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I was in the DC area for two shows in a row.  Alexandria King Street Art Festival and Arlington Festival of the Arts.  Both just across the Potomac River from DC.  What a great area for an artist to be for 10 days. 

First Alexandria.   This was my third year doing this show and my third review.  It had always been one of my top shows of the year.  This year it fell on the same weekend as Atlanta Arts Festival, Atlanta is my home town and that has also been a good show for me.  I chose Alexandria over a local show.  That is how much I love the Alexandria show.  I have gone into detail about lay out and area in past reviews so I will quickly run through it here.  If you want more detail just check out past reviews. 

Most booths are back to back with no room behind.  Most everyone has very very little room on the side.  Nothing can go on the sidewalks so go through your show crap and get rid of anything you don't need.  I always stay at The Monaco right at the show.   I keep ALOT of my stuff in my room and can just run up and get it if I need to.  There is a section where booths are not back to back, but set up in the middle of the street.  Both sides of your booth are open.  Set up is a dreaded early morning city street set up.  The city imposes a lot of rules for this show and the police enforce them.  If you do this show read your emails and follow the rules.  This is a big show, over 200 artists, and big crowds.  The homes in the area are older, many historic and not very big compared to Atlanta.

The show opens at 10am but patrons show up early. Be ready no later than 9am.  Saturday the forecast couldn't make up its mind if it was going to rain or not.  Finally decided to rain and it pretty much did all day off and on.  It was a light rain so lots of people  came out and those that come out in the rain are usually serious about buying something.  There was a lot of strong interest on Saturday.  People going home to measure or calling their husbands to come to the show.  People would come back 3 and 4 times to look at a piece.  This was not just my experience but the general experience from all the other artists I talked to.  We were all hopeful the be backs would be back on Sunday.  Sunday the weather was absolutely perfect.  Not too hot, not too cold and sunny.  Buyers did come back and buy but not as many as I expected.  Again this was the same experience for many artists.  It was a good show for me, but not a great show like past years.  I know some artists who had amazing shows, the rest of us had good to decent shows.  I haven't heard from anyone who had a bad show. 

Break down, the city wants you out of there asap.  I can do that no problem.  Show ended at 5pm.  I was loaded and out by 6pm.  There are a lot of police and people who keep everything flowing and we all worked together to make sure there weren't any issues. 

A few tips for this show.  Parking is a pain if you have an oversized vehicle and/or trailer.  Arrive on Friday and scope it out.  Alexandria is one of my favorite cities in America.  The history, restaurants, culture, shopping are all a great experience so try to take an extra day or two if you can.  Come with extra inventory and don't be afraid of price points.  The patrons buy and they don't care about cost.  They are very sophisticated and care more about the art than the price point.   

Now Alexandria is over and I had all week to enjoy the DC area.  I decided to rent a carriage house in Alexandria for the week.  Eating out in DC area can kill your budget so having a kitchen is a must.  I also wanted to be close by incase I could close some more sales with the folks "thinking" it over.  Glad I was in town that week and was able to close a few more sales.  Alexandria is also a quick metro ride to DC.  I was able to walk to the metro from my place and run into the city to enjoy all the wonderful FREE museums and monuments.  First class vacation in between shows.  Life as an artist is wonderful if you can take the time to enjoy the journey.

Now for Arlington.  This show is in its second year.  Much smaller show with around 100 artists.  The streets are huge.  The area is surrounded with condos, restaurants and bars.  Very lively area for young professionals, double income not to many folks had kids, and they all need art!!!!!  Again it was an early morning set up but since the street were so wide I decided to try something I never do and showed up at 7am instead of 4am.  What a great decision.  I was able to drive easily to my booth and set up.  Parking is a piece of cake.  The police were very nice and helpful.  This was one of the easiest and smoothest set ups ever.

Booths are set up across from each other with wide sidewalks behind the booth.  There wasn't much room between the booths but a ton of room behind.  My booth was in front of a Trader Joes so I didn't even pack a cooler.  This is an active community and folks were out early again. 

I had rare Saturday sales.  Most of my sales happen on Sunday. By the end of Saturday I was already thrilled with this show.  Plus people could WALK their large art pieces home!!!!  Oh and the weather was absolutely perfect both days, low 80s and sun.  I restocked the booth on Sunday morning.  Sunday was a repeat of Saturday.  First large sale was 9:30 am and continued.  The crowds were never huge, but since the streets are so wide it did make it difficult to tell if it was crowded or not.  I saw LOTS of art walking out besides just my own.  Not everyone had a good show.  Like I said this is a younger crowd than we are all use to.  They have the money and the wall space.   Some of us had excellent shows, some had bad shows.  This is a more contemporary crowd. 

Break down really easy.  Plenty of room to fit your stuff on the sidewalk.  Cars could come in at 6pm, show closed at 5pm.  Easy for everyone to get in and fit.  The only hard part about breakdown, and I have never experienced this before, were the patrons running through the tents as we were breaking down.  I had baby strollers in my tent as I was lowering my tent.  I can't tell you how many times I had to warn people to be careful.  Out of nowhere a patron would walk through or push a baby carriage through my tent as propanels and tents were being broken down.  Maybe it was because I was in front of Trader Joes.  Anyway I have an easy break down so I was broken down by 5:30 and went for a quick dinner.  Drove in at 6:15 and drove off by 6:30. 

Arlington was a treat to do.  The booth locations, the area, the patrons, the set up and breakdown and even the police were all wonderful.  Did I mention The Today show gave a shout out to us on Sunday morning? It was such a nice calm show.  Great Great show all around. 

Here are some pics.  The first one is Alexandria on the rainy day, good size crowds.  Second one on Sunday, really good crowds.  The third is Arlington.  Beautiful site for a show.