This was my first time doing this event and I expected it to be equal to the South Miami Art Festival held in the same location in November. It was not! I was placed next to a charming fellow and his "Furry Puppet Farm" complete with the puppet outhouse. The show was non-stop and the kids loved it too much so the walkway was blocked much of the time. This was more of a family-kids event than an Art Show.....
The proceeds were very disappointing compared to the November show.
Ok so this was the 48th Annual you would think with 48 years under their belt the artist infopacket would be a little more complete. In the acceptance letterthere weren't any directions to the show, show hours, hotelinformation or even a physical address to look up online to getdirections. So I had to search the internet for the address to theshow which wasn't easy, found it and went to rand mcnally got thedirections. Which were wrong by the way, thank goodness a friend ofmine got there first and by phone she gave me step by step turns toget to the show. We set up on friday, had to dolly a little way Iwas in the park on grass, thank you very much. As usual I just setup my tent curtains and display, didn't need the mad mat because Iwas in grass, yeah!! Oh and I didn't need the heavy weights becauseagain I was on grass. Since it was bike week in daytona most of thehotels raised their rates but we found a nice little family owned onethat gave Ellen and I good rate. Very clean and didn't have that oldhotel smell. When we went to bed the weather didn't look good forSaturday but didn't look too bad either. That of course changed bythe time we got up. The day looked really bad but being hardy artshow exhibitors we went to the show anyway and finished setting upour booths. And it didn't get bad till about 10am and then it wasjust miserable. So cold, and wet just awful. My hands were so coldthat I had 2 sets of gloves on, but my feet just got numb afterawhile. We finally called it quits around 1pm. I had one sale inthe morning a giraffe and that was it. A lot of my neighbors werealready gone at this point so we also closed shop. Went to a friend'shouse for most of the day and then out to eat. There are a lot ofnice local restaurants. While we were at the house the sun came outand another crafter that we know went to the show site to see if ithad reopened but he reported back that all the booths were closed andno one was there. So after dinner we just wasted time driving alongthe beach road and site seeing. Sunday proved to be a much betterday, but the drated weather man said it was going to be windy,considered getting the very heavy weights out of my van and puttingthem up but was too lazy to do it. It was sunny all day long and Ithought not windy at all, but apparently it was very windy out on thestreets but not in the park on the grass, again thank you very much.A tent tried to fly away with the wind, but of course it was an e-zup with not one weight. So the people did come out on sunday and Ihad a decent day, not great mind you but ok. I inched slowly all daytowards the black and finally made it. Also made a profit not a hugebut something I could live with. If we hadn't lost saturday the showwould've been ok. Not great but ok. Not sure yet if I'll go backnext year but I haven't cross it off my list. Break down went verysmoothly, got my booth and stock broke down then pulled the van up tothe sidewalk closest to my booth and dollied everything out to thevan. Some people drove their vehicles into the park but I didn'tfeel comfortable doing that and it was just a short distance that Ihad to dolly. All in all it was an experience, the bikers werenoisey going up and down the street late at night, but thanks to earplugs from wally world they didn't bother me too much. If you don'thave to travel a great distance this might be an ok show to do. I'monly about 2 hrs away from there, 1 tank of gas with some to spare,and I shared the expenses with a friend so the black wasn't too faraway for me. Ok that's it for this review, see you at theshows---greta
September 11 & 12
Beautiful fall weather brings you an event in a hip Chicago neighborhood, a great place to finish your outdoor art fair season in the Midwest.
The Lakeview East Festival of the Arts is Chicago's premier fine art and fine craft festival showcasing over 130 juried artists. Lakeview is located on the north side of Chicago, near Wrigley Field, north Halsted and Lincoln Park in a very diverse, culturally rich community with unique boutique stores, cafes and restaurants.
The Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce has hosted this event for the past three years and has been rated as one of the top shows in Sunshine Artist's Magazine. More than 40,000 attendees are expected to attend this year's festival.
The festival is set on Broadway
Avenue just north of Belmont Avenue. This event has a strong marketing and media plan and hosts an annual artist reception. Other amenities include:
Booth Fee: $400
Make checks payable to: Lakeview East Chamber of Commerce
Prints allowed
September 18 & 19
Presented by the LaGrange Business Association and held in cooperation with the Village of LaGrange, the festival is held in the shadow of the landmark Stone Avenue Station along Burlington Avenue between Brainard and Spring Avenues. The charming and historic West End area of LaGrange provides a picture-perfect setting to showcase art.