Thought I would give a little more info about this show, besides being visited by Webbie on Monday. To give you a point of reference, his visit was the highlight of my show (see blog about cake at the Grove, just recently posted).
With 300-plus exhibitors showing everything from really good fine art to airplants on molded bowls this show was barely sustainable for most of us. Yeah, we made a paycheck, but we sure didn't put much into the IRA or Tequila Futures fund.
Granted there were numbers of good successes there, where people did $5K or better. But there were many more who didn't even break $3K for this three-day show.
Let's do a little economics 101 review here. You have a booth fee (if you only have one) of almost $500. Except for local artist who sleep in their own beds, you can add another $180-$200 for lodging, and that is if you are sharing. Then add a minemum of $150 for fuel, and a lot more if you are coming from say, Chicago. Oh, then there is that pesky thing called food costs, for me it is only $17.53, but my Tequila costs are $473.15, so it all evens out to at least $150.00 for food. So most have a minemum of $1000 tied up in this show. That is a lot of granola. Like I said, I interviewed more than 50 different artists in different medias over the three days, and, I only heard a small number of real successes. If you stood at the gate at the end of the show and watched people carting their work out, you didn't see too many smiley faces.
You notice I haven't once referred to my fellow mankind as "vendors." I really hate that term. Folks, we create, we don't vend. Might make a great bumper sticker or a t-shirt.
We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather,balmy breezes, plenty of sun, but not too hot. No rain. We did have to put up with pesky dripping water on all surfaces of our tents because of the weather change.
Crowds were adequate, not bursting with mankind. They charge $10 at the gate, or some people can by an event pass for all days. To the shows credit, they did put in three free passes in our packets that we could give to patrons to come in on Monday. Tell you how bad sales were for some, I saw one enterprising artist out front selling his passes for $7. It was the most money he made that day.
"Zero." I heard that reply from more than one painter when I asked how they did at the show.
The show did have the guts to boot one buy/sell exhibitor out. Good for them, needs to be done more often.
Oh well, I have nothing clever or more to say. I earned a paycheck and that was about it. I am grateful, I went home with a lot more money than most. But for a show, on this date, and the stature that they like to crow about, it left a sour taste in my mouth. Let's here some replies from others who did the show. Hopefully, they will be ones of success. Like I said, Webbie made my show. My brain is teeming with improvisations for next year's date.
All I can say is I am glad they still have Rooneys Tavern there --it is like an oasis in the desert.
