We are getting started in this art fair world. This is our first year, and we have been hitting anything we can large and small. This was the first larger fair of the year for us. We have to stay somewhat local since we have small kids. We figured we would do a broad survey this year and then narrow down as we learned more.
The booth fees were really affordable - $100 for a single space if you are not from Cary, NC. No additional commission or donation requested. $15 extra for a corner space. $10 for delivered lunch. $10 for a t-shirt.
There were a couple choices as far as load in. The encouraged option was to load in the night before. If you were in a parking space, you could go ahead and set up. If you were in the street, you had to stage and leave it for the morning. The second option was to load in the morning of the show. They had scheduled hours per zone starting at 4:30 am. If you did not arrive during your allotted time, then you had to walk your stuff in.
We loaded in the night before. We had no issues getting into the park, finding our slot, and off loading. There were volunteers there that helped unload, helped us put up our tent, and wanted to do more! We only set up the display stands and tent and planned on bringing paintings the next day. We arrived 10 minutes after our allotted load in time the next morning, and while we were prepared to walk everything in, the majority of people had loaded in the night before, so they were lenient and let us drive to our booth. We didn't ask to, but got directed straight to our tent and considered it a score!
The show is held in Bond park, which is very large, gated, with paved streets, gazebos, restroom facilities, playgrounds, and good signage. The marketing was well done. We saw large banners on every corner as soon as we entered Cary. There were locals ads up on tv, print, and radio. They have a large volunteer staff for directing traffic, giving help to vendors and artists, and just general help. There were also shuttles available to bring people from parking.
The show opened at 9 am, but we had people showing up at 8:30. This park is used by a lot of early morning joggers and they just hung around. We had hourly check ins with volunteers to make sure we didn't need anything. They do a quick scan of each booth to make sure it complies with what was submitted and juried, so there is quality control.
We were on target to have the best show yet, but then the rain started and never stopped. After the rain started the attendance slowed to a trickle. The organizers decided to call it at 2 pm, which was disappointing since it is a 1 day event. (The next day turned out just as nasty, so it wouldn't have helped anyways.) There were volunteers there to help us take everything down, to direct traffic to release everyone by zone, they helped us load, and were just friendly.
All in all, we would do this show again. The people (staff, volunteers, and fair attendees) were nice, welcoming, and very helpful. Like I said, we were on chart to have a great show and even with getting cut short, we made booth fees, cost of merchandise, misc fees, meals, travel all covered and made some money to boot!
