Blog

This was my first time doing this Art Festival. From the start with detailed advance information and active advertising I felt that it would be a terrifically well-organized event. My initial reaction proved to be true.

The event is held in downtown Salt Lake City on the narrow one-way streets within an outdoor, high-end mall (The Gateway). Each artist was assigned a load-in time, given 15 minutes to off-load their booth materials and artwork. A booth-sitter showed up at about the 10-minute point and watched everything while the artist parked his/her car. For those of us with cars, parking was less than 2 blocks away in an attended lot for which we were provided an all-day pass. For artists with trailers, parking was in a large dirt lot about 3-4 blocks away.

The festival day dawned in the 80s and rapidly shot up to over 100. There were a reasonable number of pedestrians who showed interest in the art between the 10 am start and 6 pm; however the heat tended to encourage them to move to indoor film festival and other cooler venues (outdoor stage near misting fountain). So, sales didn't pick-up until the sun was low in the sky and everyone felt cooler. Even in the heat of the day, when no one felt like trying on my jewelry or my neighbor's fiber art, I had great interest in picking up my printed schedule for identifying future "cooler" days--a number of those folks showed up a week later at another Sat. venue and bought items.

During this HOT day, volunteers strolled the venue with cold water for the artists. As soon as I hung my (provided) "Booth-sitter Needed" sign, a volunteer would materialize so I could take a break in the air-conditioned VIP (artists and volunteers) room. Water and snacks were provided there as well as a convenient restroom.

At the end of the festival (8 pm), an orderly "evacuation" plan was staged. We were only allowed to bring our car in to load up as the artist a specific number of booths "upstream" (relative to one-way direction) left.

Thoughtful anticipation of artists' needs showed from start to finish in this festival.

BTW, I 'm a jewelry artist, designing with natural materials--wire-wrapped pendants, gemstones, pearls, and wood used in necklaces and bracelets. I make unique designs--lots of time spent selecting materials and ordering beads to make the piece. Some of you would call me a "stringer" but I consider that a term for those crafters who buy beads and string them as is. I am an artist--but that's for another discussion, not this review.