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After having about a week and a half back home in Atlanta we couldnt wait to get back to warm Florida.    This would be the first time showing at Gasparilla for us.  Our work, large scale abstracts original only starting at $1400-$5000.  The west coast of Florida is not our market.  We finally decided to try this show after many artist friends and clients encouraged us.   John Leben has already written a great review with lots of info here. http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/gasparilla-what-a-difference-a-year-makes

I will try not to repeat and keep this as short as possible.

Gasparilla Festival of Arts is a two day show, Saturday and Sunday.  Set up starts on Thursday.  The process to request a booth is the most detailed I have ever experienced.   Once you are assigned a booth location you are also given a set up time and load out time.  They only offer sigle booths.   Our set up time was Thursday with check in at 1pm.  That meant we needed to arrive on Wednesday evening.  5 nights hotel cost for a 2 day show.  No problem we wanted to get out of the cold and wet in Atlanta anyway.  We got a great rate at The Barrymore Hotel, right next to check in and artist parking.  I am picky and like to stay at nice places.  The Barrymore was good enough for me and at $75 a night it was even better.  We had a chance to enjoy downtown Tampa on Wednesday evening, most of Thursday and all day Friday.  Another mini vacation, score.   Tampa is a fun town and has a lot to offer with excellent restaurants ( make a point to eat at Ulele)  On Wednesday evening we walked the show site.  The staff had just finished marking the booth spots.  We had a chance to meet one of the Co Chairs.  The staff are so nice.  They all were excited for a great weekend.  We loved the site.  It is right at the Tampa Museum in a beautiful park on the river.  Lots of public work all over.  The city had completed the river walk in that area and new services for the river walk area were just opening up that week. 

John has already written a lot on load in and out.  We found a Thursday set up time made the experience one of the easiest set up we have experienced.  We marshaled into our booth spots and had 2 hours.  We are fast and with just having a single booth to set up we were done within the hour.  They give you a decent amount of room around the booths and in the back.  Some booths are on pavement and some on grass.  There are pros and cons to each spot depending on the weather.  If you are interested in doing this show research it and figure out what would work best for you.  Luckily this weekend the weather was PERFECT so every booth spot was good to go. 

Saturday the show started at 9 am officially.  People were out shopping right away.  Unfortunately our booth was 25-30 feet from the music stage.  The first act went on and it was LOUD.  So loud that we couldn't scream loud enough to talk to each other.  We did everything we could to try to get the music turned down just  a little but it never happened.  Our clients usually need at least 20-30 minutes of talk time for us to close.  We don't have work that people buy spontaneously.   We watched a ton of work walk out of the show.  High end expensive work,  The art at this show is top notch.  The crowd is young and sophisticated AND they have $$$$.  We were discouraged that we couldn't join in.  There was 2 20 minute breaks and one 30 minute break between acts.  We did manage to sell two pieces on Saturday during the breaks. 

Artists amenities were great.  They had a tent set up in the middle of the show for artists.  They had water all day Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  You had to bring your own vessel and could refill water as often as you needed.  The breakfast on Saturday and /Sunday was the normal carb breakfast with some fruit.  The lunch was great.  Hot and a lot of it.  I have some food allergy issues and it was so nice to see a variety of options.  I normally pack my own food but they had passed out menus for both days.  I was happy to finally get a chance to enjoy an artist lunch.  Saturday night they had an awards dinner. ( John already covered awards) I will add the show announces who the judge is and gives a bio.  He handed out a business card to us when he entered the booth.  He had the director and a co chair with him.  Judging a show like Gasparilla with all the great work is extremely difficult especially with the big money attached to the awards.  After the awards dinner there was a gala the artists were invited to.  I didn't attend either but heard it was amazing.  Sunday the left over wine and beer from the night before were in the artist tent.  We were feed well and kept hydrated.

Sunday the show opened at 10 am.  We opened up early hoping to get a chance to talk to patrons before the music started.  People were shopping by 9:30 am.  When the first act went on the stage we braced ourselves and we were shocked.  The music had been turned down.  We could talk!!!!  We had to talk loudly but we could talk.  Game on!!!!.  We had an amazing day and so did everyone else.  Large work walked out fast.  Even with only one real day for sales Gasparilla has been our best Florida show to date.  Tampa treated us well  and we need to rethink the west coast Florida market.

Load out.  You are assigned a load out time.  The show closes at 5pm.  The first load out time is 5:30.  Our time was 6:30.  We can be down to the ground in 15 minutes so we dollied out.  We were out making delivers before 6pm. 

We are back home in Atlanta  and when we arrived it was 70 degrees.  Going to be 80 tomorrow.  Good time to be home.   Time to get back in the studio and work for the spring line up.