Last year Krasl was a big success for me grossing a little over 4K in sales so I was looking forward to participating again this year. The weather predictions were very good with only a 20-30% chance of rain and temperatures in the upper 80s... a little hot but nothing like the 100 degree temps that have been blistering the Midwest lately. I had a great booth location near the stairway to the beach and the public rest rooms. The back of my booth was facing the lake with a great view and mild breeze. I also lucked out with a picnic table right in back of my booth which I took advantage of for the weekend.I paid extra for an extra large booth space thinking I'd be able to spread out horizontally. In fact I plotted a new booth arrangement before coming that had me spanning a 15 foot width. When I arrived for setup on Friday afternoon I was disappointed that my extra large booth was in depth, not width. I had to revise my layout to take advantage of extra depth instead of extra width. I added three feet of depth giving me a 10x13 foot space with one side wall... Pretty spacious. Setup was easy as I was able to back my trailer up on the street only a few feet from my booth.Saturday was busy with lots of eager buyers showing up early and continuing all day, although there was a bit of a slowdown in mid afternoon because of the heat. By the end of the day I had 21 sales, but, unfortunately most were small sales. My total sales for Saturday were $1380. not bad, but well below last year's totals. I talked to Nels on Sunday morning and he was gushing about what a great Saturday he had. Hmmm, I thought... got a long way to go to match last year's sales. And Saturdays are almost always better sales days for me than Sundays. As I was talking to Nels I got two frantic text messages from Marcia, my wife, who was manning the booth. An early bird customer was inquiring about buying two large pieces, one being a custom size that Marcia wasn't sure about. I rushed back to my booth but the customer gave up on waiting for me and said she would be back later. Knowing that be-backs rarely do come back, I was seriously bummed out.About an hour later the customer did come back resulting in an $800 sale... a good way to start the day on Sunday. And, Sunday continued in that mode with 24 additional sales! By the end of the day my gross for the day was $3450 making my take for the show over $4800... a 20% increase over last year'sgross.I can't say enough good things about this show. I give it the highest marks for everything from artist treatment to enthusiastic public. One example: the artist break room is an air-conditioned room at the Boulevard Inn where a constant buffet is set up for both days. I had pasta, chicken and ceasar salad Saturday for lunch and meatballs, creamed spinach and raw vegetable tray for an afternoon snack. On Sunday I was too busy to take advantage of the offerings, but Marcia indulged in the taco bar for lunch, and I just missed the fried chicken served in the afternoon. I challenge you to find an art fair that feeds it's artists better than this.I'm not sure how an art fair becomes so successful. Like other great art fairs around the country, people come from all around to attend because they know they will be seeing the cream of the crop. At previous art fairs around the Midwest I was asked agaIn and again... "will you be at Krasl?" so, the art buyers save their art buying for shows like this where they can be sure of making their selections from the very best. The quality of the art at Krasl is very high, indeed. I'd rank this show the best one in Michigan (forget Ann Arbor), and one of the ten best in the country. If you get a chance to do Krasl, do it, it's a winner!
Woo hoo, John! I'd say that with this lovely show and your body of work featuring so much of the Lake Michigan shoreline that if you didn't go pretty well here it would be time to start doing nudes or still life or some other subject matter. Good job on the sales and thanks for this review.
Wednesday is good for me at Ida Reds, but not Thursday. I'll meet you there at 8am. So... that's a first! I grossed more at the show than you did? Why can't all shows be like Krasl?
Hey John, great review--guess what? You beat me in overall sales, good on you--I still made serious moola. I will write a blog later today and fill in with additional info--great review for a great show. Let's do IDA Reds Wed. or Thurs, Ellen and I get in there right at 8am. Nels
Nice review. I'm always interested in looking at the numbers for artists in other mediums. It helps people like me in the west make decisions about travel distances to shows.
Comments
Congratulations on a good show John! So good to hear people making money at last!
Woo hoo, John! I'd say that with this lovely show and your body of work featuring so much of the Lake Michigan shoreline that if you didn't go pretty well here it would be time to start doing nudes or still life or some other subject matter. Good job on the sales and thanks for this review.
Wednesday is good for me at Ida Reds, but not Thursday. I'll meet you there at 8am. So... that's a first! I grossed more at the show than you did? Why can't all shows be like Krasl?
Hey John, great review--guess what? You beat me in overall sales, good on you--I still made serious moola. I will write a blog later today and fill in with additional info--great review for a great show. Let's do IDA Reds Wed. or Thurs, Ellen and I get in there right at 8am. Nels