Well, the truck has been unloaded, the bills have been tallied, and the verdict is in on our first time participating in the St. Stephens Art and Craft Festival in Coconut Grove. It has taken us two days to drive home so I have had a lot of time to reflect on our experience. Fair warning, this post will be long as I want to give detailed information for anyone thinking about doing this show. First, I want to say that this show is run by the nicest group of people you would ever want to meet. This show is a church fundraiser to finance their good works, good people doing good work. They have been doing the show for a long time and have organized it very well. The venue is the church parking lot, basketball court and surrounding areas. In other words it is tight. Load in could have been a nightmare, but it was not. We were given a schedule and told to follow it. When we arrived at our appointed time we had to wait a little while before being allowed to drive adjacent to our booth for our 45 minutes of unload time. One of the many wonderful volunteers acted as traffic cop to insure that everyone could have an unobstructed entry and exit. Parking after the unload was an issue. Basically for parking you are on your own. The show information packet had a map showing where the public parking facilities were located but you have to pay to the going rate to use them. If you have an over size vehicle or a trailer like we do the only option was a surface lot about 2 blocks away. On Friday parking was $6.00 for 12 hours for each space. When the show started on Saturday there was a 20.00 per space charge. So, for the three days of the show plus the set up day we had $92.00 in parking fees. There is not much the show organizers can do about this without the cooperation of the City of Miami. But here is the deal, the city gains so much tax revenue from this event and the Coconut Grove show that goes on the same weekend. The hotels were packed, the restaurants were busy, and money was flowing mainly because there was an art show. The city collected sales taxes, lodging taxes on inflated room charges and so much more but we had to pay to going rate to park?
When the show opened at 9:30 am on Saturday we had high expectations. The crowd was sparse for the first couple of hours. Those around us said not to worry as the crowd attends the Coconut Grove Show first and then come to this show later. On Saturday we had a good sales day. Sure enough more people showed up in the afternoon. We had a 900.00 sale, a 450.00 sale, and a 500.00 sale along with three prints for just short of a 2,000.00 day. We knew our expenses were going to be high for this show but we wanted to test the east coast market for our work. Besides, I had never been to Miami and wanted to see the place. The crowd was light on numbers but we had enough buyers to have a good day. We had high hopes for a good weekend. Alas, it was not to be.
On Sunday to describe the crowd as sparse would be kind. At about 1pm I walked into the street to see where all the people were. Just down the block was the entrance to the Coconut Grove Show. There were four lines 50 people deep waiting to pay the $15.00 admission. There was a hoard of people coming down the street and they all headed for the other show. Our sales on Sunday were 350.00 and the same on Monday when the crowd was even smaller.
Next door was a buy/sell market set up in a parking lot. I think that hurt this show tremendously. Many of the people we saw had come directly from the buy/sell. One person there was selling the most bizarre plants either of us had ever seen. It was in a small hanging pot. with some green leaves visible from the top, with long stems hanging down the sides with what can best be described as blooms resembling used condoms at the ends. Person after person walked by holding these used condom plants. One person walked in our booth with one and explained that the used condom part was like a Venus Fly Trap and ate what ever entered. So now we had people walking around with carnivorous used condom plants. Also available at the buy/sell were chairs painted white and stenciled with the logos of the local sports teams, hammocks no doubt made in China, and best of all CDs of steel drum music. The steel drum guy brought his instruments and played along with the CD for hours on end. His stamina and determination were remarkable. I really enjoyed his music. It was relaxing and soothing..for perhaps the first ten times I heard it. After three days of the same 15 songs over and over again it got old. Luckily at about 5pm each day he got tired and turned on Latin dance music that got everyone going. At the end of the show I thanked him for his musical addition to the experience. He said he had not done as well as he hoped. I said join the club and have a safe trip home.
Load out could have been a disaster but again it was not due to the excellent work of the show staff. When completely torn done, one sought a pass from the volunteer. Traffic was controlled so that everyone had a clear path to their booth. After having an unfortunate experience at our last show running over another artist's cart with our trailer, I decided to wait until the coast was clear before I tried another close quarters maneuver. We zipped up our tent and went to dinner. An hour later the area had cleared out, we dropped the tent and loaded up, easy, peasy.
So here is the bottom line on this show and Miami in general. First everything is expensive. It is a big city during prime season. The show staff is wonderful. There was an artist's dinner Saturday night where they awarded $10,000.00 in prize money. We won a Merit Award. There was a continental style breakfast each morning which we cannot eat but others said was good.
Miami traffic is a nightmare. We saw more craziness on the roads in four days than we have seen in any other big cities we have ever visited combined. Where did these people learn how to drive? Keep your wits about you on the roads.
Hotels are expensive. We waited too long to look for a room. We ended up in a place that was horrible north of downtown. We left after one night for a place next to the airport. This location was a much better commute to the show as we did not have to pass through downtown. We would recommend staying on the west side of the city for either show for this reason. Be ready to pay parking charges at the hotels. They wanted to charge us 25.00 per night for our trailer because of "extra" security required. In other words, an up charge rip off. We negotiated that down but did have to pay extra. Ask for a room away from the expressway, the road noise is really bad.
The roads are a maze of interconnecting webs, of which many are toll roads. If you do not have any cash with you, do not be concerned they take a picture of your plate and bill you later.
Food, especially good food can be expensive. A couple of options near the show with reasonable prices are Greenstreet. Food is reasonably priced, drinks are expensive. Greenstreet breakfast was excellent each day. Spillover is a good dinner choice within walking distance of either show.
We loved the vibe of the place. The multicultural aspect of the city is great. Every night after the show we went out to shoot (we are photographers). We saw an ancient monastery built in 1141 in Spain and transported to Florida piece by piece, classic examples of Art Deco architecture framed in neon, an area re-vitalized by spray art, and a beautiful city by the ocean. So, we lost a few hundred dollars on the show, spent a week of our lives driving about 900 miles each way having experiences we will never forget. One night we made a wrong turn and ended up in the valet line for an exclusive party on the biggest yacht I have ever seen. There were more Maseratis, Bentleys, and Ferraris than I knew existed in the world. Our Ram pickup stood out as a very unique vehicle in this classy environment. I quickly decided to make a three point turn and get out of there before I was blocked in by another 300k car. In the process I squished a couple of their traffic cones. Hey, no one was hurt so it was a successful maneuver.
The only problem was a lack of qualified buyers at the show. The vast majority were there for the beer and popcorn. If it had been a local show we would have been happy with our sales, but we were a long way from home with a lot of expenses. Both artists who have done this show for several years and patrons commented on the relative lack of attendance as compared to previous years. If you are considering doing this show understand you will have a big nut to crack to turn a profit. Hopefully attendance this year was an aberration and the buyers will return. If we had not had the two big buyers we had on Saturday we would have been in a big dark hole. Most folks we talked who had to travel barely covered expenses.
September 1, 2 & 3
Every Labor Day weekend some 12,000 art lovers make their way to Long's Park in beautiful Lancaster, PA to shop for fine art and fine crafts.
Learn more:
http://longspark.org/art-festival/exhibitor-application/
July 7 & 9 and August 11 & 13
August 19 & 20
August 4-6
June 24 & 25
Marketing: Being the best really depends on continuing to increase sales for our artists. One strategy we have is to attract local art collectors, tourists and repeat visitors with disposable incomes.
Entertainment at the show is art related. No loud music. No stages. Our audience prefers artist demonstrations. Accepted artists who demonstrate will be given extra space next to their booth for free. 
