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• This was my first year attending this art fair held over the July 4th weekend at lovely Muskegon Hackley Park. The art fair is actually held the last three days of Muskegon's "Summer Celebration" - a huge draw from all areas of Michigan. The prior weekend began with musical performances by ZZ Top and others. Sure wish I could have seen them. The entire week consisted of various top named groups and the carnival type area. This appears to be for this area of Michigan similar to Milwaukee's Summer Fest. My overall thoughts are - Way to go Muskegon! Get high attendance all week and save the art venue for the last weekend. I tried to book a hotel more than 3 months in advance and could find nothing in a close proximity to Muskegon. Booked all the way past Holland. I then tried the campgrounds and, oh God, ended up at a KOA (ugh - I never do them). Granted, it was 4th of July weekend and there are other things to do in the area, but the crowds were definately there all three days. Sunday night's fireworks over the lake were spectacular!

The Organization - $235 show fee. Well juried event - Wonderful artwork in all mediums and nicely balanced.Each artist received a very nice t-shirt. Check in went well and all volunteers were helpful and friendly. Entry forms and images are submitted on paper via USPS. Show runs from 10 to 6 on Friday and Saturday and 10 to 4 on Sunday. Setup allowed on Thursday but we began unloading & setup on Friday at 6am and found no problem finding a streetside parking area to unload. Parking for unloading was on the street and all had to be dollied in. Vehicles had to be removed by 9am and the streets surrounding the block had no parking. Each morning coffee and goodies were available near the center statue.

The Layout - The various venues are spread throughout Muskegon with a festival area including music stages and rides etc down by the lake. A block away is street for fine crafters and in the fourth block, is historical Hackley Park. At the center of the park - one square block - is a large historical statue. Artists are situated on both sides of the sidewalk parimeter of the block and along the four diagonal sidewalks leading to the center statue. Approximately 190 fine artists participated. I very much enjoyed the distinct separation of the venues. The street between the fine crafters and the block dedicated to fine artists was a street filled with a large variety of food vendors. I was fortunate to get a great corner location. Artists given a generous 12x12 space with tons of space behind each tent.

The Weather - A tad on the hot hot hot side but most tents are under huge trees. My corner was in full sun, but since we were given so much space, a few tent adaptations gave us shelter from the sun. A nice breeze most of the day helped.

The Crowd - Kinda covered above but a few more notes necessary. This was a great crowd. There were few lulls each day and for the most part we were busy enough that neither Neil or I strayed away from our booth. Since the festival areas were so well divided, the ones at the Art in the Park area were looking for fine art, just as the ones a block down were looking for fine crafts.

The $$$$ - I typically do well when the event is on a Great Lake. Friday went very well, Saturday seemed to have more out of towners who came in for the weekend and sales, while steady, were under Friday's tally. Sunday was slower than both previous days in the beginning, but about an hour prior to closing we were bombarded with those who saw something earlier and came back to purchase. The art show ended at 4, but we did not begin teardown until 5. I did not have much time to talk with other artists except a couple of my long time friends so I'm not sure how others did. The fine craft area was too far away and I did not get over to the other side of the park to see the other fine art at all but I did notice people carrying bags through out the weekend.

The Food - Most of the food was typical of any festival but there was a huge variety (two blocks on both sides) This food area was for those attending either the fine craft or the fine art booths. Since the main festival was quite a distance away, they had their own food setup.

My only Beef - Parking. Those that have done this show before knew all the secrets. Since this weeklong event encompassed the entire city, parking for the weeklong Summer Celebration festivities were no where near the parking for the fine artists (thank God). Obviously planned well by groups in the city, any civic or church lot had persons offering day parking for $5.00. Nice consistency at least. We parked our utility trailer three blocks away for the entire time and arrived early each day to obtain parking in one of the closer lots, a block away. A bit confusing at first, but now I too know some of the "secrets".

I'll post my video in a couple of days.

Linda Anderson

Great Lakes Nautical & Nature Photography

http://www.andersonphotoworks.com