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Another roller coaster year for us at NW Folklife (Memorial Day weekend in Seattle, WA).  I’m finally getting around to posting this review for NW Folklife over Memorial Day weekend. Why?  Because it’s taken me that long to recover and  get caught up on my day job and the rest of life after a grueling 4 day festival.  I blogged about the load in / load out, etc.  last year so don’t feel the need to cover those details again:  last year’s details:

http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profiles/blogs/northwest-folklife-festival

One item I did leave out last year is that they do have a Saturday party for the artists and volunteers.  We’ve never gone to the party simply because we were too tired and wanted to get home.  Maybe we’re just too old  (NOT!!) but to start the party at 9 PM on a Saturday night and knowing that we still had 2 long days ahead of us on Sunday and Monday and about a 45 minute drive each morning and evening has never made us want to attend.  Nice of them to offer.

This was our 4^th year participating, 2009 and 2010 were very good for us for sales, last year was dismal.  Our goal going into this show was simple, determine if this is a show we want to leave on the list.  We were hoping that 2011 was the anomaly and that our sales would return to previous levels, if not, it would be an easy decision to remove this show from the list just due to the 4 long days and the fact that the music/dance of the festival are the primary reason people attend, the art booths are secondary.  However, it has worked for us in the past and the 2009 show still ranks as one of our top 5 shows ever for sales, so we were reluctant to take it off the list just based on 2011 results. 

However, due to our pathetic results in 2011, our booth assignment in 2012 was less than appealing. Or we thought it was based on knowing the traffic flow and knowing that due to the building locations we would only get about 2 hours of direct sunlight in the late afternoon.  We asked to be moved but were told there were no other options.  So, we decided to go ahead and figured a bad booth location might make the future decision that much easier.

I’m happy to report that this year’s festival got off to a much better start for us than last year.  The festival officially opens at 11 on Friday and by 11:15 our first customer of the day had already purchased enough to cover our booth fee and parking expenses.  We also had a great day on Saturday so as we left to drive home we were breathing a sigh of relief that it appeared that our sales were going to more closely align with our 2009-2010 results for Folklife and help make us feel like the 4 day grueling show was worth it.   Sunday had ALWAYS been our best day that this festival, so I was trying to not have expectations that were too high, but thinking that we had the possibility of our best Folklife ever.

Sunday morning arrived and the entire day was rain free, just proving how unreliable our weather forecasters are in the Pacific NW.   Sales started really slowly on Sunday, which is not unusual.  The problem was that they NEVER picked up for us.  Other artists did report having a better day on Sunday than Saturday, but not us.  We ended the day with our worst Sunday at Folklife that we had ever had, even compared to last year’s overall dismal results. 

So on the drive home, I voiced my frustration that this wasn’t helping us to make a decision regarding future Folklife events.   I wanted to have a black and white decision, but by Sunday nights our sales were trending towards the average of the 3 years we had done the show and I didn’t want to be operating in the “gray” decision making area where it’s not clear cut.  This is such a long, hard festival an then with the horrendous load out, I was hoping for an easy decision.

Monday the crowds were much lighter and by about 5 PM  we had hit our average for the Monday at this show which meant that we were just slightly above our average for the overall show but not back up to the previous levels, however, it was a vast improvement over 2011. 

We also learned throughout the weekend that while we thought last year’s location was better than prior years, for some reason it was invisible to some of the patrons.  It wasn’t quite in the flow of most other booths but in a more central location between the 2 rows of booths which one would think would be good, it could be seen from all the booths lining Founder’s Court.  However, we had at least 5 customers comment that they didn’t see us last year, all 5 had bought from us in prior years and all 5 bought from us this year.  That left us scratching our heads a bit, but made this year’s perceived bad location feel a lot better!!   This was also our first show with a few selected enameled copper earrings.  With the ongoing rise in the cost of metals we decided to try a small selection in enameled copper and we were pleased to see that they sold well.  Always nice to have positive feedback on new designs!

Our section of the show ends at 7 PM Monday evening and by 6 PM the crowds were almost non-existent.  The artists were chatting outside their booths, some were starting to “rearrange” and others were even starting to blatantly pack.  About 6:30 my husband left to fetch our hand truck and bins knowing we had a place we could store it around the corner until load out. About 6:45 a charming lady from Georgia entered our booth and asked to see our second most expensive bracelet.  Upon trying it on, she commented that it was a little too big, I explained that it could be shortened, and we could do that on site, almost immediately.  So, she decided to take the bracelet!!   Yes, a last minute sale and a high dollar one at that.  So while my husband was shortening the bracelet she and her Mom were looking for earrings (with my help).  The customer then decided to try on a necklace, had me write down our inventory number and description of the item, the customer was positive her husband would buy it for her online.  Her Mom then commented, “if you know he’s going to buy it, just get it now and save him the hassle”!  Gotta love shopping companions like that.  The customer asked if we would include the earrings for free if she bought the necklace and bracelet. No problem!!  Our big, last minute sale just got much bigger and became our single largest purchase all weekend.  All this was concluded by about 7:15 PM, after the show had officially closed.   Just proving my husband right again:  It’s not over until the fat lady sings!!!!

Final result, the best Friday, Saturday & Monday we had ever had at Folklife and the worst ever Sunday.  Total opposite buying patterns of every other year, but in the end it was our best Folklife of the 4 years we’ve participated and yes, we plan to return, decision turned out to be an easy one to make in the end.

Unfortunately results were mixed among other artists, most said it was better than last year, however, there were at least 3 having their worst Folklife ever including 2 fiber artists and a illustrator who have done this show for years.  However, other jewelers and a couple of wood workers we talked to said it was definitely better than last year.    The fiber artists both suffered due to 2 days of warmer than usual temperatures and no one wanting to try on hats or sweaters.

A few other notes:  Weather forecast on Friday AM called for sunshine Friday & Saturday, rain on Sunday & Monday, pretty typical for this area over Memorial Day weekend.  Friday and Saturday were sunny and warm for the end of May in Seattle and while the crowds seemed to be smaller than previous years, there also seemed to be less of the ill behaved youth hanging around.  Friday night we had a very short lived thunderstorm with a minimal amount of rain, but it got everyone’s attention because thunderstorms are rare in this region.  Sunday was cooler, as was Monday but luckily the rain held off both days, proving the weather forecasters wrong again.

Friday night there was a shooting that occurred after we had closed down for the evening. We were also warned about a couple of theft incidents that had occurred on Friday by a group of 3 young men working together, so we were on our guard for the rest of the weekend.  And while we’ve decided to return, we’ve had a lot of family and friends wondering about that situation just due to the shooting.  Previous conversation that I had raised on this topic, and I do appreciate the responses:  http://www.artfairinsiders.com/forum/topics/shooting-at-a-festival-are-we-crazy