First and foremost, I need to say that in my opinion and based on my experience this past weekend, this event IS NOT AN ART OR CRAFT EVENT! It was advertised as such and there was the usual jury procedure to go through to be accepted. All of which along with the estimated 35,000 attendance looked like a good event. From my perspective, it was not. That is not to say that someone else may or may not have had a good show there, but simply my observations. Out of 200 advertised booths, 20 were set aside for art/craft vendors. The other art/craft vendors were mixed in among all the other stuff. My estimate would be that about 75-80% were buy/sell, maybe handmade but not either fine craft or art, or just plain imported junk. We saw a lot of bubble machines. Not my idea of a fine art/fine craft show.
Now for the gory details.
Friday was set up day from 6 a to 6p. We arrived around 3 p and managed to find our booth spot. Unfortunately, it was located in a man made wind tunnel formed by two large buildings. The wind was a sustained 25-30 mph with gusts. We unloaded the trailer and tried to stack our tent and display items on the street in anticipation of erecting them once the wind died down a bit. I mean the wind was so strong that a 4 X 4 piece of 1/2 inch plywood if left unweighted would start moving down the street. As we waited, we got to meet our neighbors around us. On one side was a man selling a new yard game which is a cross between golf and badminton. On the other were two young ladies giving away free stuff to advertise for a personal injury lawyer. Next to them was a buy/sell clothing place. Hmmmm, starting to look a little strange for a art and craft show. We had all been told that we needed to be set up by 6, then it was by midnight, and then finally that we could come back early in the morning around 6 a and set up.
Saturday, we arrived around 6 am and began to set up. Everything was looking better as far as wind was concerned. We got set up and then waited. The parade started at 8 and the festival started at 10. By about 8:30 the wind was back up to speeds that required that we both hang on to the tent in addition to my very heavy tent weights. (4 inch pvc filled with concrete) During all this we learned that the wind at this location is a known problem and that has happened most of the past 5 years. Fortunately, the event staff lady assigned to that block was very sympathetic and worked very hard to find us other locations. We were second in line to be moved. Right after the glass folks that had already lost a bunch of stock. They were at the other end of that block. "Our" staff lady was seriously trying to help out in a bad situation while the higher ranked staff simply ignored our pleas. In all about 6 booths had to be relocated.
Once we got moved, which was about noon before we finished the move, we were ready for business. Now our neighbors were a group of young men selling Jesus t-shirts and a young lady making wire necklaces. There were lots of folks at the event. My wife kept count and we interacted with about 200 folks in an hour. That is not just the people that walked by on the street, but the people that either chatted with us, touched my items, (which we encourage because wood is a tactile medium) , or looked at the items and commented on their beauty. So, a lot of admiring comments and looks, but only one sale of one box. We watched to see if folks were carrying items purchased. The two that stood out were pvc bow and arrow sets and inflatable alien dolls about 5 ft. tall.
I talked with some other art/craft vendors including the aforementioned lady with the wire jewelry that was next to us, a couple potters and another wood turner. They said that they were doing ok, but only selling items in the $10-$15 range. One jewelry lady from FL had stopped by earlier and she had been absolutely livid with the event.
As one gentleman on this forum has mentioned, there clearly were not that many " good shoes" at this event. There were some older couples that commented that my work was like the good old days when this event really was about art and craft.
Sunday, well we decided that enough was enough and loaded up early Sunday morning and left the event. We tried to salvage something from the trip by touring the USS North Carolina memorial berthed across the river. That was a nice tour and as we left we looked back across the river at the event and it looked like the crowds were not there.
Needless to say, I will not be going to this event again. Also, if anyone did well there, that is great, I am just relaying what I saw and experienced.
Comments
Thanks for the feedback from y'all. I feel like the main problem may have been that the Wilmington area appears to be very economically depressed. There were a lot of buildings for lease/sale and the area just had the look of a town that was experiencing hard economic times I had one young man that was so excited when he saw my boxes that he just had to have one for his pregnant wife. He left the booth just beaming. About 10 minutes later he was back with a completely deflated look on his face and asking me if he could return the box. Seems his wife had taken exception to him buying something that was not a necessity when they needed a baby crib. Of course, I returned his money and told him that I understood.
Guess the bottom line is that we try to minimize the number of these types shows that we go to, which is the main reason that I posted this thread. If we all post about our experiences, it should go a long way towards developing a database of shows and experiences. And that is not to say that just because one person had a bad show, someone should write it off, just use that information to do a little more research and try to determine the root cause of the low sales, bad experience, etc.
BTW, if you ever do end up in the Wilmington area, touring the battleship North Carolina should be on your to do list. They let you go through most of the ship, including the gun turrets. Which although the ship is huge and the turrets are huge, the space inside them is tiny and held many men. Makes you think about all those guys that worked in those tiny spaces in south Pacific heat fighting to preserve our freedoms.
Sounds like it was a very disappointing event - one to cross off the list by the sounds of it.
Sorry about your bad show. We all have become a charter member of the bad show at one time or another and it is awful. This really emphasizes the importance of good show reviews so we can hopefully not make the same mistake.
Shows reviews are really important overall but can also be difficult to predict since show sales results can vary so greatly from one person to another...but every bit of info most certainly helps...!
I would have been far less cordial, I think. Our nightmare was at least local. 2 years ago a show at the Orlando Convention Center, advertised 20-30K paid admission. $1000 booth fee. 200 vendors. Indoors. We had what appeared to be the 2nd best sales at $550. $400 of it other vendors. Less than 600 'shoppers'. A group of about 50 vendors almost lynched the promoters. At least you had 'shoes' to look at in Wilmington, but I hope you really enjoyed that very expensive tour of the USS North Carolina. We all feel your pain, and thanks for the heads up!
We've had shows like this one, too. Hate it! Wish we could visit every show before we do it, but we have to do the shows we have and we have to make contingency plans for the shows we don't get into. Thanks for the review. Hope that your next show makes up for this one!
A few years ago I did a show in the area and it was very similar to described. People seemed surprised that we had art booths there. Yet a year later I did the Wilmington art and antique walk - a one day show that I think has been renamed. It was cheap and I had a great show. They had a dog parade I think. Weird.
Every one of us dreads being caught up in a show like this. Do your homework, study what you can about the show, read reviews and ask artist friends before applying. AND, thank you for the review (warning)!