I know I’m late with this, but better late than never I suppose…
See also my review from 2013.
First up, the Edmonds, WA show, Father’s Day weekend, June 13-15. Setup on Thursday at assigned times. The show runs Friday and Saturday 10-8 and Sunday 10-6. Booth fee is $150 in line plus 15%. This was my 2nd year doing this show.
This show is set up in a park near the waterfront in the town of Edmonds, WA, just north of Seattle. I drove up from Portland on Thursday morning. I was a little late getting to the site, but unlike last year I didn’t have long to wait to drive onto the field to set up. Most of the others around me were already set up so getting my car in wasn’t a problem. Again, the booths were pole to pole and back to back with NO wiggle room. It makes setup very difficult. Putting up my sides was a challenge. At least this year, since there weren’t many other artists still setting up around me, I was able to set up out of my car and didn’t have to work around stuff piled in the center of my booth. The weather was sunny and warm. I didn’t see much sun the rest of the weekend.
The weather, pretty much the whole weekend was either raining, or threatening rain and chilly. My Friday sales were almost non-existent. Saturday and Sunday were also down from last year, but not as much. I had some repeat customers. Traffic was down substantially from last year. I ended up down about 35% this year, coupled with the fact that I had to pay more for lodging left me with little profit. I heard some other artists saying about the same.
Load out was a mess. It was pouring rain. It was almost 10pm before I finally got out of there with the help of my booth neighbors. I was very glad I decided to spend the night in Edmonds instead of driving home. I may try this show again to see if last year was unusually good or this year was unusually bad. I like the location, the people and there aren’t many early shows in this neck of the woods. It's a show I really want to work for me.
I should mention that the organization of this show is excellent. Communication is good, there is a frequent shuttle from the artist parking and they provide snacks and coffee daily and an artist dinner on Sat night. They also have wandering booth sitters that come by to see if you need a break. All the volunteers seem to enjoy what they are doing.
Comments
I know this post is old, but I just applied to Edmonds for 2015. The new booth fee/no commission has me worried. I like the commission if you don't have a good show you don't pay such a high booth fee. We always ask for a corner with electricity. This year that's going to cost $875.00 - ouch! We have had great sales and low sales at this show. The weather rules this show sales.
Good information, thanks for the critique, Lisa...I guess it's true about the weather in Seattle, rainy. I guess the weather would be a gamble every year...
You're right, it should be 2014. Fixed. Thanks!
One more question, shouldn't your title be Edmonds 2014???
Hey Lisa - good review, like you, I certainly didn't get around to writing a full blog post. I thought I had last year, but I think we were too crazy busy with the house selling. I wrote a blog post in 2012, our first year, http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/edmonds-art-festival-....
We had a FANTASTIC 2013 when the weather was absolutely perfect. In fact, it was our best show in a couple of years so we were excited to be going back in 2014. The weather killed us this year, the number of people attending was the worst we've seen in our 3 years and also for use our worst year in sales. Not sure if they will even let us in again next year, since our commission check was much lower than previous years.
I will say that I really like this show, I love the artist support, the enthusiasm of the volunteers, free RV parking within walking distance of the booth, artist dinner Saturday night that is always fun, it is still one of the few shows in the Seattle area that is all about the art, no side shows, etc.
This was the first time in months that I had to put my boots on for a show and even then I was still cold, so glad to go back and crank up the propane furnace in the RV each night.
Load in was much better for us this year, last year Dale waited 2 hours in line to get the truck in, this year was only 20 minutes. Load out was awful due to the rain. The organizers let a truck/trailer combination in before the official time for trailers and they couldn't make the corner near the playground and blocked an entire row for 45 minutes. Last year we hand trucked everything out, but we weren't even contemplating that in the rain this year so we had to wait a bit before bringing the truck in.
Overall, I like this show, want to try it again, but hope it's a better weather year in 2015.