I was going to enter this show back in the spring but had date conflicts. It is a nice show in a charming town in NJ between Easton PA and Phillipsburg, NJ. Since this is the weekend of the show I called my daughter who lives nearby and asked her to attend it. She said she hasn't seen any signs or banners, which is unusual, so i brought up the website and sadly, this is what I found:
"Dear Artists,
It is with much deliberation and great sadness that we have decided to discontinue the Bloomsbury Fall Arts Festival. After considering all of our options and looking realistically at the economy, artist participation, sponsorship and attendance we felt strongly that it was time to say farewell.
Our festival has been the life's breath of the Bloomsbury Cultural Arts Program. It has funded many outstanding programs throughout the past 11 years. Unfortunately times have changed. The downturn in the economy has affected us greatly and we are having tremendous difficulty attracting sponsors. Many of them are having their own financial woes and are not able to make a contribution. Without their help we are unable to move forward. Artist participation is also very low. We realize that as an artist you need to be able to justify the cost of the weekend with your profit. We are sure you would agree that the economy has certainly affected your bottom line.
We would like to offer our sincerest thanks to those of you who have been with us from the beginning. You were like an old friend who would visit every fall. You were our festival's foundation sustaining us through the years. We cannot thank you enough. We would also like to thank our newcomers for having faith in us and giving us a try. We were always glad to see new faces because that meant the Festival was a success.
All monies that were collected will be returned in full. We are hopeful that you will be able to fill those dates with another show. We wish you all the greatest success in the future and hope that if we decide to reinvent the Bloomsbury Fall Arts Festival you will consider giving us a try for old times' sake.
The Bloomsbury Fall Art Festival Committee"
Replies
I agree. The Jersey shore is devastated. My cousin lost his house which has stood for nearly 100 years. Other friends & relatives who live on the coast have major damage and the towns will take a long time to recover. Hopefully they will be ok for some summer activities by next season. We can only hope.
Shows like Stone Harbor, who drew exhibitors from all over the northeast, and many considered their one "big" show is gonna hurt.
Sorry, but Stone Harbor has been hurting a long time. I did it for about 25 years, then the abundance of buy/sell just got to me and I stopped. Now, if they went back to being a fine art & fine craft show, I'd be back in a heartbeat. I always loved taking down, going to the Windrift for a couple of beers while a good band played, then going back to pack up the trailer after most of the artists left. I'll bet that Stone Harbor made out a bit better than LBI and northern shore towns so they may be back to normal by summer.
I'm sorry you didn't do as well as you wanted, but I know a number of fellow exhibitors who always mark the date on their calanders and travel from here in New England to do it.
I agree LBI got hammered, but then again, anything that happened in Asbury would be an improvement.
It still was one of the better shows, monetarily. But it just irked me to be among all the imports, paying for an expensive booth space, and then watching mass produced stuff in all the bags. I wrote them a letter, requesting that they jury everyone, not just the new people and get rid of the buy/sell. I also told them that I would not reapply until they got rid of it. So, after 20 or so years, I'm out of there. I started the show when it was $10 for a space and I paid them the morning of the show. There was a space available. Things sure have changed.
I hadn't even thought about this! Luckily it is a quite a while until the outdoor show season starts and I know the commercial instincts of these shore towns will have them working hard to get things as back to normal as possible. Hopefully they had a good summer and have some reserves.
I just talked to Richard Rothbard who lives in the NYC area and he said that other events last weekend that went forward were ill-attended. This has got to be a scary time economically for so many.
There are goint to be a lot of shows in New Jersey cancelled this coming summer. Especially along the shore. Simply because the Jersey shore is going to take a while to rebuild.
Sorry, CZ, this is old news here. Disappointing, but true. It seems that after last year's cancellation the applications were coming in so slowly that they cancelled before the deadline, which is really too bad because "everyone" knows most applications don't come in until the deadline... too bad.
It is too bad. My daughter had heard around town that the committee running it tried hard but weren't doing such a great job. We all know it takes a lot of time and effort and show knowledge to have a great show, but I give them credit for trying.
I put "Bloomsbury" in the search bar in AFI but nothing came up, that's why I posted it. Am I doing it right?
The search box at the top of this site, part of the template for the site, is not great. A better one to use is the google one in the middle of the page. I put in "Bloomsbury" just now and came up with this link: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/call-for-artists-bloo...