Lake Geneva is in Wisconsin....but full of Illinois people....actually Chicago area people...they come to Lake Geneva to make the scene......etc...
This show was held on August 21 and 22 at Library Park on the shoreline.....nice venue.
Id have to say that the hot weather held down the crowd on both Sat and Sun......sure the recession was a factor also.....but I have done very well this year when the weather was "nice"......I mean cooler and less humid, so that is my take on the situation.
I paint pictures...I sell prints.....portraits of sports icons.....and I had my ever expanding collection of Chicago sports heros pics with me....Payton, Jordan, Banks, etc....and that is what they bought.....95% of my sales...so that shows it is good if you have a product that they can relate to....
There is another show there about 2 weeks before this one.....it is a fine art show.....and costs more than the arts and craft show that I did on the 21st and 22nd of August. I have done them both....Id rate them a tie in sales.
OK.....lets talk parking......very terrible......and very poorly organized by the city and Jaycees who put on the show.....they block off about 20 or so metered spots right on the perimeter of park......I believe they do this so that vendors can get out when the show is over.....but it leaves few spots for customers when you consider that parking on all the streets nearby is jambed.....I wrote the Jaycees a letter suggesting that they work on an ordinance change with the city.....but they have the same situation as last year.....nothing has been done.
It is a shame when you consider that there are many physically challenged people out there..some estimates say that 10% of the population has some type of physical limitation on walking...I was told by the Jaycees that "in Lake Geneva, people walk" to get where they have to go......I found this a very insensitive point of view......I told them (in a nice way) that I was a county parks director for 22 years and wrote ordinances and would have never promoted any situation which discrimates against the physically challenged......my comments fell on deaf ears......mainly the Jaycees care more about booth fees .....they care less about vendor sales or the physically challenged.
I was happy about my sales....3 DAVEY's..and will return if they dont blackball me for what I have written here.....lol.....
Comments
There are a lot of ways of doing it.......for example, since the show ends at 5 PM on the second day, Sunday,the huge block of meters that are now baricaded from everyone all day long could be opened to customers via changing the ordinance.....one way would be to cover all parking meters and ordain that vendors cannot use these spots (and take vendor licenses on the application) and to further ordain that all parking expires to art and craft fair customers at 4:00 PM......and ticket those who stay after 4. Then the vendors use these same spots to load at 5pm......
The Jaycees could pay the city for all meter fees not collect while the meters are covered.
There are a ton of different ways to do this. There may be a better way than what I have suggested above. The key is for the Jaycees to work with police chief, mayor, corporation counsel, and other city officials......and I think the Jaycees know this.......but it would take some planning and effort on their part......sometimes this kind is effort is regarded as taxing by volunteer organizations..... but it is not......in fact, when an organization works with its local government.....they often forge a wonderful partnership.
They also need to develop vendor parking at nearby school, etc. Appleton Art in the Park has done a wonderful job with vendor parking.....it can be done.