To add to what David and David have already said about the spring Bayou City show, here are a couple of videos I shot during the festival.
Business cards were a hot item here. For many, it seemed as if the free handouts were all they could afford. I gave away many, many cards. I have them in two locations, one on my desk in the front of the booth, as shown in this video, and at the back, near the guest register. We must have given away at least 250 cards over the weekend. They have my QR code on them, as well as the standard URL. I haven't pulled stats from the last week yet, but it might be interesting to see how many hits the QR welcome page got after the show compared to the main home page.
There was performance art. In our section of the show, "Tree Guy" was very popular. A stilt walker in a very well made tree suit, he would wander around slowly and talk to the crowd. Some kids loved him, some kids were scared to death. He told jokes, bad jokes. In general, he stole the show whenever he was around.
There is lots to like about this show. Setup is easy, especially if you come on Wednesday, or early on Thursday. But the park path is narrow, and you have a limited amount of places to park. Big rig? Get there early, as I did. I was able to unload and get my truck and trailer parked in the back forty early on Wednesday.
We lucked out on the weather. Tuesday it poured all day. Houston and the surrounding area got nearly 6 inches of rain. But it cleared out Wednesday morning, and by noon, skies were sunny and the weather was cool. It was a gorgeous weekend for Houstonites. Normally, if the heat doesn't kill you, the humidity will. But this weekend, there was neither. Highs in the low 80's and lots of shade in our section made for a comfortable show.
Layout is average. Some spots had good park area behind them, while others had none. The whole show site is fenced in to control the gate. They charge $12 admission for adults and teenagers, kids are free. So they have to fence it. It has a big perimeter, too. Since the rains soaked the park, and many trees died in last year's drought, the park itself was in sad shape. Lots of lakes, puddles and swamps. This was one show that definitely required mosquito repellent. Some folks had a slough across from the booth, or behind it. My friend Randy Kuntz and some of his neighbors went to Home Depot and bought 4x8' sheets of CDX plywood to cover the mud holes. It worked, but it wasn't pretty. As David Forster commented, there was a stub near the food tents with about 12-14 artists on it. Bad idea, sorry. Both David and his neighbor, Brian Miller, complained about the slow traffic there.
But, despite the crowds, sales were slow for many people. The crowds were mainly there for entertainment. I saw a lot of 2-D prints walking by, but mostly smaller in size. Friday was quite slow for me, with only a couple of small sales. Saturday was a bit better, but way down in comparison to the fall show downtown. Expecting Sunday to be better, I was disappointed in the quality of the crowd. Many more walkers and folks grabbing business cards without really looking at the work, or engaging at all. Talking to this crowd usually scared them off. I did have several good nibbles on the larger pieces, but the bee-backs did not come back. It's just too hard to get into the park.
One detriment to buying anything larger at this show was the logistics of getting it home. With only two gates into the park, and very little on-site parking, patrons either had to lug their art on a shuttle bus or ask the artist to deliver it. The show does offer shuttle service to a nearby mall, but there really is no place for the patrons to park here within a reasonable distance of the show. VIPs were able to park near the entrance, but that's about it.
Nha Vuu and her three-year old daughter, in Nha's sunny new double booth.
Bright points:
- Box lunch, at a reasonable price ($5), delivered to your booth. Pre-ordered, it's a real convenience, especially if you are on your own.
- Lots of volunteers to watch your booth, if you needed a bathroom break.
- And real flush toilets in a couple areas of the park. Rudimentary, but running water. Shower curtains instead of doors made for an interesting experience when reading the morning news.
- Lots of bottled water, snacks and really hideous canned tea, also handed out by the volunteers
- Great hot breakfast each morning near the food booths. A wonderful quiche on Friday, breakfast burritos on Saturday, and quiche again on Sunday. Weak coffee, juice, fruit, sweet rolls.
- Free parking on the back loop. But you had to get there before 8 AM each day to get through the main gate. The show opens at 10. So there's plenty of time to eat breakfast, stroll the mile-long perimeter and chat witcher friends, hit the head, open the booth. Very relaxed.
Needs improvement:
- The park is in sad shape. If this park were in Detroit, I'd be scared to death that crack dealers were lurking in the johns. Hence the shower curtains, I guess. Many trees were lost in last year's drought, and many more look poised to go. But the park itself doesn't look like it gets much maintenance. Piles of debris, many holes where trees once stood, vines twirling up the trunks of trees. Lovely cement picnic benches, but overgrown with moss.
- The VIP party is on Sunday afternoon, in contrast to the Fall show, where it is on Saturday evening. While donating a piece gets you in, in practice, it's pretty tough to leave the booth to attend from 2-4. The food supposedly was terrific, but we never got up to the tent to see.
- Crowds were there, but they didn't buy larger work. There's no patron pickup program, since it's impossible to get a golf cart around when the show is busy. Certainly the artists don't have the time to walk half a mile to Gate Two to drop off a piece. Delivery to the patrons home is the only real option at this show. And I'm sure it hurts sales for some artists, including me.
- Music on the main stage was too loud, and sometimes inappropriate for talking about art. While certainly cultural in nature, having modern dance performances, mariachi bands and the marching band detracts from the focus on art. I have the same complaint with our local show, "Art and Apples".
All in all, it's a nice show, and well-run. But sales weren't there for many people. Would I go back? It's a long, long drive to Houston, almost as long as the drive to the east coast of Florida. I'll have to think about it.
Postscript:
I took a couple of days off before heading home, and drove west into the Texas Hill Country. The bluebonnets were in full bloom, and I wanted to experience them first hand. I would have stayed longer if the weather would have cooperated, but a storm front was moving in. I had one good day. This shot is from the area north of Frederickburg known as the "Bluebonnet Trail".
"Field of Dreams" -- the ball field at the Crabapple Community Center.
Comments
Well, not the way I do it. I'm not the "Tree Guy" - there are several actually. I'm based in Denver, and with rare exception, limit my travels to 1000 miles from Denver. Although we did play the Anchorage Summer Solstice Festival last year with our Giant Parade Puppets and solar powered Bubble Tower.
With such a small market I had to learn fast. And since I started in my 40's, I brought a certain maturity to my performance that may be lacking in a younger entertainer. Over the years, I've had a few of them "step on my toes" so I am sensitive to the issue.
Regarding sales, perhaps it would be instructive to think of those "unqualified" buyers or lookie loos as your FUTURE clients. And since the Press/media and TV just LOVES our Giant Parade Puppets and stilt walkers, we can help bring in folks that may not of heard of the event. It happens to me a LOT, that as a tall person, folks will come up and ask me what the event is about! At the Peace Paint In in Denver, a one off John Lennon tribute, FOUR tv stations covered our solar powered Bubble Tower. Which by the way did a wonderful job of keeping the kids occupied and out of the venders hair. Many a time I've kept the VENDER's kids occupied and out of mischief at events, not just the public's kids.
If word of mouth advertising is important, the festival serves you well by having memorable (for the right reasons) entertainment. Too loud music is not productive. An entertainer that brings a smile and keeps things flowing is an asset. If the crowd is moving like a stampeed, and admit it, it happens, I can slow things down and get people to look at your booth. When people are hot and tired, I can give them a change of perspective, a reason to stay longer, and to change their focus from their sore feet to your art. After all, it IS about the Art, right? And not just about the $.
Cheers!
I stopped at one of the German places -- the Auslander -- it was okay, not great. Not as good as the little German place in my home town of Hill City, South Dakota: The Alpine Inn. Will check out the Navajo Grill next time I'm there.
Nice write up, Jim. Fredericksburg is a lovely place. There is a GREAT restaurant there - The Navajo Grill - if you are ever through there again.
Hey, Bill -- are you indeed the "Tree Guy"? or some other interested stilt walker? I realize that I assumed that you were responding because you ARE "Tree Guy", but after looking at your site, maybe not?
I would echo Jim's excellent response.
ANY distraction in a show can be a big problem. If an art show attendee is walking along, looking at booths to see what might be of interest and if, for just the ten seconds or so it may take to stroll past a 10 foot booth opening, that person is distracted by a street performer causing them to look the other way, when they look back, they've missed my booth and likely the only opportunity I may have to catch their attention.
You working to draw attention to "a corner lane or room [that] is lacking traffic...to encourage patron traffic in that direction" doesn't bring the buyers. It just brings curious entertainment seekers.
With all due respect, we pay a lot of money to be in a venue to sell our work and make a living. The show promoters are interested in getting bodies in the gate (particularly, those shows that charge admission) and part of doing that is providing entertainment to get people in who wouldn't necessarily go to JUST see art.
In general, for artists, sheer numbers of people do not necessarily translate into sales. It's all about getting the RIGHT people at the show. I kind of hate the term, but for lack of anything better, we're looking for "qualified buyers". I've done shows that are lucky to get 3000 people over three days that have been FAR better in total sales that some that bring in 100,000 or 200,000 or more people because the show has been successful bringing in the buyers who aren't there to see performers.
A consistently good show for me is the La Quinta Arts Festival that, at this point, has no street performers, no children's art tables and only soft, pleasant background live music performers. That is, NO distractions.
Sorry to say it to you, but performers, in general, are not a good thing for selling art.
Hi Bill -- your costume and skills are quite good. People love you. Don't get me wrong, I love your act. And I do think you are respectful of the artists' space.
But any outside act does draw people's attention away from what should be the main focus of an art festival: the art. We pay good money to be at the show. I had a double booth, with electricity, seven days in a hotel, four days on the road and about 2500 miles worth of wear and tear on my truck. Every minute of selling time is precious to me, and to my fellow artists. If just one person who was planning to buy a nice piece gets distracted by a street performer, some act on the music stage or a guy selling kettle corn, it could mean the difference between breaking even and making a profit. At Bayou, I barely made my expenses for a week's worth of work. I'm not saying that this is your fault, in fact I'm quite sure it was not.
But as artists, our beef is really the broader issue with shows that have turned into carnivals. I found the music on the stage to be more distracting than your antics, which I generally enjoyed. The loud mariachi music made it a little tough to carry on a conversation with potential customers, as did the thumping of the modern dance troupe's pulsating beats. When an art festival turns into more of an entertainment venue, people spend less time with the artists and their work, because people have limited attention spans, limited entertainment dollars and limited time. Every second we get to interact with the customer is precious. If we don't interact with our customers, we don't get paid.
Thanks for sharing your side of the story. I hope it wouldn't be too much to say ,"Just leave!" Haha! Just joking.... I know you've heard that old chestnut a million times before :-) I crack myself up.
So . . . PLEASE do tell me what I can do as a strolling entertainer , stilt performer, Giant Parade Puppeteer, Dancing Christmas Tree, to make YOUR experience better? This is my 15th year specializing as a strolling entertainer. Am a regular at the Castle Rock Arts Festival, in CO. Was well received in Logan, UT, Columbia, MO and elsewhere. I seldom stay in one place for any length of time, and respect the art, and the artists. http://stiltwalker.com/arts/castle-rock-arts-festival/ http://stiltwalker.com/bubbles/big-bubbles/logan-ut-summerfest-art-...
When working an arts festival or even an indoor trade show for the promoter, I always counted artists or the booth holders as one of my primary "customers". When traffic is slow, I show my interest in the booth and the artist. When a patron invariably asks me for directions, I try to be helpful. When a corner lane or room is lacking traffic, I am often called upon to encourage patron traffic in that direction. http://stiltwalker.com/festival/chocolate-festival/chocolate-festiv...
Besides "go away!" or dropping dead (!), any suggestions to improve my art would be welcome! Thank you!
Beautiful Jim!
Ok, I was wrong about this one. It's Firewheel (Gaillardia Pulchilla). Not an aster at all. Many of these intermingled in a field of bluebonnets. Aptly named.
This one is Indian Paintbrush (on the left), with a Bluebonnet (on the right):
And this little purple one was blooming in profusion up in the crevices of the granite on Enchanted Rock:
I believe this one's Giant Spiderwort (Tradescantia Gigantea). Absolutely beautiful.
There's a great website with many more Texas wildflowers, which was a great help to me in identifying these. Check out the work of Gary Regner at TexasWildflowerPictures.com -- this is an index by color.
The red ones are either Indian Paintbrush, or a little red aster variety. The yellow ones are probably yellow poppies, although there were a ton of black-eyed susan/sunflower types as well.
Sorry about the ticket. The wildflowers should have slowed you down! Hope it didn't cost you too much!
-
1
-
2
-
3
of 3 Next