There are many art shows in this area, at least one every weekend but this is the show residents and visitors wait all year for. This long running Howard Alan event brings out huge crowds looking to buy art to adorne their homes or themselves.
This year was a return to the good old days, massive crowds, people 3 & 4 deep waiting to purchase my jewelry, no one asking for my "best price" and buying energy I haven't seen for quite some time. The sales just keep coming, I and my neighbors were doing the happy dance.
At 2:00 on Saturday afternoon mother nature reared her ugly head and a front came through bringing with it a little rain, cold and VERY high winds. The tents were rocking and in some cases rolling and a few people were still shopping, but nothing like before. My section was particularly hard hit by the wind so much so that a glass artist with an easy up took down his tent leaving his back door neighbor exposed to the full force of the wind. If it hadn't been for the assistance of his neighbors his improperly weighted tent would have gone sailing. By 5:00 the winds had subsided enough that I felt comfortable going home. Overnight the winds came roaring back so I got to show site early afraid of what I might find. When I arrived at 7:00 Howard was already there assesing damage, calling affected artists and helping with clean up when possible. My craft hut survived because I had brought extra weights but my neighbors improperly weighted tent had walked 6 foot out and was resting on my tent (no damage). WEIGHT YOU TENTS, your neighbors will appreciate it. Due to the assistance of Howard and his support staff to my knowledge no one had to leave because of tent damage.
Sunday morning dawned sunny and beautiful all be it very cold by Florida standards and while the crowds were respectable they lacked the magnitude of the prior day. I still saw many pieces of art walking by that had found new homes.
This is always a very good show for me and despite the trying weather my sales were still 20% up over last year
Comments
Thx very much, Lori.
this is a Howard Alan show & the website is www.artfestival.com
Do you have a link for more info about this show? I attended it & would like to learn more about exhibiting there. Thanks.
Congratulations on a great show Lori - love hearing good things! Pity about the weather, but you were prepared :)
Nice meeting you too, Lisa!
Glad to hear of another good show last w/e. I was in Sanibel, too (and got to meet Geoff in person!) I came away from that show saying "this is how craft fairs are supposed to be!" People we interested in the work, had great feedback, and then bought it! This is my first foray to Florida for shows and so far, I am very happy. Making money and not shoveling 3 feet of snow.... nothing wrong with that picture!
I was hearing good things about that show most of the weekend (I was on Sanibel...good crowds there too, and sales were good for many.) I'm glad things went well for the show and for you, despite the poorly weighted tents. (There were a few tent-kites in Sanibel too.)