hours are advertised 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM. The attendance was about 25% of what it normally is. :( It was very disappointing but understandable. It began raining about mid morning and continued ALL DAY LONG. There were plenty of times we could look down our aisle and see all the way from one end to the other. Normally it is so crowded that you cannot ever expect to do this till about 3:00 in the afternoon. Most people showed up very early, ready to shop and beat the rain. Most serious shoppers were in and out by 10:00 AM. After about 1:00 PM the crowd really thinned. At about 2:30 the announcer for the show announced that the show would be closing at 3:00 PM. I had noticed a few people before this announcement discreetly slowly packing up. Upon this announcement, most people began serious packing up. I did not even make my booth fee back, which has never happened at this show before. I usually make triple (or more) my booth fee. I have learned that with weather I just have to move on, there is no one to blame and next time at this show will be another new opportunity. No use getting bitter or angry.
Comments
Connie, I know you were addressing Nels, but I find that at 2 day shows, Saturday is always better. Usually on Sunday we have learned to expect sales to be 1/2 of Saturday's sales.
Usual great report, Nels. Thanks you. I'll bet there was great work at this show, basically it had no competition last weekend. The great thing about Florida is that the attendees are always changing, new folks coming in for the sunshine. A friend of mine is spending a month in Key West! Geez ... can life get any better? Then she'll be gone and the next group will be there.
Yes, the locals are probably the folks with the big bucks, and or, new folks filling up their new condos, but those tourists surely help the bottom line, which I know gets smaller and smaller.
I was in San Diego last week (family time) and the weather people were really excited, there was something to report! Sucked for my visit, but what are you going to do?
Don't you usually find that at two day shows your best day is Saturday?
The rest of you are just a bunch of slacker lurkers, I mean this was a pivotal show and no comments from anybody who did it..
I love your posts. I really look forward to reading them.
I don't write many posts, I'm just not very verbose about my adventures.
We need writers like you here to keep us going.
Jeff Owen
Nels, thanks for the review of this show.
About ROI for a 2 day show. I really love the idea of a 2 day show and usually have at least 1 per year, usually in the fall. What I have found is that my profit at 2 day shows is good for a 1 day show but not 2 days. It seems the traffic is much more brisk on Saturdays than on Sundays.
We do live in a more religious area, as the south is in general (compared to the north and in particular, urban areas). So this means the crowd is really thin till lunch time.
All this may be due to the fact that these are not well know shows. I have never seen any of them discussed here or come across them in reviews, except when I have brought them up. Many of the shows discussed are many, many hours from us and we cannot travel that far. (Not complaining or bitter, just stating a fact.)
Every time we do a two day show with a poor showing on Sunday, I tell myself we will not ever do a 2 day show again. But then a few days or a week out from the show, I change my mind. I remember the good showing on Saturday and want to go back.
About the weather ... I have a friend who has done tons of shows selling their family recipe pickles, toppings and sauces. Almost every show she does there is rain. I have told her she is just a rain magnet. On the opposite side of that scenario, we have had rain at only a hand full of shows.
At one of my shows this past fall we had rain at a long running show. The show's hours are advertised 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM. The attendance was about 25% of what it normally is. :( It was very disappointing but understandable. It began raining about mid morning and continued ALL DAY LONG. There were plenty of times we could look down our aisle and see all the way from one end to the other. Normally it is so crowded that you cannot ever expect to do this till about 3:00 in the afternoon. Most people showed up very early, ready to shop and beat the rain. Most serious shoppers were in and out by 10:00 AM. After about 1:00 PM the crowd really thinned. At about 2:30 the announcer for the show announced that the show would be closing at 3:00 PM. I had noticed a few people before this announcement discreetly slowly packing up. Upon this announcement, most people began serious packing up. I did not even make my booth fee back, which has never happened at this show before. I usually make triple (or more) my booth fee. I have learned that with weather I just have to move on, there is no one to blame and next time at this show will be another new opportunity. No use getting bitter or angry.