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oregon (3)
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.
This past weekend (April 27-29) we participated in the Astoria Crab, Wine and Art festival for the 3rd time. This is a show put on by the local chamber of commerce and is very well organized with good communication prior to the show. Astoria is a small town in far Northwest Oregon that attracts a lot of tourists who are passing through town on the way to the Oregon beaches. It’s located very close to where the Columbia River dumps into the Pacific Ocean, so seafood and fresh fish are wonderful treats when visiting the area. This festival has been operating for 30 years and attracts local residents primarily on Friday and Sunday with out of town visitors on Saturday. The show includes local Oregon wineries, a couple of breweries, artists and gourmet food vendors. Art is NOT the primary focus of this show, this is not a show that works for everyone, but jewelry is small and easy to carry so we’ve had good results from this show in the past. The 2D artists who do this show and offer shipping seem to do better than those who do not offer that service. It is a show I hesitate to recommend to other artists because results can vary greatly.
Friday the show doesn’t start until 4 PM so you have all day to load in, or you can also opt to load in on Thursday. The Friday night crowd is not there for shopping, they are there to sample the wine and party. That being said, we did have our best Friday night thus far at this show, but just by a mere $50. The show runs until 9 PM by which time there are numerous patrons who need to be poured on the shuttle buses to go home. For the attendees there are some challenges for the show, shuttle buses run from the local high school and is provided for free. Parking at the fairgrounds costs $10 for the patrons and is somewhat limited. The lines waiting to get out of the parking lot on Friday night were quite lengthy making us grateful that our RV was parked on the outside of the parking lot and we didn’t have to deal with driving anywhere that night. The shuttle / parking situation does discourage some patrons from buying large artwork unless they can have it shipped or delivered after the show.
Saturday the show runs from 10-8 and is the day for sales for most of the artists who participate. Our sales were good this year on Saturday, but not nearly as good as last year. I feel I need to add a qualification here in that last year on the Saturday of this show we achieved our highest 1 day sales total EVER, so we weren’t going in with the expectation that we would top that. In fact our sales for just Saturday alone last year were higher than our overall total show average, so I was trying not to be over optimistic this year. So, while our sales were good, we were surprised at what seemed like a lot lower attendance than usual. I could actually see some of the other booths across from us for most of the day which has not been our experience the last 2 years. The last 2 years have been wall to wall people from about 11 – 3 on Saturday, not the case this year. Also, the sales we made were more evenly split between locals and out of town visitors, in past years the majority of our sales on Saturday have been from visitors from Portland and Seattle. Made us wonder if the high price of gas was taking its toll. Another measurement of the smaller crowd, lines at the women’s restroom was generally shorter this year. Sorry, I know some of you could care less about that, but with all the wine tasting, usually the lines on Saturday afternoon are way too long.
Sunday the show only runs from 11-4 and is a very quiet crowd, mostly local. In the past Sunday has always been our lowest sales day and by about 3:30 on Sunday we were beginning to think we were going to hit a new show low with 0 sales for Sunday. Our first and last customer of the day came in at 3:45 and bought 3 pieces causing us to breathe a sigh of relief that we didn’t have a 0 day. So a few hours of total boredom on Sunday with one customer in the last 15 minutes of the show. What a way to end the show. End result – we were up about 10% over the first year of doing this show but definitely down from last year’s stellar show.
Load in / load out is fairly easy with a little bit of a crowded parking lot, but a very flat load in / load out for dollying your stuff. Some vendors park around the building but then you’re parked on the grass or in mud and that adds a little more challenge to the load in / load out. We opted for a little longer walk to our booth, but it was all flat and on concrete. The show is held at the local fairgrounds in a large building with pipe and drape already provided as part of the booth fee. This is our last indoor show of the year and given that it’s held in late April on the Oregon Coast, it was great to still be inside, out of the rain.
The show provides the option for RV parking on site, however, we park along the perimeter of the gravel parking lot, in the grass, at the end of April so it’s a somewhat muddy camping experience at the end of April in Oregon. This year they pointed us to a spot that was impossible to level our RV so we spent the weekend feeling like our equilibrium was a little off. However, it’s great to have the option, the parking lot is across the highway from the show facility with a foot bridge over the highway so we never have to deal with driving anywhere once we’re set up and be concerned about patrons who have sampled too much wine.
Is this a show we’ll do again? Probably, it’s a relatively easy show to do, 4 hours from home and decent early season results when we have limited options for shows in this part of the country in April. Is it a show that works for everyone? No, I know of at least 3 artists who say they won’t be back, this was their 2nd or 3rd attempt at this show and the results just weren’t good enough for them to feel like they want to come back. There were also a couple of artists who have been there in the past that were noticeably absent this year, so again, not a show that works for everyone.
Now we’re enjoying a quiet week in a campground outside of Portland before we take off on Friday to continue our Oregon road trip to 2 new shows for us over the next 2 weekends.
