OR, WHAT I DID NOT KNOW BEFORE THE SHOW
Not too long ago I requested information about this show and received one response. I was surprised as this is a large show.
That prompted me to share my experience in hopes of helping other artists make informed decisions.
My Medium: Ceramic Sculptures (Cats)
My Price Points: $250 - $700
Weather: Hot and humid Saturday, rain on and off Sunday
Patrons: Saturday: steady flow but not a crowd, Sunday: Thin traffic due to the weather. In general, the public seemed apathetic
In spite of the weather and lack luster traffic I had a terrific show, although there were many artists that had marginal to zero sales. The mood of the artists was mostly grim, at least on my street. So my success was an exception rather than the rule. Sadly, the buying mood of the public and the weather cannot be predicted with any accuracy.
ACCEPTANCE - SELECTING A LOCATION
Once accepted you are requested to select the location you want. This really stumped me as I had never done the show or even been in the area. Also, not all locations have electricity. What I thought to be the prime location (around a pond) had an early load in with 75 spaces available. By the time I got to this point of the process, all of those spaces were full. So I just tossed a dart and selected Walker St. This turned out to be a good choice as the parks (cement pond and heritage) did not get as much traffic as the streets, or so it seemed to me.
LOAD IN
Oh my!
The cement pond and heritage park artists were able to load in around 4 pm, they are required to dolly in.
My load in time was at 8 pm and they recommended we bring some sort of light in the event the street lights were obscured by trees as was the case in some locations. We were OK, but I would bring "head lights" next time. At 7 pm Friday they had us stage at some parking lot far away from the actual show (or so it seemed due to the horrible one way streets which were always going the wrong way). Artists that donated to "Art Heist" lined up first for a 7:30 load in - then the 8 pm load in - and finally the 8:30 load in.
There was no staff present at 7 pm so most of us were milling around wondering what to do. We were originally informed that we would have a police escort to our locations. The staff showed around 7:30, got everyone sorted out and off we went - oops, where were we going . . .no escort, and we got stopped at a light a lost sight of the van in front of us. But we were able to catch up, and were directed to the proper lane for our street. With big color coded cards and color coded light sticks, this went smoothly.
We thought that there were not very many artists at the staging area and learned that "those in the know" skipped the staging and went directly to their street. Fortunately it did not present a problem for us and we had no problem locating our space and began setting up.
The booth spaces are located on both sides of the street, one side backs up on the cement pond, and the other side backs up on a steep berm, I think that is the east side. But you cannot select which side of the street you are on. Also the street slopes down to the curbs, so plan on leveling as needed.
Booth spaces are about 10.5' wide, no wiggle room at all. Fortunately, not everyone tried to set up at 8 pm so there was a bit of room to maneuver, however you can imagine the congestion with a 10 ' space available for each artist to park their vehicle when many vehicles are twice that long. There is parking on both sides of the street, but it does get tight depending on your vehicle. No one parks and unloads their display in the "allotted" hour or two. We all jockeyed around to accommodate the "big rigs" and it was not too bad. We were there until 11 pm with many artists still setting up. We were back at 7 am to complete our display. So, it is an exhausting set up.
THE SHOW
I encountered no problems during the show. Staff came by frequently to provide water, snacks, and relief as needed. If you make prior arrangements, lunch is delivered for a fee. Portable pottys are located conveniently. Judges made their usual "fly by" and did not deign to talk to me. But that was OK, I had a great show.
LOAD OUT
We were provided with the usual load out instructions - start tearing down at 6 pm, wait for the patrons to clear, and plan to start driving in around 7-7:30 (once we got our Street Captain's OK).
However, due to the weather (even though the rain had stopped) we got the OK to start breaking down around 5:30 and drove to our space once everything was dismantled and ready to load. This went surprisingly smooth even though we had to pause to jockey our position to allow other vehicles room to pass or park. Our tear down is usually slow because of packing up the product, but we were on the road by 8:30.
Oh yes, the early load in folks did not have such an easy load out due to limited parking.
OTHER STUFF
Bring bug repellent. Lots of mosquitoes and flys.
Great underground parking at the Theater District for $7 per day. Exits to Walker and a short walk to our booth. Artist parking is really removed from the show, and no shuttle was provided.
Crown Plaza was an acceptable hotel, although a bit pricey. Even with "free valet parking" be prepared to tip the valet, frequently. There is no other parking at the hotel.
Bring a fan. It can be hot in October.
Of course, the staff may change any of the procedures that I have shared with you, but maybe there will be some information here that will be helpful.
It was a positive experience and I thought the staff did a pretty darn good job.
Comments
Good summation, Jim; you presented that much more diplomatically than some of our peers! I hope the artists do well in spite of the changes. That was one of my best shows last year, and it was already a large show for the collector.
Don't know if you all have heard the major brouhaha that's been swirling around the Memorial Park show for the past two weeks. Briefly:
There is more information at the ArtFairReview (Closed group on Facebook), NAIA artists Facebook page (closed group on Facebook). You can request to be added at the group pages.
IMHO, the show has changed their focus from art to making money. The show committee has demonstrated a lack of professionalism and a letter writing campaign initially produced a very generic form letter that did not address the concerns of the artists. Later communication did indicate that the show realized the enormity of the mistakes they'd made in planning, but it's too late for the spring show. I hope that the artists that have chosen to participate do well, despite the changes to the show. Maybe it will all work out for the best.
This is a great review. I was there, too, also on Walker and had much of the same experience. Having been at Memorial Park in March, I had the added advantage of being able to notify my collectors. BUT, I told them a booth number that ended up being flooded, so I was on the other end of the street. It was a good show for me too (maybe it's good for "Carol/Carole[s]" :-} All of Carole's now-insider knowledge is good. The paid parking downtown is preferable to the assigned parking; her load in and load out descriptions were spot on. I agree with Jim about the weather: what was just humid to us was catastrophic in other areas and anyone watching on the news would not want to go anywhere. A caveat for next year: the management of these shows has increased the number of exhibitors by 30% at Memorial Park, causing all sorts of negative response from invited artists. There is a good chance they may do the same downtown. Not sure the demographic will support 400 artists downtown....should be interesting.
Thanks for a wonderfully informative and detailed review, Carole. I'm a newbie without any practical experience yet ( nothing to match this anyway ), so I relish hearing comments concerning shows like this that I can only dream about. Unless I missed it, I don't know how big this show was, how many artists participated? Thanks again...
How did you do, Jim? I believe you did two back to back shows in Texas. Was it worth the long trip from Michigan? Looking forward to a Cottonwood report. I don't think we've ever had one on AFI and this is a show I know next to nothing about it.
It surely does make sense that people stayed where they were safe. Good point. It is easy for a person to stand in the sunshine and assume that the weather in the surrounding 20-50 miles is experiencing the same conditions.
The fact that much of the Houston area got torrential rain late Saturday and most of Sunday had a lot to do with attendance. Areas like Katy to the West and up north towards Conroe had 4-5" of water, and flooding. Austin had flash floods, too. Many people thought that 1) the weather would be just as bad downtown, and 2) they were scared to leave safe zones if their neighborhood wasn't flooded.
The gate fee went up again this year. $15 is a bit pricey. Memorial Park tends to draw more of a buying crowd, even though most of them have to ride a shuttle bus to get there, from outlying lots at a nearby shopping plaza.
Connie, I plan to skip Memorial as it is a longer show with more expenses, and there are other shows during the season that I prefer. I expect to apply to Bayou downtown next year since I had such a positive response from the patrons. Of course, I may not get accepted again. Roll the dice . . .
There was a LOT of comment on this show on another blog. Sam Houston park, at best, is a dead zone for artists. As you walk in the gate the sponsors assail you with their pitches but that wasn't the worst of it this year. After all the rain the place was a muddy bog! I don't know if it was the show or the artists who placed them their but many booths had wood panels, like a board walk in the old west, just to get to their booths with out being sucked down into the mud. Several food booths were in this area along with the artists booths. The latter being so far back in the park as to be obscured from view. Buyer beware! DON'T ever choose Sam Houston Park!
I was on Walker St. also. Last year I was placed on the north side which backs up to the berm. Although we had a little extra room on the side we still had to climb the hill to put extra boxes and stuff. Yes, you can request placement on either side of the street, you must read the check out information more carefully. Having done the show once I knew that this year, although I was accepted off of the wait list, I requested placement on Walker facing away from the court building and got a better spot.
Weather was certainly a factor with this show but I also think the $15 gate admission had a lot to do with it as well! Although the money goes to all the programs that they support I think that they could drop the gate fee to $5 and get 3x the amount of people into the show thus netting the same amount of money! By the time a family of 4 gets through the gate they've already spent $60, they're done! Who are they there to promote, their programs or the artists? As one artist put it, "In a city of 3 million there should be more people here than this". I agree.
I don't think, in this case Yair, that letting the artists go at 5:30 instead of 6 was a bad call. The day had been rainy on and off all day and by 5 there wasn't anyone on the street anyway! I support their call.
I was on Walker st. too. The weather was bad, but not terrible. I don't understand why the people of Houston didn't show up. The organizers in general did a wonderful job except when they asked us to start the break down about 40 minutes before the official end of the show. I think this was unprofessional but it can give you an idea of how bad the show was.
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