The first picture is of the main street at this festival, the second is of one of the two side streets that over 50 artists had the misfortune to be relegated to. We named our street death valley, I swear I saw tumbleweeds. The pictures were taken at the intersection of the two streets at the same time. The disadvantage of being placed on a side street is glaringly obvious. I spoke with several artists on both side streets, many zero sales, a fortunate few made expenses, and a woodturner friend of mine had decent sales but way off his usual. I had my first zero day ever in ten years on Saturday, but managed to just make expenses on Sunday. The problem was that all the entertainment, libations, restaurants and stores were on the main street so very few people ventured off that street. All was not lost though, with all the time on my hands I made several new friends, enjoyed some very good sangria made by Trish at the Sanford wine bar which was located behind my booth, and went to my first food truck rally after close of show.
Logistically easy set up and breakdown, overly generous spaces with four to five feet between each booth, hospitality suite stocked with food and beverages all day, lunch delivered on saturday (firehouse subs) water delivered all day and booth sitters available. The musical entertainment that was provided all weekend by local bands was the best I've ever heard at a festival. Decent awards with 1,2,3 in each catagory and a best is show.
The ammenities were very good, but the bottom line is this is how I make my living and my potential revenue was cut in half because of a side street space. I've spoken with the director and given her some suggestions. There were several of our members there so I hope they chime in with their views of the show. I'd love to hear a review by someone on main street.
This is the second year for this show and I think with some tweeking it could be a decent show. I would try it again, but only if I could be on the main street.
Comments
Gene and Norma,
I was so bummed to hear that your tent was tore up the way it was...I was however super glad that you did't have any of your art in it at the time!! My merchant account is through Teamac and they were born out of artists and still support the artist community at times like this...I am not sure of the process ( not sure if you have to be one of their accounts etc} but , I do know that they quite often write out checks to help artists that have losses such as yours just as a way to support our community and to give something back. I have contact numbers etc if you are interested..Not sure if it would pan out or not but, it could possibly help offset a little of your losses. let me know if its something you might be interested in checking out..
Lori, I understand where you are coming from I have found myself on a few occasions in a less that great booth location in regard to traffic flow. Its always unfortunate when anyone ends up in that situation and I dont want that to happen to you or anyone else. I whole heartedly agree with Gene about equal chances for us all to make money..I also agree with Gene in regard to Placement of booths to allow us to have some extra space to put out more pieces to help increase revenus. The limited number of booths off the main street to two or three on each side with one at the end sounds like a solid solution as well. Speaking for myself in conjunction with keeping the side booths close enough to the main street so that they are not at a disadvantage and if we could tighten the tents up a little and still keep some extra outside wall display space I know I'd be smiling!! I am glad it seems that a lot of us agree this festivals potential both from and amenities perspective as well as organizers approach warrants our support!! I really think this could be a huge win/ win /win situation. artists , show organizers as well as the art community at large can reap tremendous benefits if we can all hang in there and work together to help work out the kinks in this potentially amazing show. I have seen what I believe is the commitment needed from the organizers and now I am feeling really good about how we as artists are approaching this situation as well! I really want to applaud everyone for their positive and incredibly constructive approach to trying to figure all of this stuff out..I can't imagine a better group of people to hang out with on so many of my weekends as people like all of you in the art community!! Thanks!!!!
That's a good idea Gene and if she tightens up the spaces on Main st she'll probably be able to get the same amount of artists in the show. Have a good summer & I'll see you guys in the fall
Ya right Lori, this time of year in Florida - toss a coin for what weather you might get in a festival. It's gotta be hard for festivals to schedule a show during the season, which I consider to be from Thanksgiving through Easter, when Florida grows an additional 7 million people. There are already about 6 shows every weekend that you can apply for in Florida and to get artists that draw folks and have somewhat of a following can be difficult due to so many festivals - too many.
I am going to contact Kim and Rae Marie, but one solution that I would like to pass on is what I saw some other areas do successfully to accomplish a better and more productive customer traffic flow and that was to limit the numbers of booths off the main street to two or three on each side with one at the end. Yep, I know that this eliminates some booths, unless the main street can be extended and/or both sides of the side streets can have the limited booths.
Have a great day and good luck in your upcoming shows - we're done until November.
Thanks Alan; all I did was reinforce what most of us are thinking about this festival. We all know that the ultimate success of this festival or any other festival - bottom line - are the sales that are made. If we do not make a decent profit for our efforts, then everybody knows that it's difficult to continue doing any festival.
However, I look at this particular festival a little different. It's a new festival and I didn't do the first St. Johns River Festival, but I did contact artists who did, who had decent sales and who raved about the staff and hospitality and incidently, three of those artists were on side streets - go figure ! I get selected for this years festival and BAM - the weather busts me out of it and I don't get the chance to really experience what this festival could be. I feel like I owe it to myself to not only give the St. Johns River Festival another chance, but to give myself another chance to actually exhibit and do well in this festival.
I personally think they can make a few adjustments to their layout and achieve what all artists are looking for in a festival - good traffic and an equal chance to make some money as well as to possibly win an award. Who knows my friend, with an increase in the number of potential customers and decent weather, hmmmmmmmmmmmm !!!
Hi Gene, I didn't know that was your craft hut, boy weather is really plauging us this year first Cedar Key, now this one. I gave Kim several suggestions for the side streets but unfortunately the side street will never get as good a traffic flow as the main street. I suggested moving the entertainment or a beer truck to the side streets but she told me she had tried this in the past at other events and it didn't work. I really hope it can be worked out as I think this show has potential. Hope your back is feeling better, say hi to Norma for me
Awesome feedback, Gene. You are enticing me to give this one a shot next year!!
Kirk - I think you said it all ! I am one artist who did not get to do the show because what I think was a mild tornado, twisted and broke several structural members of my booth during the late Friday night storm. I set up Friday afternoon, have a Craft Hut and have never seen one twisted like this before, so I know that the weather was bad - which also probably kept most of the potential customers from going to the show on Saturday. I was graciously offered an EZ-UP by the committee, but with the damage to some of my pro panels as well, and with the empending upcoming weather, I just called it a day, gathered my booth and panels together and didn't do the show.
I must tell you that this committee "left out nothing" as it relates to artists amenities - those folks were nothing short of great and because of them, I'll be back next year if they'll have me; even with the issues that I outlined above. Kim and her staff have put together a great festival, in a great location and have worked hard to bring this event to their community. This is the second year - wrathed with serious weather issues - I think we should stick with them, I know that I will, and I know that most of you will also.
I think that all artists have their own idea as to what an "ideal" layout is for an outdoor fine art festival and I'm no different; I have my own ideas as well and one of them is absolutely " NOT " having booths in the center of the street - back-to-back and jammed up side by side! I do my absolute best to avoid the shows that have that particular configuration. The layout in Sanford was extremely generous with space, which I particularly appreciate, but I do agree that those spaces could probably be 12' wide and still accomplish close to the same openess for artists like me, and many others, who needs space and very much appreciate it when we get it.
Several artists, including me were commenting Friday with staff members about the side street issue. I can't disagree that people generally tend to remain on the main street, for whatever reason, and I think a clear example of that is Fernandina Beach. They have 6 side streets off both sides of the main street, mostly with flea market stuff on those streets.
If any of you have what you think is a potential ideal street layout solution that would get the pedestrian traffic to reach everybody equally, be a part of the solution and contact Kim to let her know what your thoughts are, she's one of us artists and will certainly listen.
Kirk, I agree the perks and the organizers as I stated in my review were very good. My point was that anyone that had the misfortune to be placed on the side street had half the traffic of the main street, the pictures very clearly illistrated that. Had I been placed on the main street with all the people that were on the street I'm sure I would have had a good show also. If they keep the side streets the artists that are on them will not have the ability to make the same money as those on the main street because of the lack of traffic. I felt it was important that artists needed to be aware of that.
Great feedback, Kirk. Perhaps we will give it a go after all? One thing though - the only thing with supporting a new show is that unless they are the exception, you help them get going and then don't get juried in.... Just a word of caution.
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