I was a craft artist at the Seafood Festival this weekend. Here's some thoughts from my own personal experience as well as from neighbors and other craft friends. 1. I can't say it enough - It was HOOOTTT! 92+ degrees with 100% humidity. In order to do this fair you need a fan. Although it is set in a park right on the water, there isn't enough breeze to keep cool. Hot, Humid, and Haze with not much wind makes for a miserable experience. During pack up, just like last year there was a major thunderstorm - I survived it! And to be honest - the rain felt soooo good. Nothing got damaged. 2. Security was an issue. I am one of the lucky ones not affected by some early visitors who went on a shop lifting spree. The way I was told is the two adults (parents) would distract the artist and the kids would steal the products. Jewelry artists got hit harder, but it was 1-2 things from each booth - a total of about 10 booths I think were hit. There wasn't any security that I saw and if the stealing wasn't enough to set some off, it was the drunk people. One artist left 1 day early as a drunk, at the end of the day, fell into their display and damaged some of their merchandise. 3. Sales for me were better than last year, however I only made a few extra dollars of profit over my booth expenses, gas and food. Last year I was a few dollars short of making my booth - $100. This could be that I had a different booth location, newer booth set up, products that people were looking for - I don't know, but nice to know it was better than last year. Of course it isn't anything to jump up and down over, making a profit that makes it worth my while is key and helps me determine whether I should return or not. 4. Customers/attendance. I thought the attendance was good. Not too many great quality customers - those who aren't picky about prices of art or craft. But some there were a few - as long as husbands weren't keeping an eye on wives and their spending. I had a LOT of people taking my business cards as some even fessed they don't have the money now, but want to keep me in mind for Christmas presents. 5. Neighbor crafts people. I had an annoying neighbor who would barge into my booth - when I had customers shopping, in the middle of talking to my husband or another craft friend - and interrupt the conversation to say something that wasn't important. She cost me 3 sales. She also didn't ask for help, she assumed I would help - like, "I need one of you (looking at my husband and I) to help me take down my canopy. " I did the show by myself with my husband joining me for packing up and she (the neighbor) did the same. It was just annoying. 6. How others did. Many didn't make their space, others made out well, it was a wide range of highs and lows among other artists. 7. Final thought... I don't think I can do the show again. Two days of intense heat - and no cooling station or water fountains - plus long hours - 11 - 7 and 11-6 Sat. and Sunday - it just wasn't worth it. I gave the show two tries - hoping it would be better, but when most are there for $6 beers with a 2$ refill and the average food item costing about $8 (and that is not including drinks) it doesn't help with customer spending. Also there is no admission - good but not great - as I saw it opening the doors for a lot of lookie loos. Take my review for whatever you want - like I said some did well, others did not - I did ok. Here's a few other photos - one is of my booth and the other from the park with a view of the Chesapeake Bay...
