Bayou City was last weekend. After last years fiasco, the organizers promised to clear up the problems and put on a good event. Did they do that or was it just spin and bluster?
I know that they had 450 artists, which was one of the main objections to last years event. They also charged a $3 fee to ride the shuttle from the parking to the show, after paying a high rate to park and then a $15 entrance fee. This seems to be anti-artist.
I wrote extensively, this past year, that if you want a successful show, meaning happy successful artists, you have to have less of everything. Less artists, lower entrance fees, less distractions. If you do this, you get less money from each patron, but, you get way more money by seeing your attendance skyrocket. So, if you did Bayou City, how did you do? What was your impressions about fixing their problems?
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Social media. AFI was the first, but, there are many places to get info including FB. As you can see, many people here post what is happening around the country. In Houston, there are artists who live there who are in the know, for instance, and post here. Also, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to understand that when you add 150 booths to a show, each piece of the pie will be less for the artists doing the show. That is all spelled out in the prospectus. There is a lot of information here at Art Fair Insiders. Keep reading.
When I am thinking about doing a show I have never done, I read what artists say about the show from previous years. When an artist claims to do well, I look at their work to determine if they make serious work or chatchkies. Since anyone can join, there are all types here.
I have not developed a large "following" in Houston. As a matter of fact I've only gotten in about every 3 times I've applied, but up until this year, I have always had good sales....never a bad show.
Despite the perfect weather, which I was quite excited to see, I was very sad to see how this year had changed from what I remembered. I drove 24 hours from California to do a show that was not anything like I remembered. The best part of the show was the new artists I met. They kept me sane in a show where I sold absolutely nothing.
I began calling two weeks before the show about how much wattage I could use for my lights. I got a return call from someone who could not properly answer my question, with a promise to get back to me. No one ever did. I should have cancelled then.
The first day I arrived two hours before the show opened and had to park way off the end of the regular artist parking in a muddy field and walk for almost 2 miles before I got to my booth location. I usually have an ice chest and other valuables along for the walk with a dolly. The shuttle is useless to anyone carrying a bunch of stuff in and out as it would take at least 5 minutes per artist to board themselves and all the dolly stuff (and dolly). I would rather not hold up my fellow artists from getting on the bus so I walked.....a long way.
I would consider adequate artist parking one of the very BASIC requirements for organizing an event. As I was walking out the entrance to the parking, I heard one of the festival people telling artists that it was full and that they should park along Memorial Dr....I also heard police officers telling artists that they would be towed if they did. This does not start an artists weekend off on a good note. I also heard staff tell artists that they could go park at the mall and take the shuttle back. If they had told me that, I wouldn't have had a clue where the "mall" was since I'm from out of town, and had not planned on parking there.
Portable toilets were ugly by mid-day, and since when do people stop washing their hands after noon? There were never any paper towels after lunchtime on any day.
I tried on several occasions to find a staff member who could answer the question, "Where do I park if I arrive tomorrow and the lot is full?" The first person told me to just get there early...duh. The second person turned and walked away from me without a word. (I was NOT rude)
One tip for those of you who are going back to this show...take your mosquito repellent. I used mine, but spent the next 3 days driving and itching with over 30 bites.
My booth was in the back loop with a drop off that frightened me every time I looked at it when the wind was blowing. Two of the artists in our group had to set up a bit into our "corner" area in order for the artists in between to be able to get their tents into the 9' 11" space.
The marking of spaces was woefully poor.....especially when you looked 4 spaces down from us where, all weekend, there were 11 empty spaces that never got filled, even by wait-list artists. Surely that sends a message to the patrons that artists are not excited enough to show up??? If you want to leave an area open please DON'T make it look like people didn't show up by marking it with numbers.
I knew that electricity (for which I paid $150.00) would not be turned on until the last minute, but I began getting nervous when there weren't even any cables laid behind my booth on Friday morning. It took me 4 phone calls and chasing down a guy with a golf cart full of cable before I got any action....and even then I got no lights until the show had been open for over an hour.
One of the great things I remember from this show, was feeling like a salmon swimming upstream whenever I needed to leave my booth and walk up the path. There were so many people, that it was difficult, but that gave the show excitement, noise, and the urge to get to an artist and perhaps buy something before it was purchased by someone else. Unfortunately, that feeling is gone.
We didn't even see any people on the back loop for a good hour. The bottom of the loop was empty of both people and booths. Not sure what they were saving it for, but it look like no one had considered what it looked like. I think many people turned around and went back, consequently, they probably never saw the other side of the back loop.
Customers were exhausted, never knew where they were (sometimes the artists didn't either) and certainly would have had a hard time re-visiting high end artists for a second look at a piece before buying. There are too many artists, too much real estate to be covered, and from what little of the crowd actually got to the back loop, it didn't look like the high end clients I was used to in the past.
As far as the entrance fee. If that deters clients, then they aren't my clients. My paintings are expensive. ALTHOUGH, I have heard high end clients say how much they resent having to pay to get in when they are spending thousands of dollars for the art.
How about developing a VIP club. After you buy something for say, $3000.00 you can become a member and get in for free. That might help develop a VIP feeling amongst the higher end customers. I agree with the comment I saw about getting some corporate backing. Many other successful shows do that. Not making enough money is no excuse for ruining this show by adding too many artists
By the way, sales of $5,000 is not enough for anyone who travels a distance for this event. Between space fees, gas, hotel, food, etc. I spent at least $3000.00, and a $2000.00 profit (had I made that much) was not enough to make up for the utter exhaustion of doing this show. I won't travel that far again. Sad to say goodbye to this terrific show, but I'll never do it again unless it's fixed.
Wow... I just read all this and I was wondering, how would one stay abreast of changes they make for the future presuming you "know nobody?"
I did the show when there were only 300 artists and sold in the low 5 figures. I didn't go last year because they called me 3 days before the event and I'm on the East Coast, but I did talk with others who said the additional artists had not affected their sales. So I went when invited this year.
I was on the back loop. And VERY disappointed in the crowds AND the sales. People were overwhelmed by the numbers of artists. Even the featured artists in the front said the same. Once you have tried to peruse a mile and a half of art, you have no idea what you want to take home, or where to find it again.
I was very disappointed with this show. They have no artist amenities any more (they used to feed us breakfast and if you donated art, you got a VIP bracelet that got you into the VIP buffet for lunch.) I have no idea what they do for VIPS any more, besides driving them around on golf carts.
The glass artist next to me did very well, selling $9K in the last half hour of the show. No one else around me was jumping up and down. (I was very near the area where that Buddha photo is, btw). This show is too big, and I'm agreeing with Dave Piper on this one. In fact, I was looking for you, Dave and couldn't find you!
This is an area that never suffered financially during the recession, but their discretionary income has been greatly affected by the lower gas prices we are all enjoying. That is their bread and butter. I noticed a difference in the crowd too: fewer of the well-heeled older money folks, and the younger professionals were just pushing the baby carriages and talking with each other; not really looking at the art.
I miss Kelly Kindred and I don't think the organization was there at all. Someone earlier said they thought it was well run, but I am not in that camp. Our booths were being re-drawn as we set up on Friday; the logistics person at the end of the "help" number called me back 6 hours after the fact; and I got an "important" email about artist parking at the end of the 2nd day. Really folks?
Nope. Too big and not enough people. I had no idea they only got 30,000 people out of a city that size until I read it here. I do better at the fall show, even though it always rains, because there are fewer artists and it is a more manageable space for the people who attend.
For me, the show sucked. I haven't lost money at a show in 2 years but was about 1000 in the red for this one. Both immediate neighbors were very dissapointed and have done the show before. 2 others I talked to were disappointed thought they made some money. Incidently, i was near the center of the show.
Crowds? Never looked crowded to me. I guess that depends on your definition. The show publishes 40000.(please correct me if Im wrong) That's not a lot for a show that size.
10 - 15 dollars to get in? Ok, but remember that that is per entrance. You cant return the next day without paying again!!!!!!
Over a mile to walk the show and it's not a continuous loop. Crazy!
Over 20 minute walk from the artists parking. I have a bike so, ok. But even though there was a shuttle, aparantly it wasn't wort taking cause most artist were walking!
The weather was perfect. Dosen't bode well if the weather is less than perfect.
I would rather pay more in booth fees for a much smaller show.
I tried this show because i heard good reports from last year even with the changes. My thought is that those changes will slowly(or quickly kill the show) because it takes a year or two for folks to catch on.
I think lots of folks who came last year and this year will not return because it must be a bit of an ordeal and the cost is high.
450 artists with a walk of over 1 mile sounds like market saturation to me. This sounds like the life cycle (or death) of so many restaurants. They start off great, great service, good food, ambiance and then they expand to their demise. I look at events somewhat mathematically - for example, 6 categories, 30 per equals 180 artists. 40 per maybe; 50 or over - I'll go to the race track and bet the horses - better odds, less work and more fun.
Dave, I agree with you 100% and have written extensively about it. This is the problem with Coconut Grove, also. With Bayou City, any group that can't get more than 100,000 people to come, out of a city of 6 million, should be fired for incompetence. If I ran the show, I would reduce the entrance fee to $5, children 17 and under get in free. That should at least triple the number of people coming to the show and make up the lost revenue in food, t-shirt, and poster sales. Then, I would hit the streets and get more sponsors to underwrite the show. Cindy, from the SLAF, told me that they turn away sponsors. The point is that the corporate money is out there. One of their selling points, to artists, is about how many corporations and executives are in Houston. It that is true there should be no trouble getting the sponsors to support the show. If I ran this show, it would operate in the black.
There is a difference between going to the movies and coming to the art fair. With a movie, you actually get something. You get to watch the movie.
About Dave Piper being there. If I do a show and it is successful for a number of years and then it isn't, I do the show for at least a few years thinking it is going to be good again. I can see why Dave would be there.
Just because a few of you did well, doesn't mean that the majority did well. From what I've read, most people did not do well. I want to see changes made because I want a crack at the 6 million people of Houston. I will not apply to this show if there is a chance that I will be stuck in the second loop, which is probable because it would be my first year. I would have no leverage for a better space.
Yep, yep. "I want to see changes made because I want a crack at the 6 million people of Houston."
Not only 6 million people, but new people to town, new jobs all over the place, a booming job market -- Houston should have an amazing show. Somewhere along the way the management/board decisions got the event in financial trouble.
These big shows have huge budgets (over $1,000,000). I won't go into the details, I've outlined them many times -- you can also find it in several of the podcasts where I've talked with show directors about what it costs to put a show together.
You can make choices like St. Louis, to keep it clean, attract a choice demographic, and limit growth and produce a fine result. Or you can go bigger like Des Moines with more stages and auxiliary activities (the art festival is the biggest thing that happens in Des Moines all year), but also require sponsors to have art related themes in their areas, art activities; have a big sponsored area that is Iowa emerging artists.
How do they make it work in Fort Worth? A more similar town to Houston ... very smart professional executive producers -- people like Stephen King and Jay Downie. Cindy Lerick at St. Louis has a board that "gets the vision", that it isn't about quantity, but quality.
I was very involved in an event that had amazing quality that got taken over with the idea that quantity was the answer.
Am I the only one that has noticed that the best shows on earth (Fort Worth, Des Moines, and others) have less than 200 booths. The customers can see them all without exhaustion setting in. Dave
No. You aren't the only one who feels this way.
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