Well, it was year ago today, when I almost died of "extreme Pufferfish poisoning" from this festival. Still got the collection of slings and arrows, all 283 of them, which I look at fondly from time to time, reminds me to be careful what you photograph on those white fences.
That said, it is now a year later and I went back with high expectations--needed them after the six-inch-rain-drubbing at Bayou City last month, my last show.
This is my first show since I got back to Florida from wonderful Saugatuck,MI. where I spend almost six months based while doing the Midwest summer circuit.
Pensacola is the first weekend of November. You can do Halifax in Daytona, or Art Harvest in Dunedin, or one in South Miami, or the one Geoff reported about in Coconut Point. Many choices on any given weekend in Florida, but what's new about that.
For my money I will take Pensacola every time. Potential to make much more money there. Why? It is a small show itself (lots of scabs and a Heritage event linked with it) so the fine arts and crafts really stand out at this show. Also the town does not have a lot of other events like this to compete and drain it.
It is not an easy show to get into. The committee runs their own show and juries it. I noticed a number of long-standing artists were not back this year. A few chose to opt out--many others didn't make the jury cut. Top flight artists in every category. Very little buy/sell. The town has money, lot of it old money. You have a large Navy presence here, a strong University and a thriving port. So the potential for sales is there if you can coax that lucre out of their little shrimp-stained purses.
Pensacola is an old southern town, it might almost be a little more Alabama than it is Florida. Perched right on the western-most edge of the state, bordered with a spectacular bay and world class beaches. Life is slow and elegant here. Strangers look ya right in the eye and hold the door open for ya as your going into the Wafflehouse--and they say, "Good mornin to ya" and mean it.
Easy town to navigate, filled with great bars and restaurants--yeah, seafood is king here. Go to Wintzels for $5 raw oysters and eat all you want with $1 drafts. Eat yourself silly with Shrimp 'n' grits everywhere. In my favorite breakfest spot, the Coffee Cup, they had a great logo--"No grits, no glory."
OK. Back to the show. It's a three-dayer with an easy setup on Thursday in Seville Square. This is an old oak-treed park with sidewalks and lots of mulch to keep the dust down. Bring a floor covering. Parking can be tight, everybody copes with it. Everybody says they dread teardown which starts at 4pm on Sunday--what a civilized idea, why don't more shows do this?
Most people have room behind for storage. They actually come out on Friday and buy stuff--although this year it was lot slower and colder. Bring heavy coats, this is northwest Florida, it gets cold here. It is very refreshing, you can actually experience fall in Florida.
Friday nite, show end everybody hurrys over for frees eats and cheap drinks put out by the show, Awards are then given. In past years I have noted the food was gone in 30 minutes with no replenishing, this year was different and for the better--keep those raw oysters and shrimp coming.
Saturday was warmer with good crowds who mostly kept their hands in their pockets. Lots of grumbling and jaw-nashing (i know it is spelled wrong, but it aptly describes the situation)--hey. at least I knew the difference.
Sunday dawned with many of us forgetting "fall-back" our clocks--that darn DST thing. We all were expecting great things--especially, since this is not a Monday show.
Well. It started just like Saturday and got a little better as the day wound on. A noted Alabama painter who has exhibited here for 30 years had his best show.
My neighbor, from Thomas Edison land killed them as usual. She is a "hottie". Saw Andy Shea, all the way down from Minnesota, and he was doing just OK. I think he had thoughts of being Susan Gott's next helper. they are both very talented hot glass artists. Many, like Andy , pair this show up with Disney one, next weekend, to make it a worthwhile trip.
All in all, it was an OK show for me, off by 40 per cent over last year, but I still made money, just not as much as I was hoping for. I just didn't see a lot of buying energy in the patrons this year. Maybe it was just an off year.
I know one thing though--I 'll go back to it in a heartbeat.
By the way folks, that's how you write an interesting blog that gives a lot of meat and a little wit and wisdom. You don't have to be Einstein to do it. Sure would like to see more of you step up to the plate and give some meaningful info. A few of ya have caught on--kudos to ya!
Comments
Just read the request about sales figures. Last year I sold about 60 pair of earrings amid a few larger (up to a $700.00 piece). This year I stocked up on earrings, and sold a few, but mostly it was those items in the under $250 range, with again one $700 necklace, and one sale of over $1200 consisting of 2 necklaces and 2 earring pairs. You can see it was sort of all over the map.
Pensacola is my new home-town for the last 15 or so years, and I have been blessed the last 5-6 years with getting into this show. Most everything Nels wrote was spot-on. However, there were several of us who were surprised to find NO back space and had to cram everything into the 10x10 somehow (and make it look presentable). Because there is traditionally a 10% decline rate in artists juried into the show, invites are usually for more artists than they actually have room to place in the square. This year everyone accepted - so the push was on to fit everyone in, and it got a bit crowded with the extra 20 or so booths. Seems like the major problems the organizers have to deal with in set-up is the growth of the trees from one year to the next (no limb cutting allowed - or do you really WANT that limb scraping a hole in your Trimline?), and the dust/dirt that gets into everything (yes, even inside the glass and onto your mats). As for the trees, organizers were most helpful in trying to move tents, or getting permission to cut those branches. For the dirt, even mulch becomes dust as it is trampled and broken down - overuse of the park and very little rain have added to the problem. Because this show usually has such high traffic, and attendees complained of the crowded walkways, perhaps this is why booths are set back about 3-5 feet off the paved walkways, which adds to the dust kick-up. You can actually feel yourself breathing the stuff - I saw one artist resort to wearing a face mask. (IDEA! beaded GGAF face masks for sale next year - ya think?) And pick up anything from your display, and you will see a dust outline of exactly what was there. Friday was very cold (multiple layers that did NOT get removed as the day wore on), and sales were very slow. Saturday warmed up some, and so did the buyers - my best day of the show, with people standing in line to pay. Sat made the show for me, as it made up for the again slow Sunday with hardly any sales. Sales for me have dropped a bit every year at this show, and are now about 50% of "before recession" highs, when we thought it would last forever. I love this show and will keep coming back as long as they will have me. It is considered very prestigious for our area and difficult to get in as more great artists from around the country are applying. Many of our local artists have simply stopped trying to get in. OH! That reminds me: this year our booth signs had a stamp on them that said "LOCAL" if we were from here. What do you folks think of that? I find that people assume they can buy from you anytime, so why shop this weekend, or they like the one-upmanship of saying they got it from an artist who is so far away that their friends can't get one, too.
Sold 53 peices between $30 and $160--you do the math. BTW, meat goes way beyond just sales figures. I have given you a heaping plateful with this blog which is about 100-times more full of info than any typical other blog on this site. Amen.
I agree Bill. Any information is good and people who go to the effort of saying anything useful about a show should not be jumped on.
This was a well written, thoughtful report.
People, however, should not be afraid to submit any information, however brief, about a show they've just experienced, even if it's limited to a rant about a bad teardown experience. Any tidbit is useful and that’s what this website is for. There are no rules.
No one, especially newbies, should feel intimidated by the impression the site is patrolled by someone ready to pounce on posts that fall short of an essay.
..So let's hear it. Even if you just got a stale bag of kettle corn.
Melanie, more than anything, just please report in -- some of us can get niggling about grammar and spelling (former English teacher here), but your information outweighs anything else and I'm sure all would agree.
Would you like to give me permission to edit your posts in particular?
I find Vodka makes it more fun to write for me, but then my spelling and grammer is shot. Connie can we get a spell check for the postings?
Ruth, you do a fine job with your reviews (I was kidding about the tequila...that's optional). What we're trying to do here is prod some of the "silent majority" (dating myself with that term, for sure) to do some basic sharing of their experiences. If you handle the details Ruth has described nicely above, that's fine. If you don't care to share your sales totals, or ask others how they fared, that's OK too.
Another tip that Connie gave me long ago: Wrap it up by asking others to chime in (as Nels has done here) if they have also done the show.
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