Okay... I made it through this years Funky Ferndale Art Fair. It is located in suburban Detroit, Michigan in Oakland County. Funky Ferndale takes up the west side of Nine Mile Road and the DIY Street Fair is on the east side of Nine Mile Road with Woodward Avenue being the divider for both shows. The difference between Funky Ferndale is that it is a juried show and the DIY Street Fair is a first come first serve booth fee.
Set up was pretty easy although my tent was on the south side of Nine Mile (unloading was from the north so I had to bring items through my neighbor's booth to get to mine. I was also a neighbor to Steven Daniel's Adventures of a Tree Frog. He gave me some pointers at the fair which were helpful.
The fair runs three days (Friday 3-8PM, Saturday 10AM-8PM and Sunday 12PM-5PM). I don't quite understand the Friday portion for the crowds were very light on Friday and I only had $140 of sales.
Saturday was a much different story - selling a lot of 5x7s and an occasional 8x10 but none of my framed pieces sold. So I guess I will not be doing anymore framing this year. That was my only disappointment from this show. I had debuted a gigantic Village People print (#1/125) in Lego form at this fair. A lot of complements on it but no takers. Sales on Saturday were $727.50 and my highest price point that sold that day was $35. So a lot of volume but no big piece and I had to cart all those frames back home on Sunday. :(
Mark Loeb (show director) stopped by my booth on Saturday and was questioning about a new poster for the fair. So maybe a commissioned Lego minifigure piece for the show!
Sunday, it rained off and on. So sales were not all that great and it limited the crowd a bit. But I did $250 on a rain soaked afternoon. But it really came down closer to 5PM. That means I had my first tear down in the rain. Bummer.
DIY Street Fair Main Stage
DIY Street Fair at night (They run 'til midnight on Friday and Saturday)
Funky Ferndale on Sunday
More Funky Ferndale on Sunday
Comments
Thanks Scott for your review. And that is a very beautiful cat. The crowds must not scary him at all.
Love it, Scott! This is just about the only show cat I know.
You know in Michigan a little rain scares no one ... so not surprised to hear there was buying going on on Sunday amidst the drops. Don't expect this courtesy everywhere ;)
Here is Steven's cat Jasper
Connie, I do have a picture of Steven's cat Jasper. I'll post on this discussion this evening
I was there as well, it was the 2nd year participating. This show is fun, and well organized in my opinion. Like Scott, our traffic was light on Friday. Last year it was much busier on Friday night, but the weather was also nice. This year it was cold and windy.
All in all, sales were fantastic, and even between the raindrops shoppers were buying on Sunday. It was our first experience with a rainy day (we have been blessed!) and it was great to see people out and about.
One thing we noticed was that if they were out on the dreary drizzly Sunday then they wanted to shop for art and they were ready to buy. Hooray for all of us!
We'll be back at it again next year.
Sorry those sales weren't better, Scott. But as you well know every show makes you hone your display, your imagery and you learn a lot. Very cool that Steven Daniel was next to you. Doesn't he have an amazing cat as a booth partner? I think I met that cat once.
Mark Loeb is a friend of mine. The DIY event hasn't always been there on this date, I believe they came along some years later. Do you think it helps or hinders the art fair? Did you get a chance to visit it? Anything learned from that?
Is this your first "festival"? By that I mean, adjacent happenings like food and music? Sometimes you can make these work for you and sometimes you can't. I'd guess the attendees were a little younger than your average show. Any packages going by your tent?
Nice review. I appreciated the photos too -- good night shots.