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This Show was the second weekend in March, same time as Vero.

Do not waste your time with this show, it is a loser for people trying to sell art.

A little background.

Apollo Beach is about 30 minutes South of my Ybor house. I have used it as a bailout show whenever I do not get in Vero.

I have done it for more than 10 years and could usually grind out $1500-$2000 and I slept in my own bed.

This year I did $600 on Saturday and zero on Sunday.I do not know why the lettering turned slanted. Just go with it.

One big problem for this show is that they do not know how to target the more affluent communities that are adjacent to the show.

Instead we get people from very poor areas South and they have little disposable income.

The committee who runs this show is the local Arts Alliance. It used to be run by the Chamber of Commerce.

in my humble opinion, the Chamber did a far better job.

The Alliance is clueless about how to run a good show.

Stay away from this one it is not worth the time if you are trying to sell good art.

This Show was on the last full weekend in March.

They finally got their act together and limited the show to 300 artists. That meant nobody was stuck on an outer loop where half the attendees never walked.

We had excellent cool weather, decent crowds, about 15000 total.

Most artists made 6-10x their booth fees.

This is a three day show with no evening hours.

You can setup either on Wed. Or Thursday before the show.

At teardown, you can scrum with the majority to teardown Sunday night, or still better, you can come in early Monday morn and teardown.  Which is always my choice.  It is mellow and I can park right by my booth.  I was out in one hour.

Houston is a major city with at least 50 corporations that have their international headquarters there.

You have millions who live there, but the show is lucky to pull in 15,000 attendees.

They could do better.  This is one of the major faults about this show. Too bad they will not take a lesson from the Main Street Fort Worth who brings in close to a half million attendance.

Trouble is Bayou City gets very little corporate backing for their show.  Ft. Worth gets oodles.

Also, FW charges no gate fee.

Bayou City (BC) charges a $17 gate fee. Also there is no local parking, so most people have to pay to take bus shuttle to and from the show.  They have shuttle stops at nearby shopping centers.

Sunday nite I waited to take free shuttle back to my nearby hotel. I was tearing down next morn.

So I got to talk to the supervisor who controlled all the parking.

He estimated about 1200 people took the shuttle on Friday, about 3000 on both Saturday and Sunday.

He also observed that about 1500 more Ubered their way to and from the show. He says more people are Ubering each year.

He said that if this had been a food related event rather than an art event attendance would be triple.

Houston loves their food a lot more than art.

So that explains why turnout is small.

The Show has a new director and she is sincere and trying to make the show better.

Get corporate funding so you can drop the gate fee to a lower number.

Another interesting trend I noticed.

They got hit with a bad hurricane last fall, and people got insurance money but they were not spending it in big numbers.

I remember after Hurricane Andrew hit a Miami, the insurance money was flowing at all the spring shows.  Most artists had monster Coconut Grove’s sales.

Houston is no Miami—too bad.

Meanwhile let me tell you about the show.

Everybody has storage space in the rear of the booth. Side to side, you are lucky if you can get your hand in to zipper up.

A lot of artists have double booths at BC.

The Show is on a totally  paved circular path in an inner city park—Memorial Park.

My neighbor on Friday who did fused glass hit the jackpot when a customer came in and bought her biggest piece for $8500.  She was ecstatic.

I sold steadily all three days, but most my sales came out of the bins.  I sold very few framed pieces which were in the $150-$500 range.

I did not see a lot of big pieces go by.  I think craft artists made better big sales there as compared to 2-D.

Most artists were happy and made $4-$10,000 at this show.

I shared a room with Vic Edwards at the show hotel about a mile away. We got it for about $100 per day with a great free breakfest everyday plus a free bus shuttle ride to and from the show.

To top it off, there was a fantastic sushi restaurant in the adjacent hotel parking lot and we ate there every night.

This Show is Worth doing

Thank you Nels for confirming exactly what I feared would happen.  Glad  didn't drive from Ft. lauderdale for the show.

Art Attack Ft. Myers 2 weeks ago was a bad enough experience.  

June 30 - July 1

Contact: Curtis Beck   info@cwbevents.com  916-936-9393

Have done this show since the early eighties.

Used to be a strong $3-4K show.

Not anymore, can barely break a grand.

This is a huge college town teeming with young professionals.

You would think they would support the arts.  They do not.

Crafts have a better chance here.

I saw very few 2-D pieces go by this weekend.

You have too many artists for too few buyers.

Do not waste your time unless you live close to it.

September 29-30
Augusta, New Jersey
Presented By: Peters Valley School of Craft
150 Artists
Deadline: April, 14

Application Fee: $40 with code EB2018 
Booth Fee: Indoor Booths $465+; Outdoor booths $425 +                                                                       
The Peters Valley Annual Fine Craft Fair is a juried event that attracts exhibitors from across the country and attendees from the tri-state area (NY, NJ, PA). Approximately 150 artists will be accepted into the event as well as a very limited number of Artisanal Food exhibitors. All artwork must be made by the exhibiting artist. There are wholesale opportunities as well as a limited number of Emerging Artist opportunities available.

The site for the craft fair is the Sussex County Fairgrounds located in Augusta, NJ. The venue is less than 60 miles from New York City, is fully accessible, offers camping with or without hookups and has ample parking with easy load-in/out. Booth spaces are indoor/enclosed spaces with concrete floors.

The show is promoted through newspapers, magazines, billboards and social media. Promotional postcards, posters and digital ads are available to exhibiting artists. As a non-profit organization dedicated to artists and artistic practices, our Craft Fair Committee is focused on making this event successful for you. We strive to improve each year in attracting the right attendees to the show in order to make your participation profitable for you. Our goal is to provide a selling venue that helps you continue your artistic practice while also introducing the public to artists and their processes.

New this year:
We are offering a very limited number of outdoor exhibition spaces.

Testimonials:

"Over the past several years I have seen an increase in the level of sophisticated buyers coming to the show. Consequently my sales have increased beyond my expectations." Jewelry Exhibitor.

APPLY: https://www.zapplication.org/event-info.php?ID=6190

More Information: http://www.petersvalley.org/html/craft_fair_exhibitors.cfm
Contact: Lindsay Gates    craftfair@petersvalley.org    (973) 948-5200

Let me start by saying I never really know where to put these reviews because it is not an "art" show.  So Connie, if you want to move it elsewhere, please do.  I will fill you in on our experience but YMMV. 

This past weekend dh and I went Brandon, MS, which is a suburb of Jackson, to attend Vintage Market Days of Mississippi.  VMD is not for every artist or crafts person, which is true of any show.  There is no show or event that fits everyone, including VMD.  VMD is a franchise-based event.  Each franchisee has one or more events they run/promote.  Many, to my understanding, have more than one event, each in a different locale.  Most, if not all, do a 2 season line up.  Some shows are in the summer, most in the spring and fall, and a few in the winter.  Each show must be applied to separately, even if 2 or more that you're applying to are run by the same promoter.

We had scheduled set up at 1:00 PM on Thursday.  We arrived a little early and were told we go ahead and pull in & set up.  Dh and I took a few minutes to eat lunch from our ice chest before heading in.  Some had already set up or were in the process of setting up but it was not hard at all to pull up to our booth.   Set up was uneventful and quick, considering we were short one person.  (Our dd chose to stay home for the weekend so we did not have her help.)

We were done setting up by about 4:00 PM.  We took a few minutes after set up to walk around and see some friends from the road, if they were available and not too busy setting up.  Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel for a little comfort food.  Yum.  :D  Our hotel of choice, where there is a special rate for VMD vendors, is about 5 minutes from the venue.  Yay!

We went back to the VMD venue about 9:00 AM on Friday with a 10:00 AM opening time.  We had only a little tweaking to do to the booth.  We were left with enough time to walk around and see some friends we had missed the afternoon before.  Friday's attendance was typical for a Friday, which is still a work day for most people.  We have come to expect not a lot in terms of attendance or sales on Fridays.  We keep our expectations low and then if it is gang busters, we consider it lagniappe (a little something extra), as we like to say in south Louisiana.  Friday proved to be an average Friday for us.

Saturday had a good bit more foot traffic.  As typical, it was our best day of the show.  We still were a little disappointed in the amount of foot traffic but considering the economy in south Louisiana and Mississippi, it was okay.  There are many people who work in the oilfield who live in south Louisiana and Mississippi.  This industry is struggling still, and the economy is still sluggish.  We can see signs it's coming back but it's not back yet.  This translates into probably an almost equal number of lookers and buyers, at best.  Our price range of products in our booth is from $5.00 to over $100.00 (furniture type pieces).  Our average sale is around $25.00.  Shock. Gasp.  No getting rich here on single pieces that sell for several $100 or $1K.  I am working on finding furniture pieces that can bring in more and also am trying to build my skill level.  However, I know that it's the small pieces that most people can afford and actually purchase, so these will always be in my booth.  I know there is a draw for my work as I have good response to what I do and even have had discussion with shop owners about having my products in a mall situation where there are booths (or a brick and mortar store) available for my type work.

Sunday in the south ... typically the attendance is low until church lets out.  Some will come straight from church and spend the afternoon eating and shopping at the venue.  Others will go eat out, then come walk off lunch.  We had slower sales than Saturday but did have some, even at the last minute.

There are 2 arena type buildings at most of the VMD events.  These buildings are equestrian type arenas with open sides but a full roof overhead.  When I first heard about doing a show in one of these arenas, I was concerned about possible odor from previous functions that involved the live stock.  We have not experienced any odor due to livestock.  The dirt floor at Brandon is packed very well.  It is not loose at all.  I was speaking with Don, the husband of the franchisee, and he said he pays a hefty price to have it packed to so well.

There is no climate control in many of the venues, but at this time of year in Mississippi (and Louisiana) the weather is typically mild. If climate control is critical to your work, then the show in Mississippi is not for you.  Some of these shows do have climate control.  If you want to apply and climate control makes a difference, then ask before applying.

We were in the 2nd building where the food trucks are.  There were 4 different food trucks, I think, each serving their own unique line of food.  Most of the time we just snack from our ice chest and have a good meal at the end of the day once we leave the venue.  Professionally designed and manufactured signage is hung to let shoppers know about more shopping in the 2nd building.

There was live music in the building we were in.  The music is a single musician, usually playing the guitar and singing.  The same 2 ladies have bee playing at the different VMD events we have done in Mississippi and Amite, LA.  They have good voices but are different in style.  Most customers enjoy the live music, from what I hear.  For those who are there all day long, you realize their set is about 45 minutes long, but is repeated for the duration of their time there, which is about 3 hours each.

As I have stated in previous comments about doing VMD events, this is working for us right now.  We will continue to do it as long as it makes sense.  If you have any questions but don't want to post them here, you can PM me.