Starting this post off by admitting to a little laziness, but well, my “day job” has been busier than usual lately and since we headed out on our almost 3 week road trip right in the middle of a huge amount of work I haven’t had much time for writing or even thinking about writing lately.
I did review the first of our 3 Oregon shows, Astoria Crab, Seafood and Wine fest, you can read about it here: http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/astoria-oregon-seafood-and-wine-festival-april-2012
From Astoria we headed east to Portland OR where we camped for the next several days just outside of Portland, OR. Met Joe Clifton and his wonderful wife Mackie for dinner one evening in Portland at The Sextant, good food, good drinks, reasonably priced and a great view of the sailboats on the Columbia River. Our next show was in Corvallis OR on May 5th, a one day show that is held in conjunction with their Mom’s weekend events on the OSU campus. I have to admit to a little “set up” envy as Joe and Mackie started unloading shortly after we did and were done way before us. In fact, I think they were totally packed and gone at the end of the day before we had hauled our first load of stuff to the truck. But, I digress, still it was amazing to see! I usually thoroughly research a show before we do it, but somehow on this one the details didn’t stand out and I hadn’t realized it was a same day load in and load out for a one day show until shortly before the show. I also hadn’t realized that you had to haul everything to your spot, no cars were allowed in. Uggg, talk about a test of endurance and stamina. That being said, some artists did drive in and then by the time the rest of us had our booths set up, had a horrible time getting their cars out. There were also some who decided to drive in during load out making it very difficult for those of us with hand trucks trying to get our stuff out to get past their vehicles.
We lucked out with a good weather day, some artists (like Joe) didn’t even bother putting up a canopy. We decided to put up the Caravan canopy, but without walls. First time we’ve used our old canopy in 4 years since we bought a Lite Dome, but it was so much easier for a one day show. The sun flirted with us all day but didn’t quite live up the weather forecaster’s predictions. We all live in the Pacific NW where we understand the term “sun breaks” and enjoyed them for the short time they lasted and we were grateful that is didn’t rain, after the previous week’s rainy spring showers.
The crowd was a little slow to start, but, this is a college town and the students were there with their Moms and several different Moms brunches were advertised on campus. Sales for the first 3 hours were very steady and then died to a trickle with about ½ as many sales in the last 4 hours of the show compared to the first 3 hours. It’s an inexpensive show to do with just $100 booth fee. Overall we made money, but it seemed like a really long day and a lot of effort for the money we did make. As we were packing up we were remembering why we didn’t like one day outdoor shows, so much work to set up and take down on the same day.
So why did we do this show? Our thought was that it would fit nicely into our Oregon Road trip schedule. The show in Astoria the weekend before, the weekend after in southern Oregon for Medford’s Art in Bloom and a one day show on the Saturday in between to make a little money, leaving Sunday free to drive to Medford. Sunday was a wonderful day for a drive with lots of sunshine and warmer temperatures as we headed south. We spent the next week camped on the banks of the Rogue River enjoying warm weather and sunshine with a couple of family evenings getting together with a few members of our extended family that we hadn’t seen in well over a decade. That alone, made us glad to be in the area.
Friday night load in for Medford Art in Bloom began at 7 PM. This was a show we had heard good things about before we signed up for it, then after signing up heard a few mixed reviews. Their pre-show organization left a lot to be desired so we were kind of wondering what we were getting ourselves into. Their notification was 2 weeks late and for a show that notifies April 1 for a May 12 show, they aren’t leaving room for delays. Once we were accepted we did receive the contract 3 different times, contract says no commission, email said there was commission, so we’re just a little confused. But, since the contract said no commission, we were going on the assumption that a signed contract was more binding than an email.
Friday night we wandered into downtown Medford and found lots of people setting up before 7 PM so we were able to obtain our booth assignment and actually get set up before 7 PM, ending up with an earlier night than expected. Our biggest challenge was getting the truck out after we had unloaded and set up as the streets and adjoining parking lots were pretty jammed by that time. All the booths on Main Street were set up in quads, giving everyone the advantage of a corner booth. During load in we were told by another artist that the show was smaller than previous years. Good, we thought, less competition, nice to go into a show with a positive attitude.
Unfortunately Medford’s Art in Bloom was not the show we were hoping for, sales were very slow for almost everyone, except those selling yard art. The show was at least 25% jewelry, we got really tired of the comments, “Oh another jewelry booth”, “more jewelry”, etc. Sales on Saturday were very disappointing, we didn’t even make our booth fee until Sunday which for us is a pathetic show given the booth fee was only $200. We also unfortunately, had a pair of earrings stolen which made me grumble a bit. A photographer we know who was also at the show was not having a good show, he was way down from previous years, other artists said it was okay, but honestly, no one other than the yard art folks indicated they had a good show, that was about the only style of art I regularly saw passing our booth that had been purchased. The weekend was hot, temperatures in the low 90’s, the first really warm weekend of the year, so that might have impacted the crowds a bit, but overall, there were a lot of lookers, not many buyers. Load out was relatively easy, but totally uncontrolled as artists started driving vehicles in even before the show was officially over. The most difficult part of load out was the 90+ temperatures making everyone a little cranky. This is a show we won’t even try again, realistically we didn’t even come close to breaking even by the time we include gas, camping fees and the booth fee. For us it’s the first time in several years where we’ve actually lost money at a show, we had a couple of break even shows last year, but losing money? That hadn’t happened since we were newbies and choosing the wrong shows to participate in. So unfortunately, we were left with a long drive home on Monday, tired and a little discouraged as we realized this was truly the worst show we’ve had in several years and the longest (8 hours) drive we’ve done thus far.
Glad to be home and getting ready for our 4 day show over Memorial Day weekend, hoping for better results.
