This was our 3rd year in a row participating in this festival and probably our last. Results varied greatly for artists, other AFI’ers that were there included David Forster who had a good show, Lisa Foster who didn’t have a good show and we were somewhere in between. Temperatures for the weekend were above average, making the booths very toasty inside. There are not many spots in this show that receive much shade, certainly very few that would have shade for the entire day.
So why were we here? You would think after 2 years we would have decided if the show was worth it for us or not. 2 years ago this was a surprise show for us, with $185 booth fee, 2 days with really short hours (10-6 and 10-4) and much higher than expected sales results, one of our best 2 day shows ever, it was a “no brainer” to return in 2011. However, 2011 was a weird year for this show, the S&P had just downgraded US Debt, Wall Street went on a roller coaster the week before this show and I think we saw the impact of that. Most of our buyers at this show are either tourists or the people who own vacation homes in the area. In 2011 with the Wall Street roller coaster, they weren’t buying. We left Sandpoint with a profit, but not much of a profit by the time you factor in an extra week of staying in Idaho at a local campground and the extra camping fees with the show not providing free camping for RVs. We did receive one custom order after the show for a large necklace so that made it into a “barely mediocre” show for 2011. So, we decided to try one more time and see which year was really the anomaly, 2010 or 2011??
The result? Average. Yep, 2 days broiling in the booth and we hit the exact average (within $30) of the previous 2 years. So, will we do this one again? Probably not, unless we decide to combine it with a family visit and that will be a conscious decision knowing that the end results for sales and profit are likely to be less than what we determine to be satisfactory. My aunt and uncle retired to this area and I have cousins and their kids in the area now so it makes it really easy to combine a family visit with a show. However, it’s not really worth an extra week on the road for us at this time.
Quality at this show is all over the board, good artists, buy and sell that somehow gets in, and some very "crafty" items that don't seem like they really belong. A lot of booths with a theme that is appropriate for furnishing mountain or lake homes. We were next to a booth selling bonsai with lots of "hand crafted" garden decor items, I'm sure I've seen some of those same decor items in the local stores. Of course she had fantastic sales and ended the show with a 2K wholesale order. Sometimes it makes us think we're in the wrong business!
A few more details:
Load in/Load out: This is one of the most grueling load in / load outs we have. Booth assignments are not sent in advance so you don’t know where to park in the Marina parking lot. Load in on Friday is 4-6PM, the hottest time of the afternoon. You have to hand dolly everything to your booth spot. After 2 years of hand trucking everything across the park, we lucked out this year with one of the booth assignments that borders the parking area. The lot was full when we arrived, so we went to MickDuff’s Brewery for an early dinner, a cold beverage and by the time we returned at 6:15 we were able to back into a parking spot 2 spots away from our booth. Easiest load in we’ve ever had at this show, but yeah, it was still hot. Load out, same issue, starts at 4 PM when it’s really hot. We were about 75% done with our tear down when I noticed that the car parked immediately behind our booth was leaving. I stood in the parking spot while my husband brought the truck around and we ended up with a relatively easy load out with the truck 10 feet behind the booth. So, it was a much easier load out than usual, not having to haul everything over what can be a very bumpy ground.
Artist Ammenities:
Coffee and muffins in the morning, if you got there early enough, as they seemed to run out really early on Sunday. Booth sitters were available.
Comments
Ahh Ruth, I know what you mean, sometimes I too think I'm not selling the right thing when people buy obvious rubbish from near me. But what do you do!? *sigh* At least you have a show that is near family, even if its not as good as it could be.
Thanks Ruth for the good report. What did seem to sell really well here?
In addition to what you have said, this art fair has a couple of problems that affect sales, parking is an issue. It is limited and shared with people visiting the park and marina. This is a show that could benifit from a customer shuttle service. The organizers are aware of this problem but don't want to spend more because they're trying to keep the booth fee low. It's kind of catch 22. Also, it doesn't seem that they are effectively marketing to those that were buying, the tourists.
I enjoyed meetiing you!