Thunderbird Shows

steve appel June 24, 2011 at 9:23am

I live in AZ and yes it is true the area is saturated with shows. Met someone this past weekend at a show in Calif who said stay away from Thunderbird. Shows have gone down hill. The person I spoke with lives in the area. Her boyfriend who comes from chicago did terrible in the cave creek area. Heard they do not take care of their artists. One other note, Fountain Hills has also gone down hill. It used to be a good show with a lot of art (handmade in USA) but lately the show is becoming a lot of buy/sell. When i did the show asked when she was going to rid of the buy/sell always told the next show. Well the next shows have come and gone. I live about an hour from Fountain Hills and will not do either show. (Nov. or Feb) Also heard the feb show had wind problems and about 10 or more booths were lost to the wind. If you decide to do it ask for the A row, then you can park behind your booth. Also another note she keeps adding booths. If you do the Feb show the promotor wants you there at 6 in the morning cause of the balloon race. Well i used to go at 6 am cause i like to watch the balloons, then would go to booth, but they watch balloons and then leave the show

Virginia Testa-Jeffery > steve appel June 24, 2011 at 9:52am

Thanks Steve ! I am confident that I can pass on this show. It sounds like a Sugarloaf show too me. They also have let in a lot of buy sell and have saturated the area. It seems to be increasingly harder to find decent shows. Of course I am new to this. This will be my fourth year and the two first years really don't count. I did a lot of local small shows, not trying for the bigger shows like I have been this year and last.

Thanks again for all the feedback. It is all greatly appreciated!

Jim Parker June 23, 2011 at 11:39pm

I did the Carefree show a couple years ago. If your work is Western in nature, it might be a fit. The organizers are experienced, and the venue is very nice. But the Carefree/Cave Creek area has a lot of shows in the winter, almost one every other weekend. That dilutes the buying dollar, and more importantly, it also deflates the buying energy. There's no urgency to buy, as many of the artists are in the Arizona Expo, or the competing 10 week show in Scottsdale, and there are plenty of shows to choose from in winter.

The same winter we did the Fountain Hills show. Mixed bag here. Some artists do well, some not so well. Again, nice venue. The weather didn't cooperate. It was cold and rainy, and just as in Florida, people do not make the effort to shop shows if the weather is at all iffy. Some artists did well. The high end work seems to do better, as does the cheap bargain crap. See my blog at parkerparker.net/studio/blog for pictures and a scathing review from 2010.

Of all the promoters in Arizona, Thunderbird is the most professional. They are experienced, and they have a following among certain artists, just like Howard Alan in the south, and Amy Amdur in Chicago.

Virginia Testa-Jeffery > Jim Parker June 24, 2011 at 7:25am

Thanks Jim, I appreciate the response. Not so sure I want to travel all that way for a saturated area. I will check out your blog. A jeweler recommended the show because I do leather in a unique way and she thought it was just western enough to fit the area but it is not western looking. I also noticed they do not have a wearable category and I would have to try and jury in under jewelry and that would also limit my selling power. I would only be able to bring half my inventory because technically I sell wearables.

Thanks again.

Virginia

Connie Mettler June 17, 2011 at 10:55am

Caroline Kwas wrote a lot about it this winter -- go to her page on this site to find her blog postings... that is if you are talking about the Arizona Fine Art Expo...

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Thunderbird Shows

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