Anyone with firsthand experience or opinions about the Winter Garden FL Arts Festival please reply. The 11th Annual show will be this Thanksgiving weekend (2012).
Thank you.
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I've never done the Winter Garden show but I have had bad luck with shows over Thanksgiving weekend in Florida. One would think with all the shopping going on they would be great but the snow birds are either coming after Thanksgiving or just got there and they are the ones with the money. As usual, depending on you medium (gift items might do well) YMMV.
Hugo Cruz > Alison ThomasNovember 7, 2012 at 4:35pm
OK, got some information. I called one of the directors of the show and spoke to her. She was really nice and answered all my questions. As of, today, they only have about 55 artists committed to the show (in what was advertised as being a 100 artist show -- Still a small show). The Winter Garden Merchants Association hired a marketing/event group to coordinate the show (which she is part of) so she said that all information about prior exhibitors was lost. I asked her whether or not the committed artists were all fine artists, crafts, textiles, etc? She said it was a mixture of fine art with crafts and textiles (this could mean anything because some FINE crafts are pretty nice ... But others are practically Buy-Sell). Anyway, she said that the Thanksgiving weekend show should end up having about 70 artists.
One absolute negative for me is that the show only allows for Saturday setup (load-in time from 6AM to 8AM ... No Friday setup). There is also an established Farmer's Market, one block away, on Saturday morning.
Given all the information, I will pass on this one this year. If it were a local show, then i could count on my local supporters and mailing list. But, given the size of the show, the fact I would have to get at least a two night hotel stay, early Saturday AM setup (which is always difficult for me), and it being a total unknown on a weekend that is traditionally a bit slow ... It is just not for me.
But, the lady I spoke to was nice and she seemed to sincerely care about the show. I posted the information for anyone whom is local to Winter garden or who may want to "just do it".
We all do our business differently-each show has No guarantee; and each year at any show the results are always different- even after doing that same show 20 times in 20 years. So it really doesn't matter what anyone says- it is only up to you to get in your car and JUST DO IT ;as Nike says
There is prize money, and sometimes it only takes 1 or 2 good sales to succeed- you never know-
Hugo Cruz > Bill and Jon SladeNovember 7, 2012 at 12:55pm
Hi Bill and/or Jon,
Thanks again for your opinion. I have not been doing shows for 20 years but I certainly have been doing them long enough to notice consistency and patterns within shows. For the most part, shows are pretty consistent from one year to another (certainly not from more than two years ago to now). Attempting to find first-hand feedback from participating artists and especially artists with the same media is always a very important step any exhibitor should take before considering a show. Yes, it definitely only takes one or two big sales to "make a weekend". But, what i am looking for is information about the show itself ... the direction ... the organization and the detail spent to market the event ... perhaps a bit about the area, hotel advice, the type of audience, etc.
I realize that just because one artist had a terrible show (or a fantastic show) does not say much about the entire event nor guarantee failure/success for myself. But, one could certainly ascertain an informed consensus about a show with more sample data. Statistics don't lie (although skewed interpretations certainly do) :-).
No business owner (unless they like to throw away money) would throw advertising money arbitrarily at random newspapers and magazines without researching the periodical, it's audience, the efficacy of its reach and the type of advertisers that do well in the publication. For me, this necessary research is the same modus I do with new-to-me shows. The internet and fantastic forums/websites like these have given artists this fantastic ability to get informed details about shows before applying (especially shows that are out of town and are directly after Thanksgiving ... Nothing would be worse than leaving my family on Friday and blindly "Just Doing" a show that turns out to be bad).
Either way, Connie's idea was wonderful and I don't know why I did not consider it (I have contacted artists from festivals that publicly post prior exhibitors before). If I find out anything, i will share the information. If the festival does not reply with a list of last year's exhibitors, then I guess that says something, as well.
Sorry I can't be of help to you here, Hugo. Why don't you contact the organizers and see if they can give you some info on who participated last year, someone you can talk to? You might also search this site for people who are members here who live in the vicinity of Winter Garden and contact them to see if they have info. We have lots of members who live in Florida.
Hugo Cruz > Connie MettlerNovember 6, 2012 at 5:48pm
Replies
I've never done the Winter Garden show but I have had bad luck with shows over Thanksgiving weekend in Florida. One would think with all the shopping going on they would be great but the snow birds are either coming after Thanksgiving or just got there and they are the ones with the money. As usual, depending on you medium (gift items might do well) YMMV.
OK, got some information. I called one of the directors of the show and spoke to her. She was really nice and answered all my questions. As of, today, they only have about 55 artists committed to the show (in what was advertised as being a 100 artist show -- Still a small show). The Winter Garden Merchants Association hired a marketing/event group to coordinate the show (which she is part of) so she said that all information about prior exhibitors was lost. I asked her whether or not the committed artists were all fine artists, crafts, textiles, etc? She said it was a mixture of fine art with crafts and textiles (this could mean anything because some FINE crafts are pretty nice ... But others are practically Buy-Sell). Anyway, she said that the Thanksgiving weekend show should end up having about 70 artists.
One absolute negative for me is that the show only allows for Saturday setup (load-in time from 6AM to 8AM ... No Friday setup). There is also an established Farmer's Market, one block away, on Saturday morning.
Given all the information, I will pass on this one this year. If it were a local show, then i could count on my local supporters and mailing list. But, given the size of the show, the fact I would have to get at least a two night hotel stay, early Saturday AM setup (which is always difficult for me), and it being a total unknown on a weekend that is traditionally a bit slow ... It is just not for me.
But, the lady I spoke to was nice and she seemed to sincerely care about the show. I posted the information for anyone whom is local to Winter garden or who may want to "just do it".
www.wintergardenartfestival.com
Happy thanksgiving, everyone!
Again; Hugo to the show and tell us all about it.
We all do our business differently-each show has No guarantee; and each year at any show the results are always different- even after doing that same show 20 times in 20 years. So it really doesn't matter what anyone says- it is only up to you to get in your car and JUST DO IT ;as Nike says
There is prize money, and sometimes it only takes 1 or 2 good sales to succeed- you never know-
Hi Bill and/or Jon,
Thanks again for your opinion. I have not been doing shows for 20 years but I certainly have been doing them long enough to notice consistency and patterns within shows. For the most part, shows are pretty consistent from one year to another (certainly not from more than two years ago to now). Attempting to find first-hand feedback from participating artists and especially artists with the same media is always a very important step any exhibitor should take before considering a show. Yes, it definitely only takes one or two big sales to "make a weekend". But, what i am looking for is information about the show itself ... the direction ... the organization and the detail spent to market the event ... perhaps a bit about the area, hotel advice, the type of audience, etc.
I realize that just because one artist had a terrible show (or a fantastic show) does not say much about the entire event nor guarantee failure/success for myself. But, one could certainly ascertain an informed consensus about a show with more sample data. Statistics don't lie (although skewed interpretations certainly do) :-).
No business owner (unless they like to throw away money) would throw advertising money arbitrarily at random newspapers and magazines without researching the periodical, it's audience, the efficacy of its reach and the type of advertisers that do well in the publication. For me, this necessary research is the same modus I do with new-to-me shows. The internet and fantastic forums/websites like these have given artists this fantastic ability to get informed details about shows before applying (especially shows that are out of town and are directly after Thanksgiving ... Nothing would be worse than leaving my family on Friday and blindly "Just Doing" a show that turns out to be bad).
Either way, Connie's idea was wonderful and I don't know why I did not consider it (I have contacted artists from festivals that publicly post prior exhibitors before). If I find out anything, i will share the information. If the festival does not reply with a list of last year's exhibitors, then I guess that says something, as well.
Thank you.
Sorry I can't be of help to you here, Hugo. Why don't you contact the organizers and see if they can give you some info on who participated last year, someone you can talk to? You might also search this site for people who are members here who live in the vicinity of Winter Garden and contact them to see if they have info. We have lots of members who live in Florida.