Arts, Beats and Eats.

I attended the Royal Oak show on Friday in order to see if I might want to be a part of next years event.  Before I left town I had decided that no was the answer to my question.  To much noise, to many food booths, to few art booths and to many commercial booths.  I did enjoy visiting the art booths there and speaking with a number of the artist.  Also, although we didn't spend a huge amount of money, we did buy artwork from six different booths.  I don't think we will go again.
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  • Check out my review which follows this.  

    Poor Gary, he must have got confused, thought he was writing something on Facebook--if you are going to blog--give us some meat please.

  • Gary, this was my first time to check out the AB&E Show.  I thought the quality of the Art work was incredible.  Yes, there were carnival like things there but the art work was kept together.  You could enjoy the things you liked without being bothered by the things that weren't your cup of tea.  There were lots of things there to draw people in.  There were possibly people there who came for the food that bought some art work and maybe stayed long enough to sit and watch one of the performers.  In the end, hopefully, everyone is happy.

    Friday was hot and did start off slowly.  As you can see, things took off.  I think if you were able to get into the show you would find that Friday was not a good representation of the whole event.

    Jacki B

  • Hey Gary,
    Just wanted to let you know the show was great. Personally, I did the research on the show prior to applying. This year the show broke my all time top sells ever at any show over the past 10 years. I really like the atmosphere of the show because there is something for everyone and every age. I also like the diversity of the show...the quality of art. Now, I have to say the promoters of the show are the best...they were working around the clock to work out all the kinks. With the show being in it's second year at the new location the show was a huge success. I did hear some gumbling from some artist but that's at every show. Like Martha...I would not write the show off.
  • Gary, I was an artist at the show, and I was well aware that I was participating in a festival atmosphere, that was going to be different than a traditional art only event. This is not the event for every artist. And this was a tough year for alot of artists on many different levels. I think that there are many things that can be improved about this event, but I was also very pleased with the level of communication from the promoters. They actively asked and solicited feedback. My booth was in the dreaded parking lot, and even after the horrific weather, I had a great show. It was an interesting crowd, and I think a less carnival atmosphere would be a wise choice, but I am far off from writing this show off, I would do it again.

    I did talk to some customers who were familiar with the Pontiac days of the event, and were disappointed with the carnival atmosphere that has appeared in RoyalOak, and would prefer to go back to the days of art, good music and good food. I'm hopeful that the promoters are listening. This event was filled with some of the most talented amazing artists I get the pleasure of working with. And it was noticed by patrons.

    Room for improvement, yes. Write off the event, no.
  • Can you elaborate on why you won't go again or apply to be an artists there?
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