To my understanding, the show had been on the weekend after the 4th for a long time. Then the powers that be decided to have a festival "weekend", combining their music and art shows, in different parts of downtown. This required a change of date. They have changed the date several times since. The last time I did the show, 2 years ago, I took a picture of the sole customer on the street in the middle of a pretty Sunday afternoon. Disheartened, I put the show in the scrap column.
Then an artist friend convinced me to apply again and stay with them. It was the idea of a weekend with friends that convinced me and I'm glad it did. The show was much better than I expected. And we had a great time with our friends.
There is a good representation of 2D art, but the show leans heavily to fine craft. There is also a "renegade" show on a side street that has some good work along with B/S jewelry, tie dye and serapes. Oh, and dips.
The committee provides coffee and donuts on Friday and Saturday mornings (we're not sure why Sunday was dry) and a nice picnic on Friday night with grill type foods and salads, wine and beer. Live music. It's pleasant. No booth sitters or roving committee people checking up on things, but they were easy to find at the committee booth all weekend if you needed them.
My bottom line was affected a bit by my own faulty perception on what would sell. Almost all of my framed collage sold, my most expensive journals sold while the smaller ones languished. I expected the opposite.
They still share the weekend with a Jazz festival and some other events which I think is a mistake in a relatively small market. Why not spread things out for the folks?
It wasn't a blockbuster show for me, but I was encouraged enough to try again next year. My sales were not as great as that first year, but I was almost double what I did the last time I was there.
It's a Zapp show with a DL sometime in March.
I saw lots of people carrying bags with art in them. A good omen, eh?
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