Wow, that was bad. Was it bad scheduling (there was a major country fair type thing going on just down the street)? Did they advertise in the wrong places to the wrong people? Is it a bad location? I can't say but something went seriously wrong. You know it's been bad when the clay flower guy is packing up early.
I did make one good sale to a person that had been redecorating the last time she saw my work and promised to buy in the future. She called me last week to ask where I would be next and came to the show just to buy. Other than that, one matted print. The person next to me had one good sale but everyone else I talked to was talking about numbers less than $100.
Other than trying to choose the right shows we, as artists, don't have a lot of control over things like this but one thing we do have control over is our actions. Around 3:00 on Sunday artists started disappearing. One painter actually attempted to pull his vehicle right in front of his booth blocking another artists booth. Security had to be called. At least one award winner packed up and left. I'm not talking surreptitiously taking down sides and putting away work. This was full scale pack up and leave. Come on people, what is another 2 hours? It wasn't like it was pouring rain or a tornado was forecast. It wasn't like we were looking at a nasty breakdown. The weather was a tad chilly but really pretty nice. I know some of the Osceola people and they are good people. They tried their best. They weren't trying to scam us. Something just didn't come together. It happens sometimes.
Setup was a piece of cake, breakdown was a piece of cake. Food vendors were kind of lacking. The weather was chilly on Saturday and almost perfect on Sunday. The layout could have been tweaked some. There were two sections separated by a large median type sidewalk. I think, with a little rearrangement, they could have put us all on one side. Parking was a bit of a walk for the artists but close for patrons. The award dollars were a lot less than I remember them being in the past. They had the "nice" bathrooms but unfortunately the "nice" bathrooms were only open during show time so if you arrived early or left after 5 you had to use the yucky porta-potties.
The show is held in a parking lot of a local college. Spaces are nice and level with lots of storage area.
Comments
Is this February show run by the same people / location as the Osceola Fall Art Festival 2012 (Nov 17-18, 2012)??? Any opinions/first-hand experiences on the FALL show?
If artists had done any research instead of pushing a zapp button they would not have found many favorable reviews- specifically NO CROWD to sell to- Read the blogs, reviews- This is one way to not have a bad show-understand- and you are welcome; and I hope you have no more awful shows.
It was our 1st time there as well. Although Jules did a nice job, this was our slowest show ever. We're local so, our overhead was low, but I don't think I'll do this show again. We were joking on our ilse that we could do quarter mile drag racing down the center and never hit anyone. I think it had a lot to do with the location: 1. Kissimmee is not a very affluent area; it's still a little rural on the east side of town where the campus is located. And there's too many people out of work in this part of the county. The crowds were light both days, but it seemed like the Sunday afternoon crowd were more inclined to purchase. 2. Valencia college is too far out of the mainstream, even for Kissimmee. If this show has a chance for next year then it's got to be located nearer to the tourist area - maybe Old Town. And theyve got to advertise more.
That's my take.
I did this show when it was in downtown kissimmee 6 years ago, reading all your reviews of this show brought back memories of the same experience! My husband and I both exhibited there we would look down the street of the show and see 2 or 3 customers, maybe a 1,000 all weekend, the weather was great
This is one time I will say what I made at a show, 1 painting for$600 and fortune enough to win one of the $900 prize money. Back then that was not good. Even if I was a local artist would not return!!
One would think the highlight of the show would be the show, sadly it was this...not that I'm disappointed with this ;)
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next