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The thumbnail version: One of the other exhibitors called it a “country craft show.” I feel this is a fair description. This indoor show includes a wide variety of crafts (including needlework, banners and diaper cakes). The customers are cost conscious. Buy/Sell was alleged but not prosecuted. Show participants also included corporate sponsors.

Details:

Show  and venue information: Fredericksburg Holiday Craft Show. This year (2013) held on December 7 and 8^th at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center. The promoter/organizer is Ballantine Management Group of Virginia (BMG). They also organize other types of events (such as Home, Boat, Gun and Dog Shows). They referred to us as “exhibitors.” The show is entirely indoors. The show runs 10-6 on Saturday and 11-4 on Sunday.

Booth Costs: 10x10 is $299, 10x20 is $499.  Power is available for $50 (pre-show).

Background: This Holiday Show has been held since 2006. This year they have expanded and included many first-time exhibitors. Artisans who have done this show previously said they have been satisfied but that this year sales seemed to be off. This may have been due to the weather. More on that below.

Load in/Load out: Everything has to come in through 2 or 3 small doors on the left side of the building and has to be dollied in. For the smaller Spring Faire, the large loading doors are opened and you can drive right into the facility and dolly a short distance to the booth. Load in/Load out was smooth but there are only a few curb cuts (and they were not by the doors). No breakfast was offered but there was coffee.

The event: This year there about 200 exhibitors. Of those, about 10% were jewelry, or included jewelry and another 10% or so were food items (including pet foods and mixes). I only saw about 5 painters and 2 photographers. I did not see any pottery. The promoters would probably be thrilled to have more, but I am not confident they would recoup their costs. The crowds seemed to prefer low to mid cost items.

On Saturday, crowds were good and they were buying (I saw many bulging bags). But the crowds dispersed almost entirely by early afternoon. It may have been due to the weather: a winter snow/ice event was expected Sunday. Many exhibitors were concerned about travel on Sunday but no decision was made until the end of the show on Saturday. At that point, we were allowed to leave without penalty (only about 10-15 actually took advantage and left). Since I was expecting snow at home on Sunday morning, I packed up and left on Saturday. The hotel had already charged me for the 2^nd night, so I didn’t leave Fredericksburg until early on Sunday morning and arrived at home just as the snow hit. If they had let us know earlier, I may have been able to cancel that 2^nd night.  I had had a very good show the week previous but my sales were very light here, so was not inclined to stay Sunday given the potential for inclement weather.

Note: The original materials indicated that the Holiday Show would be “handmade arts & crafts only.” However, I did not find this to be the case (one example was fiber-optic “Painter of Light” wall hangings). But the majority of the items were handmade.

My take-away: It is a nice, organized show but I think that the crowd has very set expectations. Also, I wished that they had made a decision about the weather earlier in the show.