I hate that my the first review I do for the Art Fair Insiders is a poor one, but I need to get the word out about this stinker of a show!
I spent the weekend at the Lincoln Park Art and Music Festival, in one of the most affluent neighborhoods in Chicago. As a first timer to this show, I didn't know what to expect, but I was excited about this one. I usually do well in urban areas.
The second we checked in for set-up, I knew we were in for trouble. We were handed name badges and a booth number, nothing more. No info about booth sitters, sales tax, restrooms, parking, or where to grab lunch. Nothing. Bad sign #1. And when I tried to find someone to inquire about these things, there was not a member of the fair staff to be found.
Set up was fairly easy and convenient. There was space right on the street to park and unload and the weather was cool and comfortable. The fair grounds were right on a street on the lovely DePaul campus, so the surroundings were nice. Unfortunately, this is where the the nice and good about this event ended.
The show opened on a perfectly lovely Chicago afternoon to a trickle of patrons. From experience, I that the first hour or so of any show can sometimes be slow, so I patiently waited for the buyers to emerge. I passed the time talking to my fellow artists and soon realized that this was the first time that any of my booth neighbors had done this show. Bad sign #2. If this was a good show, you'd expect to meet some returning artists, right?
An hour passed, then another, and then another, still just a trickle of people walked past my booth. After 6 hours, I sold just one $20 print and one $18 set of cards, so we decided to pack up early for the night. (The fair hours were 12 noon - 10, but artists were allowed to close at "dusk".) The non-existent event staff didn't seem to care that we closed up 2 hours early. Bad sign #3.
We came back Sunday, trying to be optimistic. Again, the weather was perfect...Buyers should be piling in, right? Not so much. By 5:30 pm on the second day, I was nowhere close to making enough to cover my booth fees, so we decided to pack it in. Most of the other vendors were doing the same. We weren't allowed to bring our cars onto the street, but luckily we scored a parking space right around the corner. As we walked past the entry gate with our things, the event staff just looked at us and continued to charge their admission fees even though most of the vendors were dismantling. They even joked that they were tired of seeing walk past. Ha.
In summation, the Lincoln Park Art and Music festival was a complete waste of time. There was obviously no promotion. (An event in this neighborhood on a beautiful summer weekend should be teeming with buyers!) The art fair website was a joke....Just listed event times and the bands playing. The event staff provided absolutely no amenities or support for the artists. They just saw us as a paycheck and didn't care if the artists were happy or not. Out of the 55 artists there were just a handful of good quality vendors and quite a few buy and sell booths. Boo! Artists beware! Avoid the Lincoln Park Art and Music Festival at all costs!
Comments
Wine Crush...really?????
Yikes! I only do shows in Chicago and suburbs and I am happy with the ones I do. This one and Lil Street are a NO NO...
Hopefully I'll get into Mundelein the week before...
Yes the Wine Crush is a CSE event... :( See me at Funky Ferndale instead...
So, was the show run by Chicago Special Events? If so, there have been lots of warnings about that organization for some years now. Please folks, if you are applying to a show do a search not only on this site, but google the show because there may be discussions of it somewhere else.
So, Scott, I thought you wanted to hang out with your friends in Chicago and get some new experiences, now I'm thinking maybe you want to get into the "black", what's up? Is the Wine Crush one of the CSE events?
Sara, look up at the top of the page where all the categories are listed. Click on search. Enter Fountain Square on the page that pops up in the appropriate space and you will find reviews on the show.
I've tried looking up reviews for Evanston Fountain Square show but get no results. What am I doing wrong?
Last year an artist that I have the utmost respect for was listed on CSE's Fountain Square show. I emailed her that this was a garbage show, her work was too good for it and she may want to cut her losses ahead of time and not do it. She won an award at it but is doing a different Chicago area show this weekend (Botanic Gardens).
I don't know this artist and she has no idea who I am but I knew the show was so bad, I wanted to warn her. I am going to ask her why she didn't return when I see her this weekend.
We were thinking of going to Fountain Square cuz every now and then we like to go to junk art festivals. If we do, I'll let you all know if it is still living down to its reputation.
You bet Eric. Maybe we will be saying that someday??
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