Ok, y'all!! Still have the accent in my head, I am going to break this down into two sections, the positives first and then the negatives and I will warn you now, there are a lot of negatives.
The Positives:
Set-up and check in for this show was a breeze. I had no issues at all and was alone with no help from any volunteers and I got the whole display up and polished in about 2 hours. Security was very evident and I felt totally comfortable leaving all the art there overnight. I had about $10,000.00 in inventory. My neighbors were all very nice and friendly and the weather was perfect. The weather for this show was perfect all weekend actually. No rain and temps in the mid-upper 70's with a light breeze. I returned Saturday and not a thing was out of place in my booth.
Saturday crowds were light and thready. I would have a bunch of people in the booth, then a trickle and then a bunch more. I recieved countless comments on my work, the people were very polite and kind and the compliments were flowing freely and seemed genuine. Parents were controlling their children and their dogs and I met some very nice people and petted some wonderful dogs. My neighbors were friendly and chatty and I enjoyed them. Greg Little, AFI member was two booths down from me with his wife Carol. Greg and Carol are wonderful people, very nice and fun to talk to. The three of us had dinner Saturday night at a Greek restaurant and visited and ate good food. I really hope to meet up with them again. Greg had a great show and won the award of distinction. Greg's work is amazing and I am so glad he won. He said it was his first award.
I had one sale on Saturday evening, toward the end of the show. It is funny, I was in the bathroom when the sale occurred and my neighbor actually handled it for me.
Sunday was more of the same. Light, thready crowds, lighter than Saturday. I had a zero sale day on Sunday, but again nice people, warm compliments and good weather.
The negatives: Stop reading this now if you don't want to be depressed or very mad. If you are contemplating doing this show, please read it word for word and e mail me for pictures. I have proof of everything. I am not the type to critique without proof.....
I drove 650 miles each way for this show. I chose to do that willingly, so no one is to blame there. I arrived Friday night and while I was setting up passers by in droves going to and from a concert kept asking me and my neighbors, "What's all this for?" They seemed to have no idea that there was an art fair there that weekend. My neighbors were concerned that either they didn't promote this show or the promotions were centered on the music festival going on and not the art.
Saturday was light, thready crowds as I mentioned earlier. I would not say this show was well attended at all. I was surprised at how many people were carrying these lawn chair in a bag things. I had never seen these before and then it happened. A very careless woman comes into my booth with her lawn chair strung over her shoulder and knocks over a pedestal. She destroyed a $300.00 piece. My claws don't usually come out, but they did then. I told her she needed to pay for it and of course she refused. I said some very unpleasant things told her where to shove her lawn chair and to get the blank out of my booth.
Compliments galore all day from everyone who entered my booth, but these people were not buying. I saw very few packages going by and most of them were carrying beers and ice cream cones. I know a few people had a good show, but I did not and several other artists I spoke to didn't either. One painter came up to me and was noticably upset with lackluster sales and I tried to council her as best as I could. It was very hard to not break out in tears several times throughout Saturday. I almost did once and had to go to the restroom and then call my husband.
Due to the fact that they had no booth sitters and no volunteers checking on artists with the exception of the free lunch that we will get to later, I had to leave my booth unattended or under watch from a neighbor multiple times to use the restroom or take a refreshment break. This made me nervous and I felt bad imposing upon my neighbors so much. They were gracious though and I appreciated that. My one sale from the show came late Saturday evening and was sold by my neighbor, Shirley while I was in the bathroom. Go figure. Thanks to Shirley for being an angel.
Lunch: Ok, this is where I get insulted. This show gave the artists lunch both days as one of the very few amenities it offered. It was a joke. I recieved a 2 inch square sandwich/hors d'ouvre and a bag of crushed potato chips and a bottle of water each day for lunch. I know how this sounds and it was so absurd, I took a picture of it, e mail me if you want to see the proof. I am not one to be ungracious or unappreciative of anything. I have manners, am polite and appreciate the effort, but come the f**k on!! If you are going to do something, do it right or not at all. I would and I am sure anyone with a modicum of class or respect for another person would have been embarrassed to serve that. My advice to this show is to spend the money for the lunch on a volunteer coordinator or better advertising. We can fend for ourselves and do much, much better. Just about everyone I spoke to ended up getting something else anyway. We were all starving again in an hour. Thank god they had good popcorn available in the arts center for purchase.
Amenities for the artists: the lunch both days as mentioned above, a beer cozy that went straight into the trash and a little promo bag of coffee from a local coffee distributor. It was actually good. That was it!! No booth sitters, no director's cell phone number in case of emergency, no artist reception, no t shirt, nothing!! Again, I don't need much and I appreciate everything that anyone gives me, but this show advertises southern hospitality and falls flat on its face in reality.
Ok, I met the director of the show on Saturday after I asked her who she was and then introduced myself. She was talking to someone else outside my booth and I approached her because I saw her radio and had hoped she was a booth sitter. She was too busy to talk to me and promptly left and said she would be back tomorrow (Sunday). I never saw her again. She has recieved an e mail from me already, I will update this blog if I ever hear back from her.
I met my first volunteer on Sunday night as I was packing up my van. A lady named Nancy, who was very nice, unfortunately got an earful. I asked her where she had been all weekend and where the other volunteers were. She didn't give me a straight answer, but did help me load up a few things. In all fairness, I was told by another artist that they had a hard time getting volunteers for this show. Appearantly this show was moved up a month earlier than usual so as to not compete with New Orleans and this was the first year for the new date. It would have been nice to know that up front.
Financial: I did not come remotely close to making expenses for this show. I had one sale, had a piece broken that cannot be fixed and was told by several other artists that the sales were way, way down from previous years. At least four other artists I spoke to said they would not be back. In all fairness, my neighbor, Greg as I mentioned before, had a great show. I am so glad he won the award too, he certainly deserved it.
I had to drive straight home on Sunday night becuase I could not justify the cost of spending the night in a hotel. I drove the 650 miles home and got in at 5:30 this morning. I already had incurred so many costs, and with one sale, I didn't want to go in the hole even more.
Blacklisting: Here's the deal...I will never review a show or say anything negative about a show that is not true and that I can't prove. I am someone who struggles every month to pay the bills and can't afford to do shows that are this bad on a regular basis. Occasionally, we all have bad shows, it's part of the business, but I also think there are things shows are responsible for doing/providing when they take our booth fees and I will hold them accountable. I have serious concerns, empathy and respect for other artists that compell me to share information that may help them avoid situations like this. I think that when a show is this bad and underperforms what it promises/sells to us as artists, we need to be informed about it. If a show director is going to blacklist me for speaking the truth, be my guest! I do not deal with people that are untrustworthy or corrupt, so if you are a director and want to avoid having me in your show because you are afraid I will speak the truth, go right ahead and blacklist me forever, take me out of your shows if they are in the future and send me my booth fee back. I don't want to do your show if it is poorly ran anyway. I simply can't afford to.
Ok, bottom line is this: I had high hopes for this show. I went into it with an open mind, a positive attitude and spoke kindly to everyone around me and everyone who entered my booth and complimented my work. I willingly and happily drove a long way and took the risk. My attitude could not have been better for this show. I am sorry to have to write such a negative review, but it is true and deserved. I will never do this show again and will never recommend it to anyone. If you are local and have low costs and a free weekend, it may be ok for you. I did not make booth fee and application fee for this show. Advice to anyone travelling to shows, avoid this mess at all costs.
I will be at Great Lakes Art Fair in Novi, MI this weekend, I hope and pray for a better show there, look for my review next Monday here on AFI. Thanks! Elle
Comments
All I can add is to suggest that you could have had a great southern Seafood meal in BR and Greek anywhere else. That could have made up for a lot for me! Just my experience and preference.
This is a common, sad story. There are just too many shows. Too many people chasing after a dwindling pie. I, too, will be in Novi. Booth 627. Let's hope the economy is recovering.
Elle, it is not easy to determine if the music had any factor in determining sales timing. My Saturday morning sales were good but I am not sure what time the music began and what effect it had. Sunday sales were spread out.
I am sure many people go there for the music only...just as others go there only for the art show and many go there for the entire fair since it is free admission. One thing is certain...we pay application fees and both fees, as do the food vendors, and this money offsets much of the cost of the festival. I doubt that the bands playing there are paying application fees or fees to rent the stage while playing...our booth fees help pay the bands cause there is no admission fee and I doubt they play for free...
As far as free lunch goes, it is a token convenience for someone that cannot leave their booth if working alone....but I like to make my own food decisions and not a generic meal someone else thinks I might like. The bottle of water was good.
Thank you, I have a very strange background. I worked for 10 years in property appraisals for the government, and I used to teach merchandising - which is all about traffic patterning, layouts, etc from the tiniest of shops (i.e. 10 X 10 booths) to mega stores. Put those two together and I can be a real pain in the ass to some shows with my questions.
Sometimes as artists - we forget - we are the boss of our choices, we in essence apply to a show, meaning we are hiring that show with certain expectations of producing an income. They are in essence temporarily working for us. So many of us forget that - without exhibitors - THERE IS NO SHOW. It's not the other way around, however due to jurying - many artists are just thankful they "get in", breathe a sigh of relief and think everything is done until they show up to sell. STOP right there - that is only the beginning of the contract.
That means, you need to make choices as to who you want to hire to be responsible for bringing the customers to you. Remember as soon as there is an exchange of money for goods or a service (exhibiting at the show) then there are very specific obligations on BOTH parties to complete that contract. The show lists the rules of the event you are to perform or there are consequences, you agree to those rules, in return, there has to be very specific services outlined that they are to perform to hold up their end of the contract.
If you don't learn what to look for in that contract, whether written in the contract, or listed on any other materials/website/etc. then you need to ask, get it in writing, be very specific about the information you need, based on your own list of priorities and expectations you need fulfilled to ensure you have as successful of a show as possible.
BTW - the show didn't provide you with lunch - YOU paid for that through your fee. Any amenities - remember - that was factored into YOUR show fee. It has to come out of somewhere, and unless you see a restaurant listed as a benefactor donating all said foods - YOU paid for it. Make that part of your "priorities" to ask further next time something similar is included.
I have known very few shows to be able to pull off what I call "participatory music" and art. I like a little background music. I think it adds to the ambiance. But if there is a lot of space for people to sit and well known music groups, we become the side show. In a case like that we are like the bake sale held at intermission for the high school play.
Oh...I forgot - I also do an aerial map of where it's to be held....and I look to see where the show itself is being held v parking and what else is in the area. I look to see how far an attendee needs to walk to get to the event, are there shuttles? If it's more than a block - there had better be some type of people mover or it rules out anyone with any type of infirmity. What type of shelter is there if there is inclement weather and they need to temporarily get out of it? How about restrooms and places for them to sit and relax and take a break. I know this sounds over the top...but it really isn't. If an attendee doesn't have the ability to be comfortable, they simply will not spend.
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