Estes Park is the gateway to the east side of Rocky Mountain Park. There are many summer homes in the area and it is a destination for a broad spectrum of nationalities, income levels, and interests. I started doing this show in 2010 after sales at the Memorial Day show in Estes park could not seem to get beyond $2K for three days. Gross sales at the September Labor Day show since 2010 have ranged from $3.8-$4.7K and I have considered it a good solid show. This year sales were off and I will analyze this later. The show is produced by the Estes Valley Sunrise Rotary, Inc. and they do an all-around EXCELLENT job!!!! The town is packed for the weekend, and leading up to the show was a lot of promotion on Facebook.
SETUP AND TAKE DOWN. Set up officially begins at 9:00 ON Friday but Rotarians are present to check you in as early as 8:00. If you are early you can park at your site to unload. Street parking is available within a block of the show, but oversize vehicle and trailers have to park at the fairgrounds. Free shuttle service is available from there, and in town. Volunteers are available to assist with set up.
Takedown begins at 3:00 on Monday and volunteers were there to help. The Rotarians who helped me with carrying merchandise tubs to my truck cut 15 minutes off standard knock down time. Like set up, traffic was controlled and vehicles were not allowed in until you were ready to load.
WEATHER. Temperatures were in the high 70s to low 80s all three days. There were brief afternoon showers but not heavy rain. The longest was about an hour on Sunday. Some people ducked into shops but, others got out the rain gear and umbrellas. There was little wind which can be a problem at Estes Park shows. The fleece jacket felt good when the showers were over.
THE SHOW. The town was packed with people and thousands went through the art show. There was seldom a time when people were not in my booth but sales fell short of expectations this year. My booth location had been moved from the north end down to a prime location on Elkhorn Ave./US 36, the main street through town to RMNP. Other artist in a variety of mediums also noted that their sales were down this year. It simple seemed like a crowd of lookers (and in my case smellers) who were not buying holiday gifts or mementos of their vacation. Belts and suspenders were my top sellers. My sales were in the $2-$2.5K range. They would have been down around $1.1K (break even for all show expenses – booth, housing, travel etc.) if it weren’t for including repairs taken in and special order work, both of which are post-show completion and cash flow. There was a good balance of all art mediums including edibles like jellies and salsas. No buy/sell at this show. Nuts and bolts for the show are in www.artshowreviews.com.
ANALYSIS. At three Colorado shows, Grand Junction, Winter Park and Estes Park, I have had several returning clients tell me “… I bought ……. from you last year´ and not buy anything this year. No gifts for Uncle Charlie etc. At Estes Park this probably accounted for $700/day which, if sales had occurred, it would have made this a more typical show for me. I also did not see the usual number of horse owners.
I know some of you will say “what is this guy complaining about with his sales”. I am a former scientist and thus an analytical artist/businessman. When shows do not meet their expected financial expectation, it is time to reassess. For this summer's “down shows” they will probably be placed on a schedule of doing them in alternate years. I am thinking that if my returning clients don’t find me there every year, maybe they will get Uncle Charlie’s gift or something they need/want realizing I might not be there next year.
THE OTHER FUN STUFF. Weldon Lee organized a dinner for AFIs at the Dunraven Inn. I will leave it to him to give you the details. I met AFI Ruth Finkenbiner who came by my booth. These summer art shows in Colorado resort areas are working vacations for Jean and me. I don’t mind spending the money on a condo or house so long as it has a hot tub. It really relaxes these old bones after a day in the booth. I also like staying at the historic old places we rent in Estes Park. After the show we went to RMNP. There were still hoards of people especially at the popular alpine lake trail heads. I didn’t want to hike with lots of “traffic and crying babies” so we opted for the subalpine Bierdstadt Lake (named for the painter, I bagged Mount Bierdstadt, 14,065’ a couple years ago). It was a 4.5 mile round trip and pretty much a “walk your dog” hike with the route we took. We saw maybe 10 people tops. Special picture of the return route for Steve Appel who loves Colorado mountain driving LOL. More pictures on my Facebook page: Richard L. Sherer. It was 95 in Denver so we opted to go over Trail Ridge Road and return home through Winter Park and over Berthoud Pass. I got to do a lot of mountain road driving with the loaded to the gills Suburban. Cool with thunderstorms by the time we got home around 8:00pm.
PHOTOS. The show, Birdstadt Lake and Longs Peak 14,259’), switchbacks down to valley trail head.
Comments
Meeting up would be good. 'Till then . . .
Steve graduated in 1962, the first class to graduate from the "new" campus. It was the lead up to the Viet Nam war, everyone was going, of course. He flew little spotter planes over the jungles, flew C130's for SAC, etc., but when he went to leave everyone was bailing out as fast as they could and getting a job as a commercial pilot was pretty hard. Instead he got a PhD in electrical engineering, was one of the inventors of fiber optics and is now a consultant for the government on tech stuff like that. He got all the brains in the family.
I mostly fly Delta myself these days. Maybe we'll meet ;)
Maybe next time, Ruth. My wife and I will have a booth at the Memorial Day show in Estes next year and we can have another AFI dinner get-to-gether. So Connie, what is your brother (the Air Force Academy graduate) doing now? My oldest son graduated in the Class of '81 and flew F16s until 1988, at which time he went to work for Delta. He's still flying for them today.
We used to do this "busman's holiday" thing too, Ruth. Still always interesting to see new shows, meet new people, gather info for the future and evaluate its place in our plans.
Your analysis, Dick, is always useful for anyone who is being thoughtful about how to run a business, because as we all know, the marketing trumps the art every time.
Once upon a time my family made their only foray for a family vacation to Colorado. We'd never left Indiana before and my father found a camp on Long's Peak outside of Estes where we spent the week. One of my brothers was graduating from the Air Force Academy, so we had a trip of a lifetime. Lyndon Johnson was the speaker at the graduation, so you can figure out how long ago that was!
Steve & Richard - nice meeting both of you. Weldon - sorry to have missed you. We got caught in the one hour of heavy rain Sunday afternoon and decided that was a good time to visit to Estes Park Brewery. At the art show, I didn't see a lot of packages being carried. When we talked to the artists we heard the normal mix of reviews, everything from "very good" to horrible. We did do a little shopping with a gift for our daughter, ordered a new, small print that would fit in our RV kitchen from one of the photographers, and we found Dale a new coffee cup after he left his last artisan created coffee cup at a show load out. It was the first time we've walked an art show together in a few years so it was a "busman's holiday" for us.
i love for mt roads. we have the one that goes from prescott to jerome it is about the same as hwy 550. i am sure i will be back next year. did better than i thought in ep. not much but a little. so now we will see if any cards i gave out will come thru.