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Just got back from Lubbock Arts Festival.  This is a three day indoor show where Friday night is a "Patron" night. The weather was nice but they had expected bad weather.  There was a Texas Tech Spring game scheduled that was cancelled.  It was also Dad and Daughter's weekend at tech.  

Load in/load out.  The load in times were Thursday 12-7 and Friday 12 -4 with the show starting at 6 on Friday.  I much would have preferred an earlier load in time on Friday so I wouldn't have to drive in and stay another night in a hotel but was concerned if I could get in and set up in four hours.  Or, even have a later set up time on Thursday. Load in was easy as there are side doors where you can park close and dolly in.  No volunteers that I could see to help on Thursday but wasn't looking.  On Friday, there were a few teenagers offering help.  Load out on Sunday was quick and easy as well as once again was able to park close enough to dolly everything.  There was a small line for those wanting to back up to the main loading doors but most people were just dollying.

Patron Night  Friday night is Patron night where the local patrons buy tickets and get a dinner buffet.  They feed the artists' first at 5 before doors open at 6.  Food was great but get in line early.  I am from OKC where the art patrons pledge to spend $500 on art.  This is not the case here.  My impression was that it was a social event for people/businesses that want to active in the community.  Lot of socializing but no one buying or carrying art around.  I sold 2 prints to one person during the three hours.  Most people seemed more interested in talking to their friends than actually visiting the booths.  Several performances by kid's groups were held and I suspect a large amount of the crowd were parents watching their kids. After the kids finished and they presented some award...the crowds all went home.

Saturday/Sunday   Very slow Saturday.  At times it seemed the aisles were empty.  Show starts at 10 and goes to 7 pm.  They brought a ticket by where you could go get a chick-fil-a box lunch and a water.  Not sure why they didn't just bring the box lunch to us.  Around 5 they came by offering water and a bag of chips/trail mix.  On Saturday, it seemed the crowd was mostly lookers.  No one seemed to be engaging in the art.  I speak to everyone that comes into booth and generally can get them, talking about location or process.  I also generally have lots of people going through my print box.  Not this crowd.  Would just look quickly and move on.  Sunday, the crowds seemed more engaged and more talkative.  Sales both days was about the same. This is the first show that I have done where I did not cover expenses.

Artist Mix  Seemed like a pretty good mix of mediums without any one medium being over represented.  They were promoting the show as art with a fine food twist so there were two bakeries plus some booths selling olive oil, bread mixes, margarita mix but were all more artisan type.  Did not see any buy and sell.  The company that sells the metal pac man type items was present.  I have been next to them before and the artist was not present (not even in the same state as show)and the guy working the booth told me they have a shop where several people produce the work to the artist's specs as they are also going to wholesale markets.   The artist's were all very friendly and seemed like a mix of experienced full time artists and less experienced part time artists.  Every artist I talked to reported lower than usual sales and pretty much experienced the same as myself.

Repeat?  Not sure if I will do this show again.  Price seemed high ($475 for corner booth) as compared to the crowds there.  The returning artists I spoke with said that this year was off but that it was an "OK" show the years before and most seemed to use as a filler show. People were very nice and welcoming and they took good care of us but they weren't spending money.