Leesburg Fine Art Festival 2013

The Leesburg Fine Art Festival was held on Saturday September 14th and Sunday September 15th. The weather both days was excellent. Load-in and Load-out was a little tricky due to the narrow streets. The Load-in was staged by a number system depending on you booth street location.I didn't use the staged system but instead found a parking space on a cross street about 50 feet from my setup location and rolled everything in for setup and tear down. The booths were located along about a one block line on South King Street,North King Street, East Market Street, and West Market Street.My location was on North King about 3/4 up the street. I can't compare the crowds between last year and this year since this was my first year but the crowds seamed to be good but not overwhelming both days. Others can report on how sales were for them but I did see people carrying both small and large items with them so someone must have been selling something. The metal worker next to me appeared to be doing ok but others around me said their sales were flat. Now for how my sales were for the event. My sales were helped by two things. First I decided that I would go to Leesburg two weeks ago and take photos of the streets of Leesburg. My thought was to give people an image that they could recognize and associate with. The result was that I had business owners buying the photos that I had taken showing their particular business. One property owner bought four of them for his various business holdings. Non business owners were buying them just because of the memories they brought back from earlier times spent in Leesburg. Employees of various places were buying them due to pride in the place they worked. Other business owners want me to come back to take pictures of their business that I missed on my first shoot.Nothing like getting follow up revenue. The other thing that helped my sales was the fact that at my tent location a Photographer who had a store front location there was having an open house celebrating 150 years of being in business.Not only was I getting traffic from the festival but also getting traffic from his open house and they were buying from me. Some want me to come back and do shots of their houses(Leesburg residents are very proud of ther historic homes). The end result was that I had bare walls by the end of Sunday.One suggestion discussed with me by the photographer having the open house was for promoters to involve local artists in the event. Promoters take care of all the logistics of putting on a show but seem to forget about local artists that might want to participate if they knew about how to do so.Not everyone knows about Zapp so how hard would it be for promoters to send a letter or email to local arts groups with the info on how to participate. I will close by saying that my biggest highlight of the show was meeting Carrie Jacobson.
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  • We were on Market St near Keith Wilkie. First time doing this show. I felt the quality of the work accepted into the show was very good. For us, Saturday was a pretty good day. Had Sunday been as strong, would have been great. But crowd seemed more driven to buy on Saturday. Some glitches with load out with some vendors doing their own thing instead of following instructions so everyone could have an easier time. I guess that always happens. Restaurant owner near us came out and offered free coffee Sat morning and another restaurant went around taking and delivering lunch orders. The weather was great and we did well enough to probably apply again next year. It helps this show is close enough for us to go home at night, so expenses are lower. Will also be at Paragon's Reston show next month.
  • 301658326?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024Early hours of Leesburg Fine Arts Festival Saturday September 14, 2013.

  • This was my first time in Leesburg, but what a great town.  Close proximity to DC and fairly upper end residential suburban yet historic location.  I agree with other posts in that the crowd seemed larger by a bit on Sunday with what appeared to me as more purchases (my sales as well as more bags walking by) than on Saturday.  Narrow streets were a challenge at time loading/unloading for some, but the streets were only "single loaded" with tents on the two-lane + parking lane streets.  I expected better sales, but the event was rather profitable with plenty of follow-on commission leads.  I did have two complaints, however.  Paid for a corner location and had someone placed right next to me at the last minute - so no corner; then the artist never showed until the second day but had two marketing guys selling her work the entire first day - and most disturbing, overhearing their rather aggressive loud pitch time after time where everything they said made the customers believe they were the artist!  Otherwise, I'll work to get into this show again next year as I think the population there is right for my work (painting landscapes and seascapes).  Purchases were in my low/middle price range originals with none in the larger sizes.  Many close to me had few sales or none while others seemed to do reasonably well but not great.  My location was originally on the corner end of west Market, ended up with two other tents on the end.  Paragon did a great job overall and I'm looking forward to their show in Reston next month.

  • I was on Market St this year (was on King st last year).  I definitely thought that Saturday was much busier than Sunday.  I had a great Saturday sales wise, which was fortunate b/c Sunday I only sold $140 worth.  In the end, I grossed more this year than last, but mainly because I sold a $3000 piece.  If I hadnt sold that, my sales would have been less than last year.  Either way though, I would have had a great show!  From the post-show review, it seems I did better than most though.  This is one of my favorite shows.  Last year it was my second highest grossing show of the year and so far this year it still hold the same spot, so I wont complain one bit!

  • I was there as well.  I agree with everything said above, except I thought Sat. was busier than Sun.  My sales were below average but not awful.  Traffic at the show was good, just not a ton of buying energy.  I drove down from New York on Friday night so I missed the mass load in and chose to get up around 4am to setup alone in the dark...worked great!  Loading out wasn't bad because everyone was told to break down onto the sidewalk, then drive into the show to pack their vehicles.  This worked out well, even with one of the artists having to drive a giant tractor trailer into the narrow show site to load sculptures.  The show staff controlled the traffic and everything went smoothly.

    My space was on N. King St.

  • Another thing I forgot to mention in my blog post was my tent placement. I, like everyone else had a tent right next to me on one side but about 30 feet on the other side between myself and my metal worker neighbor on the ther side. This was due to the photographer having the open house that I mentioned in my blog post getting the city of Leesburg to prevent any tents being set up in front of his business that weekend. The end result was I got a free supercharged corner spot and was able to display a lot on my outside wall that people could see when walking by or going into the open house.The gods must have been smiling on me for that to happen.
  • Oh - I forgot the Nels requested info.  10x10 spots with lots of sidewalk storage behind.  Tents were right next to each other and tight.  I was glad we had a corner for the extra exposure/space.

  • Great summary and great marketing Elbert. Congratulations. 

    We were at Leesburg at the far end of East Market St.  Load-in (for us) was easy as we were in the first group.  We drove up to our spot at 6PM as advertised and had plenty of room to set up without being encumbered by other vans/trailers (a small plus for being at the very end of the show).

    The crowds did seem lighter on Market St. than they did on King but it was fairly steady traffic.  Saturday was slower than Sunday and sales were somewhat disappointing.  

    We were next to a "stick" guy (that's  two weeks in a row - what's with that???) and even he was bemoaning the pace of sales.  The photographer on the other side of us sold just two matted prints all weekend.  We did much better than that but not great by any means.

    What potentially saved the weekend for us was the prospect of three decent commissions.  Happily, an email arrived late yesterday confirming the go ahead on one of them.  If even one of the other two pan out, it will end up a very good show; mediocre otherwise.

    Leesburg is a very nice town (although the traffic in and around is among the worst).  What struck us was that this was probably the quietest show (in a very weird way) that we have ever done.  Few yelling kids or barking dogs and not many friend "reunions". You know what I mean -  six people who stand right in front of your tent and talk about what they've been up to since they last saw each other 5 years ago.  These are things that you don't necessarily like in a show but at least the people don't seem Stepford-like when out having a good time.  It was strange (at least on the far end of Market Street.)

    Most of the artists I spoke to who did the show last year seemed disappointed that it wasn't a repeat. Others, like Elbert, had fantastic shows.  This was a show we really wanted to like and I think we would try it again but ask for King Street.  It was nice to see several of the AFI regulars.

  • Thanks for the report. Congrats on a great show. Alison congrats on setting up alone! Keep at it. Of course having help here and there is nice but I love knowing I don't need any.
  • I was in the last stage for setup and didn't get started until after 7PM which made for a long evening.  I do think every effort was made to get people in and setting up as quickly as possible.  It did amaze me (and contributed to my late setup) how many artists do not understand what "unload and park your vehicle" actually means.  In fact there were several I encountered who had not read the load in instructions at all.  

    I was proud of the fact that I had setup my new Trimline all by myself for the first time until I realized I had not put the awning brackets on.  A fellow artist took time from his setup to help me get the brackets on.  And so my Trimline education continues.

    I made a huge sale first thing on Saturday morning but unfortunately only two more sales the rest of the weekend.  It turned out to be a good show for me but not as good as last year and buying energy seemed to be down from the previous year.  The government is a big employer in this area so I wonder if the looming budget had anything to do with their reluctance to part with money.  Several artists I spoke to on Sunday morning were experiencing the same thing.

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