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We just finished our first show of the season, the three day, two shows combined event in Fairhope, Alabama. The festival ran March 20, 21, & 22 and show hours were Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. An awards dinner (great pasta food and deserts) was held Friday night from 6:30 to 7:30 and tickets are required that were exchanged for Mardi Gras beads to be served. One ticket was provided for each booth with the booth fee and an extra ticket costed $15, but they were not selling them to just anyone who wanted to attend since they denied my request on Friday afternoon when I inquired about bringing two collectors who came to see us there from out of town.

Fairhope is a quaint community full of southern charm nestled along the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, and it boasts having one of the oldest running events of this kind in the country--2015 was its 63rd year. We did the event sponsored by Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce for our second time (2011 was the first), and we had a pretty good show worth writing home about since we won an award on Friday night and sold some original art on Saturday and Sunday along with some repros. I called my collector friends and boasted my win.

We didn't see the same number of repro buyers that we saw in 2011, and that's consistent with the current trend everywhere, but quite a number of artists around us were grumbling about sales figures being completely down. One artist with whom I'm well acquainted and who was doing the other show packed his trash and left on Saturday night. I think that the weather report fueled his fire to leave, but we got lucky with the weather this year since the heavy rain stopped before the show started on Sunday morning and the skies cleared for the duration. No part of the show got affected by rain this year, whereas last year the artists weren't so lucky and the show Director gave the option for everyone to leave on Saturday night without penalty, which everyone smartly did do. Anyway, back to the future...

Check-in started at 3:30 p.m. Thursday afternoon in the Chamber of Commerce office on Fairhope Ave. and lines were long, but that goes with the territory of a 200 artist show wherein nearly everyone decides to check-in at the same time. Set-up began at 6:00 p.m. later that evening and it can be hectic since the shows are held in the middle of the city streets. Police won't allow any vehicle to be parked or standing and will either make artists move out or have towed those unattended. Once all clear, you better have your engine running and be behind the wheel or you might ruin your flow. You all know the drill. I didn't have any problem whatsoever with unloading right into my booth and didn't see that others had trouble with set-up either. Usually we artists check-in, find our booth spot, and then begin discussing the flow with other artists around us. So this method proved golden once again.

What's especially cool about the C of C event layout is that booths are set up in blocks of four with a 10ft. space in between each quad, so everyone has a corner booth. And all of the booths are in the middle of the street. That doesn't leave room for any storage behind the booths, however. The other show, which is sponsored by Eastern Shore Art Center, sets its booths up side-by-side on opposite sides of the street with tents backed up along each curb. The shows are adjacent to each other, so the only way to tell you've moved from one show to the other is by noticing the booth layout.

I'm not going to do any heroic journalistic duty and research all the pertinent details about the Art Center sponsored event. If you want to read about that, hopefully someone who did it will comment about it. Otherwise, you'll have to seek the info on the Art Center's FACEBOOK PAGE HERE or their WEBSITE HERE.

Both shows combined total about 350 artists and that might have something to do with lackluster sales. But there were plenty of tourists afoot all three days. They were out in droves, and just about every five minutes one or more of them would walk by with a bag load of pussy willow for decorating with their homes. Got art? NOT! Got pussy willow? YOU BETCHA! Someone told me the vendor selling that foliage wasn't even in either of the two sanctioned shows. I dunno. I didn't investigate. It didn't stop the good natured art patrons from eventually finding me and lighting my fire.

Another cool feature about the Eastern Shore C of C event is that they provide refreshments all day, starting with large slow cookers full of cheese and shrimp grits, gourmet pastries, fruit, juice, and hot coffee on all three days behind the C of C office. Then throughout the day volunteers come by with rolling coolers and offer Coke Classic, other soft drinks, and cold water. We needed the support, too since the weather report was completely wrong for this weekend. It was a little warmer than it was supposed to be, but apparently not nearly as hot as it got on the folks in Orlando doing Winter Park.

The C of C show has a great video of the artists in the show on its website done by a local resident and volunteer. He came by my booth and interviewed me for the video. YIKES! But the show was slow changing the 2014 roster to 2015 since they did it the day of check-in. That's right, the day before the 2015 event. But they got it done before the new show, anyway.

Tim Peters (clay) won Best of Show, and when he heard his name called at the end of the presentation he briskly skipped his way from the back of the large civic center room to the stage. What personality! Other awards included the Chairman's Award, the Chamber Award, 10 Distinction, 5 Merit, 1 Juror's, and the one we got, the Eastern Shore Art Center Award of Excellence which is selected by the committee of the other show. When announced, our award was called the "Reciprocal Award" meaning that the committee from both shows choose one artist from the other show as their winner. So does that mean we should be doing the other show? I dunno? I don't think we will, though.

Hotel accommodations are plentiful in this area, but pricey. Get a room in late summer and keep checking for reduced rate opportunities. We stayed 12 miles from the show out on I-10 in the LaQuinta for nearly $100 per night.

One last note about our event. Our booth was directly in front of the little Hampton Inn in Fairhope (not your typical Hampton Inn, but a quaint inn a few steps off the street), and we got "adopted" by them. More than half the artists in the show got adopted by merchants in Fairhope, which meant the artists got to use private restrooms and partake in other benefits offered by the merchants. Hampton Inn gave us everything but a room, and it was a delightful gift of good fortune! WOOHOO!