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Bottom line is: you need first to work on how to become irresistible to the art fair audience, how to get their undivided attention, how to become relevant.

Can they get something similar at TJ Maxx or Pottery Barn? Whoops ... something missing here!

People need to understand what you are about, why does it matter to them and what is in it for them. Have any time for social media? Show off your new work on FB -- and how is that website?

If there are people at the art fair it isn't because they didn't have anything else to do (think Saturday afternoons in the fall in America ... college football comes to mind for me) and they are walking down Walnut Street or Westheimer or Meramec or State and glancing around ... 

P.S. unless you missed John Baun and John Houle's discussion about this marketing last week, here it is again: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/apples-to-apples

Estes Park is the gateway to the east side of Rocky Mountain Park.  There are many summer homes in the area and it is a destination for a broad spectrum of nationalities, income levels, and interests.  I started doing this show in 2010, and I have done it every year since then.  I also do the Memorial Day show in Estes Park.   The show is produced by the Estes Valley Sunrise Rotary, Inc. and they do an all-around EXCELLENT job!!!!  The town is packed for the weekend, and leading up to the show there was a lot of promotion on Facebook.  Este Park is a destination for families visiting the park and Denver motorcycle clubs making the run up Big Thompson Canyon and over Trail Ridge Road.

SETUP AND TAKE DOWN.  Set up officially begins at 9:00am on Friday but Rotarians are present to check you in as early as 7:30am.  If you are early you can park at your site to unload.  Street parking is available within a block of the show, but oversize vehicle and trailers have to park at the fairgrounds.  Free shuttle service is available from there, and in town.  Volunteers are available to assist with unloading and set up.

Note to Rotary: If an artist does NOT want assistance please have volunteers help someone else.  I encountered a persistent new fellow who was very eager to help, but he was really a hindrance for set up as my bins etc. were totally disorganized on the site. I didn’t have the heart to tell him to go away.

Takedown begins at 3:00pm on Monday and volunteers were there to help.  Like set up, traffic was controlled and vehicles were not allowed in until you were ready to load.  After paying your sales tax, you get a hot pink  ticket.  When your booth is knocked down and you are ready to load you get to bring your vehicle in.  We loaded out around 6:30pm.

WEATHER.  Temperatures were in the high 60’s to low 70’s.  There was a misty rain Friday morning during set up, and it rained Friday night.  There were a few sprinkles on Saturday.  There were occasional gusty breezes.

THE SHOW.  The show has 106 booths set up around the perimeter of Bond Park and in the parking lot for the town hall.  Clean, indoor, accessible restrooms are in the town hall.  The town was packed with people and thousands went through the art show.  There was seldom a time when people were not in my booth, and I had several repeat clients.  Belts were my top seller, with holsters, suspenders, flasks, reins, and several custom orders thrown in.  My sales were a little over $4K range, and my largest sale was $360 for two belts, silver buckles and a flask.  

There was a good balance of all art/craft mediums including edibles like jellies, pastas and salsas.  Silent auctions run twice a day with donations from artists. There is no buy/sell at this show.  Nuts and bolts for the show are in www.artshowreviews.com.  The Rotarians have coffee and goodies in the morning, and booth sitters. All taxes are paid to the Rotary at the end of the show.

ANALYSIS.  This was our last shown of the season.  Gross sales at the September Labor Day show since 2010 have been in the $3-$5K range, and I consider it a good solid show year after year.  Most of the belts sold were plain, and only a few were the more expensive carved with or without silver buckles.   The Estes crowd is very middle class and price conscious.  Over the three days I had 65 sales with an average sale of $65

   THE OTHER FUN STUFF.  There were lots of different dog breeds and babies at the show.  Interacting with both was fun.  We were able to rent our favorite cabin that is just up the hill from Bond Park.  It was built in 1898 but it is modern and cozy. The hot tub is great after a day on the street.  We drove down the hill to Loveland Saturday evening for an engagement party for our oldest grandson. Driving back up Big Thompson Canyon at night with a stream or cars exiting Estes Park coming down was a different experience.

Photos:

1. The crowd

2. The “village coming to life”. Longs Peak (14,255') in distance.

3. My new booth arrangement with center island

4. Bear Bottom Cabin

5. Spike bull elk outside of cabin

     Somewhere along the line (right here on AFI!) I learned that jury images need to show a constistency. The pieces need to look like they are all from the same DNA, so to speak. Ever since hearing that, I have had a concern that my jury images are too dissimilar, and that someday I should make them more cohesive. 

So this month, “someday” arrived. I designed and built new statement pieces that are similar to another jury image. In the process of designing, I gave thought to my design and thought processes. Then I started to wonder if anyone else has a similar process. Here’s mine: 

http://sandyartparts.blogspot.com/2016/09/harmonious-blends-making-show-piece.html

It would be very interesting to hear from the rest of you, as to your creative process, as well as thought process when it comes to making a show piece. Please share!

October 6 & 7, Houston, TX - The Whitehall Hotel

The eighth annual Arts Festival Conference, presented by ZAPP®, will take place Oct. 6-7, 2016, in Houston, Texas. The conference will be held in conjunction with the Art Colony Association's Bayou City Art Festival Downtown, offering attendees the chance to see one of Texas' most celebrated art events following the two-day professional development conference.

(artists & show directors jam the elevator at the conference)

Why you should be there:

5. The Meet and Greet. Spending free time with like-minded individuals in a relaxed atmosphere has a great payoff. We have so much in common and can learn so much from one another. You may meet someone whose work you have always admired, and have a chance to ask some questions from seasoned artists/show directors.

4. Hanging with the Pros. Hear speakers from many spectra. Thought leaders talking about the arts whose information challenges you to put your career in perspective. Consider it "professional development" that can extend your vision beyond your current thought process and expose it to a larger context. Consider it Art Fair Business 401 -- the graduate level class.

3. Jury review. Have you ever attended an open jury or seen your images on the "big screen", or even heard them critiqued by professional jurors? People literally stumble out of these presentations with new information that revitalizes their jury images.

(Christina Villa & Ruby Montoya from the ZAPP team)

2. Professional workshops

    For all:

• How artists and show organizers can interact with their communities and bring creative change
• Best approaches for maximum use of social media

    Artist track:

• Public Portfolio Critique - seasoned professional jurors including Katrina Delgado from the Coconut Grove Arts Festival
• An Artist's Toolkit - useful information on using your independence to run a business, budgeting, maximizing publicity, working with local communities
• Creating a beautiful booth that "sells"
• Tips for success when you are new to the business

    Show organizer track:

• Best jury practices
• Engagement strategies for community events
• Crowd management and interaction
• Bringing novel ideas to your event to engage diverse audiences
  
  

1. Networking. I can't emphasize this enough. Seeing old friends, meeting people you've only met online, rubbing shoulders and eating a meal with show directors who have an effect on your financial future, spending time with artists from across the country whose name you may/may not recognize and sharing ideas with them is so stimulating I leave these events still buzzing from all the interaction. Conferences are a great leveler. The payoff in time and money can have long lasting consequences well worth the investment.

(Karla Prickett from Salina (KS) & Jay Downie from Ft. Worth)

A welcoming reception, meals together, a cocktail or two at the Nouveau Antique Art Bar reception, a stroll through the Bayou City Downtown Art Festival are just the highlights of the opportunities to see the art fair business in a larger perspective.

Learn more and join us: Arts Festival Conference 2016

The deadline to reserve your room at our group rate is Sept. 15, 2016 or when rooms are sold out. Reservations at our special rate are not guaranteed after the cutoff date.

Click here to reserve: https://www.regonline.com/builder/site/tab1.aspx?EventID=1842016

I have been reading the "Are there any good shows out there" and the latest about awards. While I agree that many shows are down and that judging is, many times, highly subjective and suspicious, I wanted to add a few words regarding the shows. One problem I have seen is that promoters are not doing their job real well. It is not that they do not advertise, although that is certainly true in many cases, it is that they do not target the advertising to the artists in the show. I have done two shows recently, by promotoers with over 20 years experience each and are well known, where the the Best in Show awardees (rightly derserved) have sold nothing. I have also seen very qualified artists getting skunked because of the crowd wanting lower end goods.

A promotoer, IMHO, has to target the audience to the artists. While every promoter wants to have high caliber artists, if the crowd is not a high caliber artists crowd then it does no one anygood. After all Target does not carry Patek Piliipe watches because their customers either cannot afford a $100,000+ watch or do not want them. It is the same for a promoter. They have to match their artsists to the crowd they advertise to. That is where most promoters fall down. They simply advertise and do not do their homwork and target the audience. This hurts both the show and the artists in the show. The demographics of audiences have changed and the advertising that was successful 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago, must now be refined and rethought.

I aslo think it is up to us, as artists, to ask questions of promoters such as "What is demographics of your targeted audience?" and "Does my art jive with the buying habits of this show?" We may not get answers but this might let promoters know that things have changed.

Did the judges stop in your booth at that big show you just did? Did they look at your work or just pass by and you never saw them? How does an art fair assure everyone is seen and judged? What are the best ways to have a consistent and ethical judging process?

Listen to this podcast and learn from Rick Bryant, Executive Director of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts (State College), Sharon McAllister of ArtFest Fort Myers in Florida (with around 30 years of art fair experience between them) and art fair industry advocate Les Slesnick who shares a system for fairness. 

How long does it take a judge to visit over 300 booths in a day? Listen and find out how to make your jury system work well for all and start planning for your next festival. Listen here at ArtFairRadio.com.

February 4 & 5

Apply to ArtFest Fort Myers -- Southwest Florida's premier art festival and largest weekend event. Creating an artwork-selling festival for artists is the focus of our year-round professional staff with 17 years of consistent management.

ArtFest Fort Myers takes place in Southwest Florida's largest metro area, featuring an international airport serving 8.4 million passengers.  Ever increasing residential and commercial construction, lots of new jobs and record-breaking domestic and international tourism are spurring an exciting community.

• Oversized booth spaces-3 feet between booths & behind-booth storage 
• Easy Friday set-up with scheduled staggered drive-up access
• Breakfast Saturday and Sunday
• Indoor bathrooms; 24 hour security; Booth sitters; Discounted hotel rates
• Easy communication with festival staff, pre/post festival and at the festival
• Reserved artist parking with complimentary trolley transportation

Arts, Beats & Eats in Royal Oak, MI, had the most amazing weather this weekend and it sounds like sales responded. This is a huge event that hosts an art fair (130 artists) and also has 8 stages and food from top restaurants throughout the region. As many as 250,000 people attend. 

The prizewinners:

Best of Show: Fong Choo, ceramics
1st. Place: JD Dennison, photography
2nd Place: Nancy Strailey, Drawing
3rd Place John and Mary Lee, Jewelry

February 18-20
Jupiter, Florida
Presented by:  Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce
300 Artists
Deadline:  September 16

Application Fee: $40/Booth Fee: $505

Celebrating 32 years ArtiGras Fine Arts Festival has grown from a small, local art show to a nationally recognized fine arts festival attracting tens of thousands of art lovers and collectors.  

ArtiGras is a three-day ticketed event held on President's Day Weekend at Abacoa in Jupiter, Florida.

President's Day weekend is the busiest tourism weekend of the winter in south Florida. The shoppers descend from around the state as the snowbirds taking advantage of the beautiful weather and they love our art fair.

Produced by the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce, ArtiGras was recently named one of the top 50 fine art festivals in the country and features 300 juried artists along with artist demonstrations, Youth Art Competition, ArtiKids children's interact activity area, entertainment and more.

During ArtiGras, three of the judges from the jury panel will choose 14 award winners in the Fine Art Showcase and give out $16,000 worth of prizes.  

Apply: www.zapplication.org
Learn more: www.artigras.org 
Contact:  Angelique Allen, angelique@pbnchamber.com
Phone:  (561)748-3955

2016 Summer Shade Festival, Atlanta, GA
August 27-28, Grant Park

This show had me in such high hopes. Professionally done Artist Handbook, emailed out in plenty of time. Option to purchase an ad in the Festival Guide.

There was smooth check-in, excellent communication with the volunteers, and smooth load-in. The artists around me were excellent, in my opinion. Good proximity to the port-a-johns, an "intersection" of the sidewalks, and a local craft beer tent. I was near the center of the intersecting sidewalks, on "The Loop," so I hoped it was a good spot. I had paid extra for an ad, and to be in the juried section of the show.

What I didn't realize until walking around a bit was the real scale of this show. It had a meandering layout of artists, through sidewalks of the park, leading to three separate stages where the food areas were located. So once someone passes your booth, they likely weren't coming back. One of my biggest competitors was ten booths away from mine. I never found the artist hospitality tent.

I did my setup, buttoned up, and gave a neighboring artist (who had traveled from Guatemala for this show and one more) a ride to the train station.

The next morning, I did some wandering around to the artists that were open, bought a new mug, and a small new art piece for my wall. After all, I'd recoup the costs today, right?

Wrong. A very slow start to the show, with only three small sales by 2 pm. Lots of people walking by, on their way to the stages. Small burst of sales from 3-4, then nothing until I closed at 8pm. I again gave my neighbor artist a ride to the station.

The next morning, the artists are talking. No one has seen the Festival Guide we bought ads for, nor did we see any of the judges or talk to any at all. It turns out it was only digital, viewable on the festival's facebook page... if you knew where to look for it. The artists who were there the previous year said that they had doubled the size of the artist section this year.

The second and last day totaled less than $100. Total for the entire weekend was around $700. Everyone said the same, that sales were dismal. The show ends at 7pm, and we start breaking down. They delay the artists getting in until all the food trucks can get out -- hey, at least they made money this weekend.

Smooth load-out, and well coordinated exit. Time to drive home. Peanut butter for dinner.

The high point for me for this show was my artist neighbor. His art was amazing, and fascinating stories about his small village and his travels. All of his art was painted on hand-woven cloth, made by his mother. I ended up trading for one of his paintings that depicted "market day" in his village and bought a scarf for my wife that his mother wove.

I honestly hate writing a bad review for a show that was this well planned. The people were there, but not to buy art.

Pros:
Good load in
Good load out
Variety of artists
Music and alcohol
Water for artists

October 14-16
Sacramento, CA
Indoors at the Sacramento Convention Center
presented by White Buffalo Gallery
200 Artists
Deadline: September 14

Fees: no application fee

1. Booth fee $800, fine artists booths half off, $400 for 10x10 exhibitor booth
2. half booths available for $200
3. a gallery exhibit area set up, you can submit work to the juried art contest if you do not want to have a booth, $20 per piece if accepted.

We are doing something a bit different in fusing the fine art and tattoo festival together, looking to create a new platform for Northern California's most innovative and cutting edge artists in a similar vein as the LA Art Show and Think Space. Northern California is full of incredible artists and we want to connect artist and collector. We are geared toward the hip new generation beginning to truly value and collect art. Our Mission is to connect artist and collector.

Open to all artists. It is a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure for your work and to sell originals and prints to thousands of art collectors, as well as creating art live and to interact with the public. We will have art workshops for all levels and all ages. This show is about inspiring each other and especially the new generations of artists. It is a time to come together and share our passion and love of art.

Our event has been 3 years in the making. If you feel you have something to share and teach we would love to talk about setting up a workshop/seminar with you.

Marketing: 

• billboards on major freeways in Northern California, on HWY 80 in Berkley, Business 80 in Sacramento and HWY 99 in Stockton.
• running ads in major art magazines Juxtapoz, Artslant, E-Volve
• We have been promoting this event in radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, online in event listings and on social media. 
• We will be having ticket giveaways on local radio and social media raffles as we build up to the event date in Oct. 

October 15
Sugar Hill, Georgia
Presented by:  City of Sugar Hill
40 Artists
Deadline:  Sept. 8

Application/Booth Fee: $100

The art element of Sugar Rush will be located on our turf lawn with tents lined along sidewalks, across from the food trucks (guaranteed traffic!). We want artists to be able to feature their work and make money from their work.  We only charge an application/booth fee of $100 total.

Last year we did an indoor, exhibit  style, juried art show.  We had 40 participants and a few sales.  Foot traffic was not as great because guests had to come inside City Hall to view the work.  This year we are putting the artists outside in the center of the party. Different from last year, we will also have a pottery glazing area, candy stations pumpkin painting and cupcake decoration in other areas.

We are located in between two major highways and in the middle of one of the fastest growing counties in the county.  We expect over 10,000 people this ear, as we had that many last year.  We get a lot of road traffic as well as a great, active community!

Some of our marketing: 

Apply:  http://cityofsugarhill.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/2016-Sugar-Rush-Artist-Vendor-Application-1.pdf
Learn more:  www.thebowlatsugarhill.com or www.cityofsugarhill.com 
Contact:  Megan Carnell, mcarnell@cityofsugarhill.com, (770)945-6716

This was the 13th consecutive year that I have done this show.  Golden is the county seat for Jefferson County whose motto is “Gateway to the Rocky Mountains”.  Golden is known for the Colorado School of Mines and the Coors Brewery.  The weekend of the art show is the time that students are moving into dorms.

The show is set up for three blocks along Eleventh Street.  Food courts were at both ends of the show and a music stage where beer was sold was at the east end.  The Golden Chamber of Commerce manages the event.  This was the 26th year of the Golden Fine Arts Festival. In my opinion, the show is successful with buyers in attendance because it is run by local business people who understand EFFECTIVE advertising and marketing.  The jury fee is $30 and 10’X10’ booth fee is $390. Application is made with Zapp.  Local merchants support $1800 in awards.

SET UP & TAKE DOWN: Both are usually easy, but this year their seemed to be less control.  Security tries to keep the center lane of the street open and you can drive to your booth location. I did not have any problems as I completely unload and remove vehicle before setting up and completely knock down before bringing the Suburban in to load up.  Other artists had problems with vehicles with trailers taking up space in front of their booths for several hours both during set up and takedown, making their work difficult.  No vehicles are to come on the street until 5:30 or half an hour after the show closes, but there were vehicles on the street at 5:10.  Most booths have space behind them but some have bushes with only a gutter width.

ATTENDANCE: The Chamber states that the attendance is upwards of 30,000.  The event is well publicized in the Denver metro area and online in advance of the show.  People show up an hour ahead of the official opening time of 10:00am and start buying, and the crowd is there until closing time at 5:00pm both days.   

AMENITIES: The artist reception this year was at the Briarwood Inn. Shuttle service for artists was provided by the Golden High School. Appetizers and complimentary beer and wine were served.  I did not attend as we were commuting to care for a couple geriatric dogs.  The show provided morning bagels and coffee, and sandwiches and chips.  There was complimentary water and booth sitters, and morning coffee with pastries.  There were porta-pots at the ends of the booths. 

SALES: My sales at this show have consistently been in the $3K-$5K range and I went over $5K this year.  This year’s sales were up $336   from last year.  My average sale was $63 and 82 sales ranged from $3 bandanas, from the sets for napkin rings, to a $328 saddle bag and suspender sale.  The best sellers were belts in the $45-$85 range with some $200 belts, holsters, and cases thrown in.  The rest were a mix of gun leathers, dog tack, horse tack and personal leather goods.  I have a bunch of special orders to do, and I discussed even more with locals who may order later (mostly gun leathers).  I have some custom belts to make for buckle sets for the Coors family.  Comments on sales from other artists were generally positive.

WEATHER: Friday was cool with late afternoon and overnight rain.  Saturday and Sunday were in the mid to high 80’s.

GENERAL: Nuts and bolts are in Art Show Reviews on this site.  There was a good mix of high quality art and absolutely no buy/sell. There was also a good mix of out-of-state artists with the Colorado crowd.   Artists at other shows have commented that it is difficult to get into the Golden show. The tax rate was 7.5% and is paid after the show.

     There were some changes this year. The site of the reception was changed and a hotel that provided a break room and lunch in the past was absent.  A city tax license and $50 tax deposit was required and taxes were paid after the show.  There was no information in the artist packet on sales tax rate or post show payment other than the city tax.  There were four other taxes that needed to be paid to Colorado Department of Revenue but no information was provided for artist, including those from out-of-state. The CDR website is not user friendly for finding the tax rates for State, County and two special taxing districts.

     The live music Saturday was obnoxiously loud and led to lost sales because artist could not communicate with clients even farther down the street.  Control was spotty Saturday, but management got the volume under control by Sunday.

PHOTOS: The photos were taken Saturday morning at 10:05, five minutes after the show officially opened and the crowds were the same until 5:00 pm Sunday. 

Tuesday, August 30, 5 pm ET

Congratulations, you are ready to go at one of "the biggies." Now the tension builds as the judges approach your booth. Will you win an award? Will you be re-invited (the biggest award of all)? Building continuity at one of the top shows is one of the secrets of success in the art fair business.

• We discuss how judges are chosen for the application jury and if those same jurors are the "street jury." 
• Are the identities of the judges published in advance?
• What directions are these street jurors given in choosing the winners?
• Do they jury secretly? Do they introduce themselves to the artists?
• What happens when the weather or crowds interferes with the judges viewing?
• Should a show rotate the award winners from one year to the next?

Our guests will be Sharon McAllister, Executive Director of ArtFest Fort Myers in Florida, Rick Bryant from the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts in State College and Les Slesnick an art fair industry advocate and former art fair exhibitor.

Click here to listen live: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/artfairs/2016/08/30/judges-jurying-awards-at-art-festivals

Do you have questions on this topic? Please put them in the comments below. 

Yep. The belly dancers show up on Sunday and captivate a huge audience with their rhythmic swaying for a solid hour. They are part of the show.

It is held in a beautiful treed park right on the edge of downtown Lexington. All booths are on grass and you can stake down. They are scrimmy about giving you room on your sides (unless you pay for a corner). Most people have room for a rear awning and storage. It is a mellow Friday setup with the show on Sat. And Sunday. Decent hours with show ending at 6pm, Sat.m and 5pm on Sunday.

This year the weekend forecast was horrible with rain and thunderstorms predicted for 80% on Sat and 40% on Sunday. Thankfully, we lucked out. We had a few pissy,short showers early on Sat. And then clouds the rest of the day. It finally poured buckets around closing. So we lucked out. Because of the weather forecast, and the fact that it did rain everywhere except in the park, crowds were not at their fullest. Still, there were plenty of people and a lot of sales, mostly low end, were happening. Sunday morn we had pissy showers until about eleven. Then the sun came out along with a cooling breeze which in turn brought out good crowds.

Lexington is both a university town and a horse-breeding town, So you have lots of young couples and wealthy elders. Not a bad mix. I make more sales to young people here than anywhere else. And, I do 35 shows a year all over the country. And, I have been doing them for 42 years. I usually always make decent profit. In fact I can only recall less than ten shows where I lost money at, out of more than 1400 I have done.

This year was my best ever at Woodlands in the last seven years, It helps that I have a loyal following who seems to keep buying from me even if my work changes. For those of you who may not know, I had open heart surgery (quad bypass, one new valve and a band around another) four years ago. So along with a new body (hell of a way to lose 40 pounds when they rip you open with a saw) came a new body of work--my black and white photos hand colored using acrylic, not watercolor. They are working quite well and I am making a decent living at it in spite of the hard times we are going through. What I am saying is if you want to succeed in our biz you have to create your own niche market so that you stand out from the herd.

At this show there were at least ten photographers with outstanding European images. The trouble is that they all looked fairly alike. And there are only so many buyers for those images, so some prospered while others died or barely made a small profit.

Back to the show. People here, tend to buy traditional and conservative. It is a good market for crafts like metal, clay and leather. Glass, not as great. There are a ton of jewelers from all ends of the spectrum. Again, some do well while others languish. If there is one valid negative about this show it is the fact it is too large for the population it serves. Close to 400 exhibitors. It is run by the local arts association and they depend on it to make money to keep them running. So you can see they are not going to cut back the number of artists.

One other negative here also. The art league puts up pop up canopies for its sponsors who are intermingled with artists booths. Trouble is they do not anchor them. I pointed this out to the show director on Friday, because I had such a tent beside me, unanchored. I told him if a big wind came along the canopy could damage mine and others. He shrugged me off and said he would take care of it. He never did. Those tents were unanchored the entire show. That is just plain dumb. The Lexington Art League barely gets by and they do not need a liability issue like that. Are you listening to me, Mark, the director?

Sunday the crowd started buying by noon. I saw lots of packages in people's arms. Not all exhibitors were happy. But that is show biz. In fact I do not know of any show where 90 per cent of artists are happy. For an August show this is a decent one where you can make a decent paycheck. Hotel rates are very reasonable here. Food is varied and decently priced. You can drink great bourbons everywhere. Had a few great ones but I passed on the 24 year old Papys, I had a great show, but not that great.

Well, there it is kiddos. Hope you gleaned some nuggets of wisdom which will help you make an informed decision about this show. I tell you one thing, this show beats the hell out of the new Cleveland Flats show. But that is topic to be addressed in the future.

I'm not the best with making time to review shows, but since this was the 1st year for this show I figured it would be good to write one. 

I just got back from the Flats Festival of the Arts in Cleveland Ohio (Aug 18-22).  Although it wasn't a smashing show for me (or anyone else that I heard of) I do have hope for it.  After all, this was the first year for this show, so you have to give it a bit of a handicap.  Here's the details.

LOCATION: An absolutely GORGEOUS venue called the Flats East Bank.  This used to be a crappy industrial area but has recently been renovated and turned into this really trendy area.  There are very expensive apartments in the middle of the site (think $1000/mo for a 600 sq/ft apartment up to $4000), lots of cool restaurants (expensive though, like $14 for mac n cheese), night clubs, and the like.  Most people walking around were dressed in really nice clothes and at least looked like they had money especially when getting off their million dollar yachts, but apparently they spent all their money on their $500 shoes or their $4000 rent because most didn't seem to want to buy art.  My booth was backed up to the river and all weekend I had beautiful boats and yachts sailing behind me.  It was definitely the best view I've had at a show.  I'll try to attach some pics I took with my phone later.

HOURS:  Grueling.  The worst hours I've had at any show.  Setup Thursday then the show hours are Thursday night 6:30-8:30, Friday and Saturday 11a-10p (!!!!) and Sunday 11a-5p.  30 hours!  Plus setup time, that's a full friggin work week not even including the drive. Although they say this will be revised next year and there will be no Thursday show.  I'm hoping they will shorten Friday to starting at 5 or 6.  There's no need to sit there while everyone is still at work.  The hotels in the area are also expensive, so shortening it another day would definitely help with expenses for those of us who had to pay for 3 nights in a hotel and parking for 3 nights too.

SETUP:  Was supposed to be staggered.  We got our booth assignments like the week before the show with our setup information.  Each booth number had a setup time.  Mine was the last group at 1:30.  Supposedly you had 2 hours to get in, unload, and move your car out.  That was definitely not enforced.  When I got there I had to drive around 3 times to finally find a spot about 15 booths away from my location, and hand carry most of my booth over (no dolly since we were supposed to be staggered so we could be close) until someone finally moved.

ARTIST PARKING:  This was I think the craziest thing for me. I talked to Scott, the Director, and he said that originally the artists were supposed to be in a parking lot right by the show site but the owners of the site or whoever moved us to another lot, and then another lot farther away, and finally we were put across the river.  And although I could see the parking lot right across the river from my booth, to drive there took quite a few turns and a lot of time, especially in traffic.  It was at least free for artists, and there were two shuttles running back and forth for artists, but when there are 120 artists all arriving at the same time and leaving at the same time, you could end up waiting for a long time.  Once it took me 45 minutes between waiting my turn for the shuttle, being stuck in traffic, and then walking to my booth.  One artist who was running late did find a creative way to get to show though... she asked the water sport rental guys to help and one brought her over on a jet ski lol.  You could be valet parked in a lot right by the site, but it was $10/day.  $40 extra expense was too steep for me considering my hotel expenses and I was already paying $18/night parking at the hotel.  Maybe next year I'll just rent a boat and dock behind my tent ;).

WEATHER:  Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were hot with occasional downpours, but generally pretty nice.  Sunday was cooler in the 70s and beautiful.

ATTENDANCE: Attendance was ok considering it was the first time for the show and they were charging a $10 entrance fee.  The fee went to helping Cleveland School of the Arts and H.E.L.P.  But in my mind, it should have just been a donation bucket at the entrance, not $10 per person for a first year show.  Maybe once you're established you can get away with that, but I saw a lot of people turn away Friday when I was waiting for a shuttle after they heard about the fee.  The bad thing is that it couldn't really be monitored correctly. Because there were restaurants and homes within the show site, people would be given yellow or green wrist bands if they had paid to see the show, or pink or orange if they said they were just going in for a restaurant.  Do you know how many people I saw walking around with pink or orange wrist bands... or none!  It was hard enough to catch everyone coming in the gates, but impossible to regulate everyone coming in via boats. I saw several attendees complain on the Facebook page about having to pay and then seeing people walking around who didn't.  One girl said she wouldn't return again due to it. I think the fee strategy needs to be rethought. 

From what I could tell, they did a lot of advertising around the area though.  I give them credit for that.  Attendance was almost zero Thursday night.  The show was running alongside another charity event called Bites, Booze, and Boogie.  I think there was some confusion in that advertising where everyone thought you had to attend B.B.B. to get into the show (tickets for that event started at $200) so I don't think many people knew they could come.  Very slow during the day Friday but then the crowds really started to come out in the evening, although they were mainly there for the clubs or to drink on the pier.  Saturday was alright, again picked up in the evening.  Sunday I thought attendance was good.  It was the only day that I really felt good about the crowd energy.  Maybe it was mainly due to the nice 75 degree weather though.

SALES:  Not great but not terrible.  I made money at least.  I sold mainly prints and two originals, but the originals were from some of my Boston Mills regulars who specifically came out due to my mailing list.  If it hadn't been for them, Id be singing a different tune.  Sunday there was good energy as I said, and I thought I sold a $1400 painting twice, but they didn't pop.  *sigh*.  One painter friend did about $900 total, my neighbor only sold one or two smaller photographs but had leads on possibly two bigger ones, my neighbor across from me did end up selling a larger painting for $1800 I think, and one of my fuse glass artist friends had her single best day ever Saturday but almost nothing the other days.  I heard a lot of grumbling Saturday, but Sunday I saw quite a few larger pieces being carried out, so maybe by Sunday close more artists were leaving happy.  I hope so. 

THE BOTTOM LINE:  I really want this show to do well and continue to grow.  Its a beautiful venue and one I'd like to be able to look forward to doing.  I think it has great potential once the kinks are worked out and there is more organization.  Probably will just take a few years to build up a following.  I like the director and I think I will give it another shot or two, especially depending on what changes are made going forward to the hours/organization.