This was the eleventh 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.
SET UP & TAKE DOWN: Both are easy because “Traffic Czars” keep the center lane of the street open. You can drive to your booth location.
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. People show up an hour ahead of the official opening time of 10:00am and start buying, and the crowd is there until close ng 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 was great food and a selection of beers and wines. This year the reception was in the great hall of the Episcopal Church, which has some fantastic architecture and art work. The Golden hotel maintained a break room and provided lunch for artists. There are booth sitters, morning coffee and pastries, and water during the day. We were the next to the last artists off the street after dark at 8:45pm, and there was still a volunteer on site.
SALES: My sales at this show have consistently been in the $3K-$5K range. This year’s sales were down about $700 from last year but the show was a “solid double” even if I didn’t “hit it out of the park”.
My average sale was $59 which was pulled down by little kids buying $3 bandanas from the sets of napkin rings. The best sellers were belts in the $40-$85 range with some $200 special order belts thrown in. The rest were a mix of gun leathers, dog tack and personal leather goods. Artists in my area (wildlife painter, jeweler, photographer and potter) all said they had a good show. Others had a “slow” show.
WEATHER: Friday afternoon during set up, there was a rain shower with some lightning. Saturday was hot in the low 90s, but Sunday was bearable with some cloud cover.
ACCIDENTS: An Easy Up with no weights blew over during set up and dented the fender of my neighbor’s new van. I didn’t see the other accident, but I heard about it at the reception. An older woman artist, hit the accelerator instead of the brake, panicked, hit a car then hit a tree.
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 is collected at the end of the show, but you pay state and county taxes on line. The tax rate was 7.5%.
Comments
yes there was rv parking, my neighbor at the show had a huge rv which was parked with all the trailers off 12th. As far as this year, talking with others at the end of the show, a lot of unhappy artists. One said it was his worst golden yet. This is my third year and i was down by 1/2, i did read a blog from 2013 saying that teardown was a bit of a joke. my neighbor across from me took a few picture down and then brought her van in and nothing was said. most of us were tearing down and then bringing van in. I think this year they blew it Tear down then come in with van. I thought the jury for ribbons was questionable. I think it is awful hard to judge art work from 10 feet out of booth in middle of street. The show has very high work in it. and the prices seem to up there as well. Not sure about 2015, it is over 1000 for me to do the show maybe time to give shows in co. a rest. also if you read this make sure you are on the south side of the street cause the north side get reallll hot. and barely any customers in the morning
For RV parking, that is.
Thanks for the review, RLS. Of all the shows in Colorado, Golden is the one I'd like to do sometime. But alas, it's a summer show and considering the probability of 90 plus degree temps, probably won't be submitting for jury. Maybe if we get an RV sometime we'll be able to do a few hot ones. We'll see. Does the show have a good place for RV's, or do you know?