I've been hearing about the Harrisburg shows for a few years now, with Memorial Day Arts Fest, and Labor Day Kipona festival. Both are held downtown along the river, picturesque with large sycamores and several arched bridges across the river. My husband and I drove up for the Memorial Day show to scope out the area, and found it overwhelmingly hot weather, and a frustrated group of artists. This was the first time a $5 entrance fee had been charged, and many artists complained that traffic was way down. I have to say I am in favor of an entrance fee, since it tends to keep out the 5-fingered shoppers, just there to steal what they can.
Labor Day weekend arrived with lovely temperate weather forecast. We arrived Friday night to find an enthusiastic staff, snacks and bottled water and OJ waiting for us. Unfortunately, another artist with the same last name as mine had arrived earlier and had been given my spot, and was pretty much set up, so we ended up with her spot. Of course, this messed things up, as I was next to another jeweler, but as luck had it, she and her husband were the highlight of the weekend, and ended up to be fast friends. But back to the show...
Saturday dawned with strong winds coming off the river, but overall lovely temps. My husband and I spent the day holding onto our displays...although our tent was anchored, and the shelves anchored to our tent, the sidewalls would 'whap' the shelves in the wind and send our jewelry flying.
That wouldn't have been horrible if there were buyers. In my 4 years of doing shows, this was my worst Saturday ever. As a matter of fact, the total of our 3 days barely was an 'ok' day at any other show. This is a three day show, and by the third day, all the vendors were frustrated. There were people walking around...it wasn't dead...but they were the zombie crowd. Either peek in your booth and walk, or step in, look around, and leave. This was our first year there, but seasoned vendors said they were down by at least half.
As far as the vendors…it really sucks when customers stop in your booth and say “boy, you have a lot of competition!” But there were 42 jewelry vendors out of approx. 160. Surprisingly, vendor quality for the most part was pretty good. There was a nice mix of jewelry, with not a huge amount of overlap, but there were strung beads and at least one blatant buy and sell.
I had one pair of earrings stolen, taken right off the card (which I guess is better than also taking the display it is on, which has happened this summer).
Artist treatment was good, with enthusiastic volunteers offering to booth sit and checking in regularly. Food was okay, yet unfortunately, we got the space right next to the pan pipe/recorder player, and by the end of three days were fully immersed in our own type of Chinese Water Torture, listening to cheesy ‘70s music redone.
The highlight was definitely our neighbors, now good friends. But we won’t be back next year, despite being less than 2 hours away, it just wasn't worth it. We may try the spring show, which is known to be the higher end show, but no decision on that now.
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Hi Geoff,
I'm doing Central PA Festival of the Arts, and Chester NJ in spring and fall. We liked doing Peter's Valley (NJ), but there were tons of jewelers last year, so we decided against applying this year. I'm going to apply to other shows with fiber, so may have others later to add.
VERY useful report, Elizabeth!! I'm going to be in PA/NJ this summer...could I ask what other shows you are doing in 2011?
We did the Memorial Day show one time, with black and white handcolored photography -- it was kind of like we had the farthest out there abstract paintings -- very few people got it. We were pretty surprised, since this is the State Capitol and we figured to meet some people with white collars on. Wrong. But, as you say, neighbors make a difference. The best part of the weekend was the trade we did for a case of wine from a local vintner.
Yes, they are charging $5 admission for each shows (or did this year for both). The money goes to local works (charities? I'm not sure).
Which leads me to another topic in your report. You keep referring to yourself and other artists/craftsperson as vendors. Surely, you should think of yourself on a little higher plain then that. Look up the definition of vendor in the dictionary. You will se it has nothing to do with being a creative artist. Don't get me wrong, I am not dissing vendors, they work hard and make good money, but don't you think you work on a different level when making jewelry as opposed to the guy who is heating up a batch of kettlecorn. We are artists--not vendors.