Monday morning and I'm dizzy tired - a different tired than if I'd had great sales over the weekend. I've figured out there are four different kinds of art festival turnouts:
4. Nobody comes. The promoter kept all the show fees instead of advertising or its 105º and you end up getting to have really long conversations with other vendors.
3. The promoter did promote the show, but on bus ads. Large or small crowds show up and wander around like entitled zombies, annoyed that we are in the way of them being able to freely walk drunk down the middle of the street, or giving off a vibe that artists are there to amuse them for free and not doing a very good job of it. These shows spawn unfortunate, demoralizing thoughts about the human race and are are usually full of tacky knock off imports since the promoter doesn't care that their 'Juried Fine Arts Faire' is a flea market full of barkers selling doo doo.
2. Medium to large crowds of nicely dressed, curious, (few vacant eyes & slack jaws), mid and upper mid class folks out to meet their neighbors, taste a little wine and engage with the artisans. They appear willing to be tempted to buy, but it usually ends up to be cute earrings and something metal to stick in the back garden.
1. Kick ass shows of enthusiastic shoppers who know what they like, can make decisions and make doing this worthwhile. Sometimes it is only one day in a festival, but these are the shows where you believe in fair fairies.
A traditionally great show was a solid 2 this weekend. Big picture oh well, at least a lot more people came into my booth, acted enthused and wanted a schedule. Little picture, ouch. At least I won't have to spend a lot of time accounting.
Comments
Oh dear Mernie! Well, at least it wasn't a 4!?
Next time, Mernie, don't hold back. Tell us how you really feel. Sorry you had a poor show. At least, it was food for a great post.
Mernie, we have all been there - to all four of those venues! Dare we ask the name of the show you just did?
I am bit confuse with your post. So did you have a lot of small sales?
Great analysis, Mernie. I think I've done all of these shows and we surely all are always searching for #1.
Cheez-Louise! Are you not going to give the name of the show? Otherwise, this blog is pretty meaningless. Just my thoughts.