When you read these art fair reviews you have to realize that every artist participating in a given show will have had a different experience... sometimes drastically different. I posted a mostly positive review of Arti Gras in Jupiter last week, and Nels posted a mostly negative one. Just goes to prove that every art fair is a crap shoot.
I ran into Ellen, Nels main squeeze, at Naples National yesterday and she told me she had a great day on Saturday. Huh? I had a terrible day on Saturday. You never know...
Naples has a lot of art fairs and this one is arguably their best one. It is set up in Cambier park, downtown, and along 8th street adjoining the park. Setup for this show is on Friday and the committee tries their best or schedule and organize a difficult situation. Most of the booths are in the park and these artists have to dolly in, and most of them have to park on 8th street to unload. So... us artists who are exhibiting on 8th street have to wait until the park artists have all unloaded. Our scheduled setup time was 7:30 pm (moan), but we did get in a little ahead of schedule. The committee rented lights on the street for setup so we didn't have to set up in the dark. Since we were among the last to get in, and our booth was toward the far south end of 8th street, we were able to leave our van on the street for the entire setup.
Artist parking for this show (and, I think, most of the Naples shows) is three miles away. The committee booked a closer parking lot about four blocks away, but at a $50 fee for both days. I paid the fee so I didn't experience the free artist parking. There was a shuttle that ferried artists back and forth, but I didn't hear about how successful this shuttle was for artists.
Saturday was not a good day for us. Lots of people, but slim sales. We sell small 5x10 inch prints for $28 each for the low end buyer, and that was all we sold on Saturday (I'm a digital artist/printmaker). Clientele was mostly retired Naples people who just "did not have any more room for art on their walls," or were "downsizing and not buying any more stuff." Sound familiar? Also, my work is kind of surrealistic and fantasy oriented, so, not a good style for the retired crowd.
Sunday started out the same, and I was getting more and more depressed, but about 1pm we got a flurry of sales that lasted until about 3:30. It seemed to me that the clinetele changed around then. More tourists and vacationers than residents and retirees. That saved the show for us and we wound up with just over $3K in sales. Disappointing, but not a disaster.
Weather was great for the weekend... dry for once. Pack up for us was pretty easy. We broke down and were able to bring the van in from the far south end of 8th street. We were out of there by 7:15.
Not sure what to think about this show. Marcia wants to drop it from the schedule next year, but, who knows? We had a pretty good show here in 2014 (didn't exhibit last year). But our booth was further north on 8th street closer to where Ellen was set up. Maybe a better booth location... or maybe the stars were just not aligned in the right pattern this year. Whatever...
Comments
We did this show once. Not our crowd, and one of Norm's photos was the front page of the weekend entertainment section of the paper even - large photo (but I've always complained that the west coast of Florida didn't "get" Norm's work, so no surprise.)
The ups and downs of the business keep us coming back... it was good, oh no, it was bad, it was amazing, no one bought even though there was great weather ... part of the life.
John, I'm wondering from your reports if you experience this same east coast/west coast buyer syndrome that we experienced.
Hi John, I was about to post my review (written elsewhere) here, but ya beat me to it! Much of my review aligns perfectly with yours. I had tons of visitors Saturday, but no purchases from NEW customers until around 3 PM. It was a disappointing day. Sunday turned around, and there was much more buying energy, for whatever reason, and it was a very good day. I wound up with a total about 25% below last year, but 2015 was off-the-charts great.
I did want to mention (for others' benefit) the ridiculous requirement to have a fire extinguisher in the booth. This was supposedly required because the fire department insisted on it, but I ran into a fireman while standing in line at Starbucks and he said no, but it might have been that the show insurance underwriter insisted.
I had a horrible show in 2014 in the park, the same place I'd had a record high show in 2012. Go figure.
But I live in S. Fort Myers, a straight shot along US41, 45 minutes north of the show locale. So I will nearly always choose this show, even when it conflicts with Howard Alan's Coconut Point as it did this year.