First time doing this show. For me, was a great show and was very pleased with crowds and management. Here is a breakdown with the good the bad and the ugly....
Show hours- Friday 6-9, Sat 10-7, Sun 10-5. The Friday night hours are open to anyone but it is when they do their patron event. They said they had over 600 patrons and it was fairly busy. Some sales but nothing other than prints. Kind of a pain in the rear if you don't have an easy light set up as these three hours are the only time you will need lights as the show closes at 7 on Saturday.
Load in- Friday morning with split time of 730 am or 930 am depending on booth location. Very well controlled with good communication between people on site and the guy at the entrance. You basically pull up to your booth and unload. All paved and wide road. I drive a F250 Supercrew with 16 ft trailer and had no issue getting in or out.
Load out- Once your booth was torn down and ready to load, you were given a load out pass. Same deal that it was controlled so you were let in when there was a space fore you. Pull right up to your site and load.
Amenities- The artist hotel is literally at the end of the street so very easy to park your vehicle for the weekend. Does not include breakfast but there were some breakfast bars in artist hospitality area. They provided dinner from Outback Friday night. lunch was provided Saturday and Sunday which was basically QT sandwiches and chips. There is tea, water and coffee available. Fancy luxury port a potty available near this area with regular port a potties on the end. Sunday morning before show is a hosted Artist breakfast at the hotel.
Artist mix- 24 photographers represented the photography medium quite well. Other than heavy on photographers, good mix of painters, glass work, a few jewelers, and potters. Almost all of the work I saw was high quality and didn't see any junky type or commercial work.
Price point/Sales- Saw pieces everywhere from $3.50 (note card) to $9000. I had my best sales at a show. Moved several big pieces and a lot of prints. My sales were $15.00 to $700. The return artist all said wait till Sunday as that is the day the patrons come back (they were partying and drinking Friday night and just strolled around). I saw several big pieces being carried around on Sunday. I saw some works in the 1200-1500 range go by but also talked to one painter who didn't sell a single piece. Most people I talked with seemed to have a decent show though. I overheard one person said that he was in danger of selling out but never did figure out his medium. It is located in a commercial area that seems to be more affluent
Atmosphere- Decent music played on the stages that seemed conducive to an art show, Wine and import beer available to the crowd walking around. No carnival food sales and not really a food component. The food places I saw was Outback and two other places. had tents set up and they brought food in cambrios. Several kids art activities. The street runs along a lake and grassy area. They bring in landscaping for the street. It is nicely done and very consumer friendly. Although drinking, this was a wine crowd and did not see anyone that looked intoxicated.
Staff/Volunteers- Staff was very friendly and helpful stopping by several times chatting. there were volunteers that came by some but was more rare than the not, Came through with water 2-3 times on Saturday and 1-2 times Sunday. Saw no volunteers on Friday night. Show appeared to have good community support from the local businesses. Not sure about advertising. There was on site security on site when I was leaving in the evening Friday and Saturday.
Areas for improvement- More volunteers coming by to see if we need something. Instead of having us pick up lunch from tent...put them in the rolling cooler and walk by and offer. It is a long time out of the booth if you are at the other end. They were individually prepackaged QT sandwiches. They could have put them in the same rolling coolers they used when they came by offering water. Clean the portapotty each night.
Tips if doing show- If you are at the end opposite the hotel, pull your vehicle around to the other end on Sunday or on the other days if you have back up work in vehicle. it is a long time consuming walk to the hotel parking lot if you are in the "C" or "D" booths. The street the show on is part of a large commercial development with the hotel at one end and businesses with large parking lots at the other end. it is all owned by same group which is one of the corporate sponsors of the art show. Thus, it appears from the number of people parking there that there is no issue parking there. (I parked there Sunday without any issue) Stay at the Hilton Garden Inn on site but bring your own snacks/ beer/ etc. Hotel restaurant was expensive ($7 for Heineken to take to the room) and there was a fridge and microwave in room. There are restaurants in area and a grocery store across street. ($7.99 for six pack of Heineken to take to the room) Parking at hotel was OK with plenty of curb space to park trailers.
Recommend?- Yes, I will be applying again next year.
Comments
Good review John, saved me the trouble! Nice to have met you. Which is another nice thing about this small show (100 artists this year, which is their max they say, 80 in previous years) everyone seems a little more relaxed and friendly. I didn't do as well as I had last year, about 30% off. Those 25 photographers represent 25% of the show which I think is about 10-15% too many. Not to say that I felt as though they were stealing any sales from me as there was a LOT of diversity in style among those 25 photographers! Variety is the spice of life!
This show has, in the past, seen a large percentage of photographers and I would hope that if they are seeing an increase in overall applications to the show that perhaps they could include or increase numbers in other media as well. It is a nice show just before Kansas City so others might think of adding it to their itinerary prior to that show so they can keep the bar high! I saw that some of the "iffy" booths from last year were not there so they must be working hard to keep the quality up.
very comprehensive review! Thanks for all of the information. About how many artists were there would you estimate?