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After reading all the gloom and doom from the east coast, it is time for some good news from Colorado where all shows are not like the one in Longmont, CO discussed last week.

PHOTO: Crowd at 9:30 before show opened at 10:00

This was the 12th consecutive year that I have done this show.  Golden is the county seat for Jefferson County whose motto is “Gateway to the Rocky Mountains”.  Golden is known for the Colorado School of Mines and the Coors Brewery.  The weekend of the art show is the time that students are moving into dorms.

The show is set up for three blocks along Eleventh Street.  Food courts and music stages are at both ends of the show.  The Golden Chamber of Commerce manages the event.

This was the 25^th anniversary of the Golden Fine Arts Festival. In my opinion, the show is successful with buyers in attendance because it is run by local business people who understand EFFECTIVE advertising and marketing.

SET UP & TAKE DOWN: Both are usually easy, but this year their seemed to be less control. “Traffic Czars” keep the center lane of the street open and you can drive to your booth location. I did not have any problems as I completely unload and remove vehicle before setting up and completely knock down before bringing the Suburban in to load up.  Other artists had problems with vehicles with trailers taking up space in front of their booths for several hours both during set up and takedown, making their work difficult.  No vehicles are to come on the street until 5:30 or half an hour after the show closes, but rain at 5:00 drove patrons off the street. There were vehicles on the street at 5:10.

Most booths have space behind them but some have bushes with only a gutter width.

ATTENDANCE: The Chamber states that the attendance is upwards of 30,000.  The event is well publicized in the Denver metro area and online in advance of the show.  People show up an hour ahead of the official opening time of 10:00am and start buying, and the crowd is there until closing time at 5:00pm both days.    

AMENITIES: The artist reception is put on by the Table Mountain Inn and they don’t cut any corners.  There is great food and a selection of beers and wines.  I did not attend this year as we had dinner with family.  The Golden hotel maintained a break room and provided sack lunches for artists.  There are booth sitters, and morning coffee with pastries. There were indoor rest rooms at the Golden Hotel and porta-pots closer to the show.

SALES: My sales at this show have consistently been in the $3K-$5K range.  This year’s sales were up about $1.2K from last.  My average sale was $65 and 74 sales ranged from $3 bandanas, from the sets for napkin rings, to a $310 special order belt.  The best sellers were belts in the $45-$85 range with some $100-$200 belts, holsters and cases thrown in.  The rest were a mix of gun leathers, dog tack, horse tack and personal leather goods.  I have a bunch of special orders to do, and I discussed even more with locals who may order later (mostly gun leathers).  Comments on sales from other artists were generally positive.

     I received the 2^nd place award for Fiber this year. The last time I won an award at Golden was 2010. This was the first time at any show that the judges took time to ask me some questions about my work. Local merchants support $1800 in awards.

WEATHER: Friday afternoon during set up was clear and warm.  Saturday was hot in the 90s, but Sunday was cooler with some cloud cover.

GENERAL: Nuts and bolts are in Art Show Reviews on this site.  There was a good mix of high quality art and absolutely no buy/sell. There was also a good mix of out-of-state artists with the Colorado crowd.   Artists at other shows have commented that it is difficult to get into the Golden show. City tax of 3% is collected at the end of the show, but you pay the remaining 4.5% state and county taxes on line. The tax rate was 7.5%.

PHOTOS: Typical Saturday crowd, Crowd at 4:30 Sunday, my award.