Well - what a difference a week makes! I raved about the HDG Seafood Festival last week, and now I must be objective about the Art Fair. It's not a BAD event. If it did not follow the Seafood Festival a week later in the same exact place, it might even be a good one. Here's my 2 cents worth:
- Organization - less than super. Promoter moving artists around, creating new spots, backing trailers between tents with less than a foot clearance each side, etc. Need better planning and stick to it.
- Artist accommodations - Pretty much none. Quite a hike to the porta potties. They did bring surveys around.
- Artist mix - pretty decent
- Buy/Sell - More than the Seafood Festival! And this is an art show. One double space with the word "Craft" in it's name was 80% cheap chinese fake murano glass and Origami Owl knockoffs.
- Quality of Vendors - all over the place. One was selling pvc flamingos that come from china, they spray paint them and sell for $25. They even repacked them in the chinese boxes. While this is "Craft", it is certainly not "Fine Craft" and has no business in an Art Fair. Same goes for the $2.00 per strand beads on Elastic. Craft, but not Fine craft, IMHO. The true artists were well represented and very, very good.
- Layout - strange, but not bad
- Customer mix - all over the page. Compared to the prior week, the 'economically challenged' clientele was a larger percentage, and much more challenged, and the upscale customer was more upscale. Many more customers that were unable to dig into the purse, lots of "I can't afford anything until payday - do you sell online".
- Sales - so-so, but not bad unless compared to the prior week. Taken as a whole, the 2 shows together work for us.
- Food vendors. Don't bother. Bring your own or go down the steps to the Promenade Grill. Vendors we overpriced and low quality (soft serve was the exception - very good)
- Other notes - too darn many dogs. We are dog owners. We love dogs. If shoppers have dogs that don't get along with people or other dogs, please leave them home. Vendors - if you have things blocking passage outside your tents, please make this the first thing you move. Had to walk an extra 50 yards to the truck with the dolly because of a blocked (unnecessarily so) pathway.
I would not drive 100 miles to do this show, but since we are already here for the Seafood Festival, it was convenient, the setting is awesome, the atmosphere was very enjoyable, the promoter was nice and easy to work with. Next year - double booth please, it will give us a better shot at good numbers!
Comments
You're very kind Alan to plug my work and the check is in the mail ;-)
Actually Alan has some very innovative work going on in the family jewelry booth. And if you see him at an event, ask to see some of the loose gemstones... Some very pretty pieces..
I must admit that although I am not a great judge of art, Mark's work deserves the award. I had seen his work online, and no way a photo of his work does it justice. His use of texture is unique and beautiful! Please look him up if you do a show with him! And thanks, Mark - did not know about the referral deal!
The event offers spots for $100.00 for two full days and a Friday night partial... There is a Friday night band and wine bar-style fenced area for those who imbibe. However, most exhibitors failed to bring a lighting system and closed their booths early despite a request from the promoter to bring lighting months in advance. So, when it got dark, many artists packed it in. This, of course put a damper on customers cruising for bargains or pre-shopping. It also impacted those exhibitors who did stay open b/c it appeared that the arts and crafts portion of the event was over. IMO either they require all exhibitors to remain open and light their booths (not likely) or they start the event earlier and close it down for the night about 1/2 hour before dark
My sales were better than last year for art and my adjacent craft booth stayed about even. The art sales were better b/c of the sale of one nice original which has been admired for years, but no one ever took it home. I had a visit from one of my commission clients who described how much they were enjoying the piece I made for them..
The exhibitors ranged from dried flowers, to the cheap painted Chinese import birds (which you also see at the Annapolis Arts Crafts and Wine show) to some pretty good painters, several good woodworkers, potters/ceramics artists, blown glass and glass mosaic. (There was an artists rep selling prints of the artists work. However, he has been showing his wife's work at both the Art Show and the Seafood Festival for years..)
The glass mosaic artist from Newark, Delaware took best in show for her colorful and functional glass/ceramic works, which included benches and even a solar-powered birdbath. She remarked, though, that she likely would not return as the sales weren't sufficient for her to justify doing it again... If I had her sales, I would have jumped to do the event again... But a bad weekend for a wearables vendor often looks like a fantastic weekend for a painter selling only originals. I suppose that this applied to her expectations of sales, too
I was delighted to be selected for the Blue Ribbon in Oils and Acrylics once again. Here's two pics from the event.. One from the Friday night segment of the show, and one from Saturday. They judged the show on Friday, so if you weren't ready, you conceivably lost out on being judged for the event.
I asked when the awards were to be handed out on early Saturday to a volunteer. She had said that the show was judged early in order to judge the best items from an exhibitors booth before all the good stuff was purchased... So I said, well, the awards ought to be given earlier so that the award winners can use their awards as a sales tool... The volunteer took this back to the event management and they handed the awards out on Saturday rather than Sunday... Kudos for management being flexible enough to be responsive to a no-duh sort of decision..
This show stays on my list of shows to do... If you think you might want to do the show, please list Alan and myself as referred by on the application... If we each receive three referred by mentions by new exhibitors, we get a booth fee rebate.
We will return to this show next year. I think there were some extenuating circumstances that hindered our sales, but the sales were not BAD, either.
Well, they do get good press. Here is another article that just popped up in case anyone wants more info: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aberdeen-havre-de...
Sounds like things haven't change much since I did this show years ago. Only tried it once!
Thanks for all these details, Alan, helpful to many.
These folks at the Seafood Festival need to listen to the podcast I did last week with the show directors. Sara Shambarger at Krasl has a great method of getting around the "dog problem."
Here is an article about the event from the Baltimore Sun: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/harford/aberdeen-havre-de...
(Personally, the allure of the seafood and a weekend in Maryland in August, is very strong.)