Well once the surprise weather past and they let us leave the fire station we got all set up. I set my tent up Friday night and it was very easy in and out. I got the display all set up Saturday after they let us go back to our tents. Due to the weather everything was about 2 hours late in starting. The organizers were great. The volunteers kept us supplied with water (more than the 2 times advertised) through out the day, both Saturday and Sunday. Once the storms past Saturday was a beautiful day although a little humid. There were lookers but very few shoppers and the crowd was very sporadic. Most of the people around me made no sales on Saturday at all. It made for a long day with the fair going till 7PM on Saturday.
On Sunday we had a beautiful day with low humidity. More people came out, but again only lookers. I saw very few people caring art or bags. The ones I did see with bags were from the small shops in Long Grove. Most artists I talked with made expenses, but not much more. Those who had been numerous years stated it was one of the slowest shows they can remember. For myself, I barely made expenses. There were a lot of nice people telling me how nice my art was, but they weren't willing to part with the money. I had items in all price points with the lowest being $45, but with that people would look at the art then the price and turn around and walk out. Not sure I'd do this one again.
As I stated the organizers were fantastic and even in and out after tear down went very smoothly. It was great to meet some other artists in the area, being a newbie this year I'm always trying to learn. I got some helpful critique that I will encorporate into future shows, but for Long Grove I'd been told they were mainly lookers and those that did buy would be looking for low price points. This was definitely true. I'll need to do better research for future shows with my price point and product (wood sculpture).
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