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It was my first year of going there, either as an exhibitor or visitor; so I didn’t know what to expect. I am a photographer and I am fairly local – about an hour’s drive from my studio in Greenville, SC. So I planned to
commute each day and not have the hotel expense and also be able to replenish
whatever I sold. I purchased a
double booth and had all walls filled with subjects from the Carolinas. I didn’t know what price points to
focus on; so I had $50 items in bins up to $1300 items on the wall.

You can apply to exhibit in “Arts Park” or on the street or you can apply to both for an additional fee. I was in Arts Park; which I found out afterwards was merely a parking lot instead of on the street. Everyone that had been there before is now "in the street" because Arts Park only gets about 1/4 of the traffic that is in the street.

The fair is promoted as a city party or street festival; as apposed to an art show. Conseqently it was not surprising to find 95% of the patrons with a beer
glass in their hand. There were so
many they must have been issuing them at the entrance (and every block
thereafter). Patrons were civil
during the day; but after dark the scene became much more festive. Arts Park had a scheduled closing of
8PM every night while the booths in the street had an official closing of 10PM
(because most people in attendance were in the street after 8PM – and
continuing until 2AM). Yet Arts
Park had access to electiricty (for lights) but the street artists did not. Go figure.

Arts Park had 1 porta-john and a block down the street there were about 8 more. However all were padlocked at closing and you could not get into one again after closing or until the opening the next day. So if you stayed open
late or you came in early, there was no toilet available. Further I heard many artists on the
street that stated their booths had been used for a toilet. Gee would that have
anything to do with the porta-johns being padlocked? You’d think after 33 years we could learn from past issues.

This was a three day show (Friday – Sunday). Setup was to begin at 8PM on Thursday. And you could not get past the barricades (2 blocks from the festival) until after that time. I arrived about 7PM and I managed to
talk my way through the barricade as I explained that my booth was just “right
there”. Yet about 7:30PM I was
asked to remove my vehicle as another artist complained that I had received
preferential treatment; even though I was not going to unload until “the
whistle sounded”. Most
exhibitors from past years stated that they had always been allowed to begin
setup earlier; at least by 6PM so this year everyone had to set up in the dark
– no exceptions.

The weather seemed to be the hottest days of the year (90’s). And for this higher altitude, that is very hot. In my
hometown just one hour away it was 100 every day. Wind was nonexistent; so fans were a life saver.

This festival is advertised as having 300,000 attendees Yet Friday was so slow and traffic was so thin and sales were almost nil (across the board within my view). I actually zeroed until the 8PM close, then made two small sales as I was shutting down my tent. Saturday started with a bang as I was made three sales
before the 10AM opening and it continued right until about 1PM. By that time I had about $1800 for the
first three hours. Then the heat
came and absolutely killed any buying energy there could have been. I did have sporatic interest and
frequently thought I had some more sales, but none came. Sunday was just dead. I didn’t see the early morning visitors
that I had seen on Saturday and then it got hot quickly and it was almost
painful by 1PM. By mid afternoon
we see serious storm clouds brewing and we receive a pending severe weather
alert and we hurriedly secure our goods.
By the time the rains ended it was near closing and the day was
gone. So without any travel expenses
to speak of I made the event semi worthwhile. I still have several people I’m working with on big
purchases, so it could actually end up being a great showing for me. But without any additional sales
forthcoming, I would rather spend more travel money and go to a proven show.

Of all the artists that I saw or spoke to the average seemed to be just enough sales to cover the booth fees and perhaps “some’ of their travel expenses. I did not speak
to another artist who stated that he/she would travel to do the show again.

I know some other AFI members attended. So hopefully they can expand on these comments.