Blog

This year was the second year for the art fair at the Blue Water Festival (Port Huron, MI) and my first at it. The Blue Water Festival is for the big boats for regatta and has music stages, and a carnival. There were 42 artists present with a wide range of quality. The show was Friday (11am-9pm) and Saturday (11am-8pm). Total booth cost is $200. Electricity was free, so you could run lights and fans!!

Set up was supposed to start at 11pm on Thursday. I arrived at 11:15pm to a street that had not been closed off yet and a vehicle parked in my spot. I, along with a couple other artists, was told that the street would be closed at midnight, but towing of vehicles would not be towed until the morning. There were no signs telling the public that the streets were being closed at a certain time and that their cars would be told.  I waited until 12:30am to start setting up in a different spot since there was still a car in my spot, which did not move until 2am. I set up my tent and walls by 2:30am and completed setup the following morning. The last car was not towed until 9:30am. I would have hated to have been that artist with my 4 hour setup.

As was expected the show was slow Friday during the day. Most people were locals and were on there lunch break. It briefly rained in the afternoon. It picked up again after 5. I finally made my first sale at 5:30. I made $1000 on Friday to people there for the regatta in 4 sales. You could stay open as late as you want. I stayed open until 10:30pm. I made my last sale at 9:30pm.

I hoped that the show would be as good on Saturday, but it was not. The regatta started at 12 noon, so mostly locals were left. The street was empty most of the day. I had 2 sales that totaled $305 from local be-backs on Friday. It closed early on Saturday due to lack of customers at 7pm.

Most I spoke to did about what I did or much worse. The glass artist beside me packed up Saturday afternoon due to his poor sales.

The show had awards. They were determined by the artists. Were where given tally forms for ranking our top 10 artists, best fine art, and most funky art. I got 3rd place and a vintage ribbon the the Coconut Grove Art Festival that said 3rd in Photography. It was fun going around to see what each ribbon said. Some were from the 1980's.  

The show has potential, but has several things to iron out. It might be better as a 1 day show on the Friday or Thursday-Friday show. Thursday was family day, though one artist actually zeroed on Friday and made their $600 or so all on Saturday. At least I made money since my expenses were not as high as AA.