Posted by Matt Estrada on June 16, 2014 at 12:51pm
Just finished up a weekend at the Howard Alan event at the Crocker Park shopping in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake.Load in instructions were emailed to me several weeks prior. We were to stage our vehicles behind the Food Lion near Crocker Park. Load in was 5 - 8:30 pm. After checking into my hotel around 3:30 I put Food Lion into my GPS. Wait, the closest Food Lion that's pulling up is in North Carolina. What on earth? So I just start driving to the Crocker Park shopping complex. No sign of a Food Lion store but I pull into the "mall" and am quite impressed with the mix of retail, commercial and residential buildings. Everything looked to be well kept and the landscape was lush and immaculate. WHERE IS FOOD LION?!?!?!After winding my way through the complex I finally see a blockade and a mall cop. He directs me to the back of the GIANT EAGLE grocery store. Hmmmm, that doesn't even sound like Food Lion. Tomato/ Tomahto.After waiting about 45 minutes in the staging area, we were allowed to enter the festival site. 6 vehicles at a time. Unload. Move your vehicle to artist parking. Set up. There was a bustle of shoppers and diners milling around during set up so I thought it looked promising for the weekend!Saturday opened with a steady stream of shoppers. I never really figured out if it was for the Art Festival or shoppers just happened upon us while heading to the mall. I had hey few sales during the lunch crowd then everything just died during the middle of the day. It was perfect weather. Sunny, highs in the mid 70's. The show was running until 8 o'clock and it picked back up when the dinner crowd set in. I had a few more sales and made my car back for the weekend.the weather for Sunday was equally nice. I figured this would be my revenue day where I could get a little extra in my pockets. Unfortunately, that was not the case. There were plenty of people coming into the complex for Father's Day but not many buyers for myself. Only had two sales.the artist next to me was selling painted clocks and he was knocking it out of the park. At least I had fun watching him!Breakdown was fairly smooth & I got right into the show area with no problems.Overall, it was a disappointing weekend but my previous two weekends made up for this one. It seemed to be an affluent crowd but I think they just happened onto the art fair, rather than it being the draw.Scratch this show off for next year...
I did this one as well. I did the GPS thing the night before I left and discovered no Food Lion in OH. Emailed Debbie and she confirmed Giant Eagle. Scoped the parking lot, as well as the Starbucks lot, since it was also on the map that had been mailed to us. No sign of check in. After driving around and wasting about 45 min, I found some policemen and asked them. They told me to go to Starbucks and turn there. I asked, "do you mean turn left where it says no left turn, and no through traffic." They said yes. Sigh. I had wasted all that time and now had to drive back to where I had been 45 min ago. When I got there there was a looooong line of cars I was now in the very back of. And it moved slowly... slooooowly. I suggested that next yr they put a sign up for the festival check in, so people know they do need to turn left at the no left turn sign. Space numbers were miniscule and impossible to see, but people setting up were reeeally nice when asked what their space was.
I was disappointed in sales, considering the positive feedback I got all weekend on my work. I drove 5 hours for this show, had hotel, etc. I covered expenses, but did not make much profit. I have a friend who did quite well there, though. It seemed people were more interested in store shopping than arts fest shopping. Weather was perfect, so not a factor.
I decided to dolly out to my car. I have a large wheeled cart, and 3 trips did it, so it was fairly painless.
When I was going to my space to finish set up Sat morning, my marine battery fell off my cart, and I did not even notice... don't even know how that is possible. However, one of the artists noticed, picked it up, and brought it to my booth! How nice!!!
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I was disappointed in sales, considering the positive feedback I got all weekend on my work. I drove 5 hours for this show, had hotel, etc. I covered expenses, but did not make much profit. I have a friend who did quite well there, though. It seemed people were more interested in store shopping than arts fest shopping. Weather was perfect, so not a factor.
I decided to dolly out to my car. I have a large wheeled cart, and 3 trips did it, so it was fairly painless.
When I was going to my space to finish set up Sat morning, my marine battery fell off my cart, and I did not even notice... don't even know how that is possible. However, one of the artists noticed, picked it up, and brought it to my booth! How nice!!!
Here in Pittsburgh, we call Giant Eagle, Big Bird when we have to go food shopping. Not sure how a bird made it into a lion…..