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I just returned from Cleveland and the I-X Christmas Connection.  I heard about this show on this forum so I thought I'd pass along my thoughts.  This was my first I-X CC show.  The show has been held at the International Expo Center in Cleveland for years.  People are charged admission to enter, there is entertainment, breakfast with Santa, etc.  The show was Friday 10am-8pm, Saturday 10am-8pm and Sunday 10am-5pm.  It is billed to include retail as well as hand-crafted sellers.

 First- it is VERY expensive!  A 10x10 booth for hand-craft sellers is $499, with an extra $50 for a corner booth.  And 10x10 is just that, not an inch to spare between booths.  AFTER you sign on and pay your booth fee, they fill you in on the other charges--  you are charged parking of $8 per entry per vehicle or $25 for the weekend ($48 for an oversized vehicle).  Also, you can either hand carry everything in, or use a 2-wheel dolly (NO 4-wheel carts of any kind are allowed- at least that’s what they say…) OR you can pay $40 for 2 passes that allow you to drive in to the building once for set-up and once for tear down. Electricity is available for an extra $145, for one standard 10amp 120 volt outlet. And they will rent you an 8’ table for $111 and a chair for $28.  Food on-site is expensive too, a medium Pepsi was $5, a Gatorade $6! Yikes! We paid the $40 for the drive in privileges, because I was there with just me and my 19-year old daughter and there is no way we can move everything in with a hand cart.  So  we drove in for set-up. An hour later we decided to change part of our display, and my daughter went and got the car without my knowledge and drove it in again, so they took our pass that was supposed to be for tear-down and we had to pay an additional $30 to drive back in at tear-down!!!  I spoke to 2 different supervisors and they refused to give me the pass back, so it cost us $70 just to drive in and out to set-up and tear down.  So for my 10x10 corner booth it cost me $645.

 This was a very well attended show with good crowds each day. However, they did seem to be looking for rock bottom prices. Many seemed surprised to find hand-made stuff. 

Although I was in the “hand-crafter” section, I was directly behind a booth selling only Pandora-style beads, kitty-corner from the Macy’s quad-booth and directly across from a booth of pet snacks and an apple-cider seller.  Across the way was even a bead seller with strings of pearls and beads.  There were Sham-wow vendors, steam cleaners, knives, $10 cashmere scarves,  a pepper spray and mace booth, as well as some very nice artists and crafters.

 Overall, there was a lot of selling going on.  Many booths seemed to be doing a very brisk business.  The pet snack booth came close to selling out.  I just barely made my booth fee- considering the size of it that was pretty good.  However, I think that there are other shows with lower fees that might have been just as good or better.  Also, I got the impression that the show is fading.  Several customers said that the show used to be much better. Several vendors said that this year there were 2 less rows of vendors than last year( that’s  maybe 40 fewer vendors) and last year was down 10 rows over the year before.  It's not a show I would do again. It's just too expensive and too "black friday" ish. If that's a word...