Their web site announces "View the juried works of 183 of the regions’ best artists and craftsmen, sample fine cuisine and select wine tastings, enjoy live entertainment and take a walk through history along the brick lined streets of Colonial Annapolis, Maryland." Wow! Sounds great! Sign me up! Oh. Wait. I just got back from there. The reality of it is the event kind of sounds like you'll be on the lush, green grass of a stadium but instead you're on the hard, rocky surface of one of the stadium parking lots. It would take a good two pound sledge and a great amount of brawn to put in a stake, as a lot of people found out. As for the power some of us paid $25 for they hung some outlets on one end of the fence so if you happened to be 100 feet away from them and only had a 25 or 50 foot extension cord you were pretty much out of luck unless you happened to be close to the booth of a computer engineer who had a long enough power cable and enough space on adapters to help out his two neighbors.
Before I talk about the "183 of the regions' best" let me say that I really don't care what you sell as long as you make it. But there are shows I won't do because I know the atmosphere pretty much guarantees I won't sell very much. Why show up if you know you're wasting time and money? But a juried show with 183 of the regions' best and a wine tasting? Well, you're not going to find any marshmallow shooters there, right? Sigh. Let's just leave it at there were several people there that one would not associate with the hype they were handing out. One big tip-off was the home improvement company tent set up over in the wine tasting area. Another as the surprising number of first time attendees there. Oh, and any time you get a name tag that says 'vendor'.... Need I say more?
I'm sure you all may want to hear about sales. I saw a *lot* of wine going by. I heard more than one person comment on wishing that maybe they has saved back some of the money they spent on wine to buy other items. After that were general crafts and precious little art. A couple of the locals seemed to be doing OK but I certainly wouldn't recommend traveling any distance to this show.
To leave things on a more positive note, the Annapolis area is beautiful and the people were very nice. If you want good seafood in a relaxed atmosphere where the locals go head for Mikes Crab House where I got a seafood platter with great taste and a hunk of fish hanging off both sides of the plate. Double T's Diner has good breakfast and while they emphasize the 50's style they don't push it like some places. And they serve scrapple with lost of their breakfast dishes.
Comments
Well, they made it sound good on the advertising David, just didn't get in enough of the right crowd though. Sorry to hear it was a disappointment for you.
But congrats to Carrie :)
Carrie - I'm certainly glad you did well but by far you seemed to be the exception. But your point about the the low end crafts was one of my major gripes about the show. How did people like that get into a show that bills itself as have 183 of the regions' best artists and craftsmen? I traveled over 500 miles to get there based on their promises only to find the guy selling teepees and bows and arrows and people who weren't even selling crafts. Sunday afternoon one of the guild people came by a I was fighting to stay awake and asked if I wanted a break. I seriously thought she was joking.
I have to say that I had an excellent experience at the Annapolis show. I'm an oil painter, and I had good sales and also made excellent connections with people interested in seeing more of my work.
The artists and craftspeople around me seemed to be selling as well.
It was my first year at the show.
Yes, the venue is far from luxurious, but I found it about on a par with doing a show on a city street. It was about a million degrees, and there's no shade at all, which makes life daunting.
The people who put on the show were a little confused at times, I thought, but were accommodating. The art guild workers who offered their services for breaks were available and also very accommodating.
I was dismayed by the inclusion of a number of low-end crafts (there was a person selling bows and arrows with foam rubber tips who must have made a fortune) - but many of the people who bought paintings from me had kids with them, and so I ended up with a bit of a mixed response there.
The wine tasting was in a large tent beside the food area, off to one side of the show. If the tastings could be broken up into, say, four smaller tents scattered throughout the venue, I think that might send more people to more areas of the show, and raise sales across the board.
Leslie - Not a drop of rain in sight. Wish I had seen your review before I traveled as far as I did. I wasn't there last year (An certainly won't be back next year) but from some of the comments to your blog I'd have to say the profitability for the artists actually went down this year. We were hard pressed to find anyone who made their booth fee back.
Ha! I did this fair last year, (see http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/annapolis-arts-festiv...)
and as I was waiting around for customers to show up at my booth at another fair, I wondered how it was going this year in Annapolis - sounds like things haven't changed much for the better. At least it doesn't sound like you had to take down in a thunderstorm.
I'm not sure right now where I'll be next June. I have Las Olas in Fort Lauderdale in October and I'd like to find a good show in Annapolis or the DC area as well. I'm building my list of shows more quickly since my day job situation will be changing here soon. Did some more homework and found something that may help others. When I looked at the list of folks scheduled to be there I just looked at other glass artists. Next time I'll check any entry that looks curious or out of place.
Sounds like I should have been there for the dining, David. I appreciate this information and it is good that you shared it with the readers here. Where will you go next year?