This will be my fourth and hopefully last time to give Strawberry Days in Glenwood Springs CO a chance to be a decent show. When I did this show back in 2002 I was disappointed in sales compared to booth fee but if I could have made close to what I did back then I would have been thrilled.
I know this show has a new promoter and it seemed she was doing her best and working very hard to be sure there wasn't any buy sell and that the artists/crafts people were showing what they juried in with. The quality of the show was decent though I didn't get a chance to walk the full show (even at a slow show I tend to stick to my booth because I would hate to miss a sale or opportunity).
I heard comments that the work was better than past years but really the key issue is the demographics of the show goers. Generally they were very young and didn't have any inclination to buy even the lowest price pieces. But they were very engaged and interested in my work- when they were there. There were many hours of not a person in my booth... which to me is just no fun- even if I'm not selling I would like to at least be showing my work and talking to people.
The hours are very long and the three days just drag on. At least I had great neighbors to chat with and could work on my clay. But I can tell when I have a terribly slow show because I get too much done- not enough breaks to wrap up works of art for customers.
I would love to see this show come back- it fits very well into a CO show schedule and it's in a wonderful community but I think I will wait awhile to see if these young art show attendees can eventually turn into young art buyers.
