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What happens when you gamble big can be a huge loss that makes you want to cry, as was the case for me. I had my worst sales in 5 years at an art festival. I am not going to bash Bill Kinney as I did see some positive things. I did see a fair amount of advertising (saw signs, saw full page ads in several newspapers, and even a tourist TV station ad.) Also I talked to people who heard about it on the radio. There was plenty of parking for patrons and parking for artists was only about 400 yards away. Setup and tear down went fairly smoothly with prior day setup available. Also pizza during setup was appreciated.

The weather was okay overall. Saturday was beautiful; Sunday was very humid in the morning and then threatened rain in the late afternoon. The show was officially closed an hour early to allow us to pack up before the storm hit. It was a good call, as there really weren't many people there at the time anyhow.


Despite the apparent advertising just not many people turned out, I'd estimate about 4,000 to 8,000 people with most attending on Saturday. Maybe the low turnout had to due with the fact not enough people live in the area. I thought this show was going to bring people from New York City and Philadelphia but I don't think that happened. Maybe that was a pipe dream. Atmosphere of show was rather dull; it was just in a big field near an elementary school. No art festival program either was provided. The quality of art was varied from quality high end work to questionable. There were way too many photographers and jewelers, making up about 40% of the 140 artists at the show! There was not enough space provided for storage. Most spaces were exactly 10’x12’ with the 12 feet being on the side (not the back). There was plenty of room on the field, why not lay it out to give artists more room? Of course the worst aspect of the show was sales. I did only $250. Of fellow photographers I had talked with their numbers were 0, $200 and $800. Some photographers might have done better, but this was just a sampling from three that gave me their numbers. I talked to a few painters with sales of 0, $1800 and $3200. I talked to one sculpture artist that did about $3000. Of the dozen other artists I talked to but didn't give numbers about half did "horrible" and the other half did "okay".

Why the low turnout? I think part of the problem may be not enough people live in the area.
Long Beach Island only has a population of 3,500 people and the mainland across the bridge of Stafford Township only has 22,500 people. They need to draw people from places further out and don't think it did.

Would I do this show again? No. Would I give any of Bill Kinney's other shows a try? Perhaps I would but not likely. I think he is aiming his shows in locations and markets that might not work for me. I generally need to do shows with more people attending and with people that can visualize my whimsical work on their walls in their homes. This show provided neither for me. I am not sure I can put my finger on what sells best here, but those that sell well in Boca Raton, Florida might have a chance here. As for me it was one of my gambles gone horribly bad. I’m over crying about it now and will soon be back at the craps table. We all gamble when we do shows, some gambles are bigger than others. Some pay out; some take all your money. All we can do is make our best judgments, based on the information we have available and throw the dice. May the dice be kind to us all.