I just got back from attending the Atlanta American Craft Council show. My wife and I scored a couple of free tickets but the ACC is now charging $13 to get into the show. Every year they seem to raise the price to the public to get into the show and in my opinion the ticket costs are getting out of hand. This has to affect the turnout which in turn obviously affects the artists. At 1p this afternoon the show was not very crowded. Sales were good according to the artists that I talked to but think how much better would it be with a bigger crowd. Booth fees are sky high at the ACC shows and the the promotors owes it to the participating artists to bring in the biggest crowd possible. In this economy a $13 ticket is not defensible.
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Well the Baltimore ACC was $16 this year. This gave us pause. So we went on Friday night for the discounted rate of $6... for three hours (6pm-9pm).
Barry Vangrov > Charlene ClarkMarch 14, 2011 at 11:32am
Actually, Sean, I think psychologically there is a big difference between $10 and $13 and I'd be willing to wager that attendance would have been higher at $10. $16 is absolutely ridiculous. This isn't an art museum -the idea is supposed to be to get people to come to the show to buy!
Dann Jackson > Barry VangrovMarch 14, 2011 at 12:10pm
I'm really glad that this subject was brought up. I didn't attend the ACC Atlanta show this weekend and part of me wanted to go but another part of me was thinking, "13 bucks just to walk in.......hmmmm." I guess they figure the market they're trying to appeal to $13 is no problem. But, you know, indoor Atlanta shows don't have a very good survival rate. We seem to love the outdoor shows much better. As well, spring shows sales are never very good in Atlanta. It's always all about the fall shows that people let loose of the pocketbooks around here.
I agree that $13 is pretty steep. I think the ACC has some serious challenges to meet in the next couple of years. The high cost of booths, entrance fees, shipping, travel, drayage and the dropping sales are making it difficult to participate in their shows. I did the Atlanta show and sales were OK but not where they really need to be when I consider the high costs of the show. I am not sure the Council could drop the entrance fee enough to make much of a difference in attendance. I think if someone would pay $10 they would probably pony up $13. Most of the artist I spoke to "got by" but none were happy with their show sales.
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Well the Baltimore ACC was $16 this year. This gave us pause. So we went on Friday night for the discounted rate of $6... for three hours (6pm-9pm).