It was a cold and stormy Saturday (all over Florida) and then it cleared and warmed. At Las Olas there were mobs of people walking past with their hands in their pockets, but many artists still had solid sales. Sunday was predicted to be colder and wetter but turned out to be warm and dry. The aisles were packed with people, to the point where one could barely get through to visit with one's friends. My Sunday sales were triple those of Saturday, and the show ended up being my usual great Las Olas. We have been doing shows in Fort Lauderdale for decades, and have a strong following from our mailing-list, but this show always brings a lot of cruise ship day-trippers and a remarkable number of foreign visitors into the mix. We sold to patrons from all over Europe and Latin America.
The show is very well promoted and run. Move in begins at 5AM Saturday morning, and runs very smoothly because the Alans employ artists to coordinate the vehicles, and they know what they are doing. Howard and Debbie are always on-site and accessible. They offer a fun, stress-free event.
Next we are going to Bonita Springs, for another pleasant and well-produced event.
So: how were Gasparilla, Palm Beach, & Venice?
Comments
Well, you know, Geri, most of the time the people who come from the press are not that interested in the art. They are looking for local color and what they think their readership wants, human interest, and we all know that art is not interesting ;(
Connie, are you sure those pics came from the Las Olas Art Festival? There was very little art in that whole series.
Ooh! I see you wisely left out about inquiring about Leesburg which was also last weekend and, let us not forget about Bartow--or, maybe we should.
Both are fine little shows run by loyal committees and some lucky ones, I will re-emphasize the words SOME, make money. Most others say, WTF am I doing here?
Luckily, Ellen caught a good whale and made great money for a backyard show.
Weather was terrible, I had the weekend off and did not play golf. That is bad.
I got my workout helping Ellen setup and tear down. We were schelped out of there in one hour and fifteen minutes. Eating sushi by 8 pm with a good friend from Chicago (also an exhibitor).
We know of one wise photographer who took a classic "Tampa" pic and sold a bi-jillion of them--welcome to the big time, John.
Glad you had a good show Travis :)
Gasparilla was damn cold both days, but Saturday turned out to be the warmer of the two, with fits of sunshine. Sunday was mostly gray with a few bright moments. Lots of prize money given away, as usual, but many artists crying the blues and others selling well. It appeared as if the sales were focussed on the very high end as reported in the Tampa paper, and a few sales on the lower end of things. I didn't do well, but I had a prime spot. Good crowds, and lots of lookers, but most people kept their wallets in their pockets. I didn't see a ton of small bags, but I did see a fair amount of larger pieces walking out.
Nels stopped by both days to help Ellen, who was showing her paintings down the row from me. Don't know how she did, they were gone quick after 5 on Sunday. Load-in and load-out continues to be better organized in the Tampa Art Museum. Almost everyone was packed and loaded by 8:30.
The weather had a lot to do with the sluggish sales. The crowd is enthusiast, and many appear well-off, but it was just too damn cold for anyone to spend a lot of time in consideration. If they knew what they wanted, they were in and out and gone. Buh-bye.
Venice was cold and slow, alas. Rained twice on Saturday, briefly, Sunday, dry but chilly. Not a buying energy at all, crowd heavily older, which is to be expected, but if I saw 40 young people over the weekend, it was a lot. We did okay, but next year would try Gasparilla or Las Olas.
I always enjoyed the eclectic crowd at Las Olas, Travis. Invariably people the cool neighborhoods nearby, mixed with the East Coast snowbird crowd and the people from the cruise ships. Here are a bunch of photos from the show from SouthFlorida.com:
http://www.southflorida.com/spotted/sf-las-olas-art-festival-photos...