Hey, just noticed this Blog function, so here goes...
Nancy and I are doing about 40 shows this year (she sells handbuilt jewelry and I sell my illustrations, paintings, drawings and prints).
Our first show was the March 7-8 Gulf Coast Renaissance Fair , where of course I do very well (I'm a fantasy and science fiction illustrator, after all) and my wife puts up with me. Its a single-weekend show (not like the "big faires" where you have to build a store and commit to 9-12 weeks at a stretch), and very local to Pensacola, Florida, but a "comer" among faires, in my opinion!
Next was a show that we added on impulse JUST because it was roughly equidistant (moving along the gulf coast of the Florida panhandle) between Pensacola and our home north of Atlanta. The March 14-15 Valdosta Azalea Festival was a non-juried show that, nonetheless, shocked us. For one thing, it contained higher quality arts and crafts than many of the "juried" shows we have participated in! For another, we discovered that "all economics are local" once again, with Valdosta's sales and obviously healthy local economy (fueled by the large nearby colleges, government functions and military bases) standing in stark contrast to some later shows...
Our sales there were, yes, surprisingly good, particularly since we low-balled the show in many ways. My goods were quite "picked over", since it came right after Pensacola and I had sold quite a bit there and we had of course not been able to restock from home. Despite this, we had a show that was fun, set in a beautiful park, and surprisingly organized and diverse for what COULD have been just a huge flea market (which was frankly what I had expected). My congrats to Valdosta for their local show - well done.
March 21-22 we were at the Wild Chicken Festival Fitzgerald, GA, and it was the OPPOSITE that proved the same lessons seen in Valdosta. Fitzgerald is a small but CHARMING little town, and one that tried really HARD with their local Wild Chicken Festival. They have really spruced up the historic downtown district, and their revamped old Movie Theatre is a real jewel. The show had lots of high quality live music, INCLUDING during our setup on Friday night, which was very pleasant and welcome...
But the show was about as close to a goose-egg as I have had in 30 years of working in this field.
I cannot in all conscience RECOMMEND this show to any of my peers, but I do wish the little town that is trying so very hard only the best of luck, and encourage them to persevere. I saw nothing that they were doing WRONG, per se, they had penetrated the 3 or 4 surrounding counties with their ads and the attendance both days was heavy indeed (as heavy as the attendees pockets were patently "light"). If they can cure the local economic woes, the show will doubtless do better as well.
Next we did our usual April 4-5 Spring Show put on by the Glynn Art Assoc. of lovely St. Simons Island, Georgia. Sales were down just slightly from last year, and part of the reason was threatening weather, which had an impact on attendance. Even so, it is a high quality show in a unique and beautiful setting, and I intend to repeat this show until the end of time. The Association does an excellent job, though it always seems that just as we are tearing down on Sunday the tour buses start pulling up and disgorging well-heeled tourists disappointed to have "missed it". Perhaps we can get the word to the tour operators somehow, though I strongly suspect it IS getting to them, and they just don't really care.
Then came our April 18-19 show, the Big Shanty Festival in downtown Kennesaw, Georgia. This was our first time at this well-attended, sprawling show, and our location in a small parking lot near a dead end street had something to do with poor sales. Threatening weather and rain dampened the turnout, as well, particularly in our poorly-trafficked lane. Sales were mediocre, in line with the traffic and the nature of the show (very much focused on inflatable games and carnival rides for children and huge numbers of food vendors). We will be trying once again to get into the Dogwood Festival next year (Kennesaw was our backup plan), though I suspect we are once again having "quota" problems since Nancy makes jewelry. Some of the better shows very rightly limit the amount of jewelry they allow, and this means that one almost has to "inherit" a slot from a deceased jewelery, LOL!
Paying jury fees year after year in this manner is probably just another downside to "playing the game"!
Then came the April 25-26 Jonquil Festival in Smyrna, Georgia. In many ways it reminded me of a smaller version of Kennesaw. Our location was problematical, right next door to the major sponsor for the show, who had his myrmidons strolling up and down the street hawking his wares at the tops of their lungs and buttonholing people constantly. Sales were OK, but might have been better had we been a little farther from the determined hucksters. We will probably choose to do the Inman Park Festival on these same dates next year.
Next came the May 2-3 Snellville Days , where we encountered a lot of bad luck. Setup was Friday, as usual, and we checked the weather forecast, which had a good chance for thunderstorms. And the show (though held in a large park) was all on asphalt. I upgraded our usual 25 pounds per corner for both of our 10x10 Caravan tents, adding ANOTHER 25 pounds per leg, but...
Saturday morning at 7am we returned and both tents had been lifted bodily along with their still-attached weights and my steel hanging grid for my artwork into the lower branches of the large oak trees located behind our space. First time this had happened to me in 30 years, so I guess I should not complain.
One tent was quite damaged, and we replaced it right after the show, but we worked feverishly to recover the 2 tents and get them somehow upright and able to serve. We had torn side curtains (both tents were only about 6 shows old), holes in the canopies, and needless to say water damaged (the inverted tents were filled with about 16" of water) display equipment, tables, and artwork (my stuff becomes badly rendered papier mache, needless to say). We requested that we be allowed to park our SUV next to our tents while we worked through all the soaking wet table clothes, drapes, jewelry displays, flip boxes, ruined framed artwork (including a number of orignal paintings and drawings, not to mention prints), but this was denied. Their only concern was that we get SOMETHING up and displaying so the 2 slots would "look good". We also had zero offers of help from either the organizers or our neighbors (food vendors), though one nice old fellow who sold BBQ sauce and who had a bad leg offered us whatever he had.
We sweated bullets from 7am when we discovered the disaster until 2pm, long after the show had started, patching together what we could salvage. True to our personal code (which would NOT allow us to just load up and go home, attractive as that option was that morning), we did our best, presenting what we could to the public.
Nancy's jewelry displays were muddy and stained (as were our normally white and pristine tents and side curtains, but we did have her full inventory to show and share. I spent the day methodically wiping down and examining shrink wrapped artwork, and loading boxes of ruined frames and lugging them across the park to our parked vehicle. I filled a nearby trash barrel with a sad mound of wet and sagging drawings, paintings and limited edition prints. Needless to say, our sales were NOT what they might have been.
The tent held together with some very creative application of duct tape and DID last the show, but we have now replaced it with a new Caravan, and it is officially our "boneyard" for spare parts. Snellville is off our list now, of course, not because of any weather problems (after all, weather happens everywhere), but because of what happened AFTER the weather problems.
For our next show we traveled south for the May 9 Sweet Onion Festival held in Glennville, Georgia. After our experience in Fitzgerald, we were leery of this show, but what the heck, we had already paid our nickel. The show is really chaotic, and you REALLY don't want to be located down wind of the local Baptist Church, which operates a huge open air fried onion concession (needless to say, we WERE downwind of them).
The show is dirty, dusty, and held in a working farmer's market and active packaging plant DURING the onion harvesting season, and the packing and processing goes on non-stop during the Festival. It was surreal when occasionally the weird sounds of the machinery would synchronize with the gospel music from the performance stage!
Our sales were on the poor side, and the venues were chaotic and a mixture of really fine local groups putting out relatively inexpensive grilled food and some really fine local talent performing on the stage...
Rude, crude local teens wander the show in bored-looking-for-trouble packs. In the end, though, the biggest headache is few sales and the fact that you can count on washing down EVERYTHING to get the combination of red dust and frying oil off of your entire rig and all your goods.
By the time May 16-17 rolled around we were getting gun shy. And the weather man really had it in for us at the Canton Festival of the Arts held in Canton, Georgia. It rained both days, almost solid Saturday afternoon and Sunday, but the difference was in the local PEOPLE. The organizers were great, and did as good a job as I have seen with this sort of show, anywhere, anytime. The city park where the show was held was a perfect venue for the medium-sized show, which was tightly juried and of a very high Quality level.
Their helpfulness and careful attention to planning, promotion and details during the show were VERY refreshing. They supplied coffee and donuts for the artists during setup each day, and held a really nice meet and greet Saturday after the show, including adult beverages for the participants and excellent munchies. I was, to say it in a word, impressed.
Our sales were good - and who knows what might have been had the weather been just a little bit kinder? Shoppers and supporters AND workers showed up with their umbrellas, and though we had to draw tight under our booths and listen to the rain, it was NOT unpleasant given the folks that dropped in to brouse, shop, and yes, buy.
May 23-24 was the annual Arts in the Park in downtown Blue Ridge, Georgia. This show was ALSO threatened with stormy weather, though we had only showers during the actual hours of the show. It is one that had a strong following and a good location, and the results showed this when we had our best sales so far this year. It was NEARLY like the recession was over, which of course it is not. Attendance was off from earlier years, partly due to weather, but this is still a healthy show.
The rest of our schedule as of right now is:
June 6-7 Arts & Crafts Festival Hiawassee, GA
June 13 Cave Spring Festival Cave Spring, GA
June 20 Stone Mountain Festival Stone Mtn Vllg, GA
July 3-4 Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree Smithville, TN
July 18-19 Uncle Dave Macon Days, Murfreesboro, TN
July 25-26 Save the Music, LaFollette, TN.
Aug 29-30 Big Haynes Cr. Wildlife Fest Conyers, GA
Sep. 5-7 Art in the Park Marietta, GA
Sep. 12 Peaches and Pigs, Kennesaw, GA.
Sep 18-20 Augusta Arts Festival Augusta, GA
Sep 26-27 Sandy Springs Arts Festival Sandy Sp., GA
Oct 3-4 Autumn Leaves Festival Maysville, GA
Oct 10-11 Fall Festival Candler Park, GA
Oct 17-18 Gold Rush Days Dahlonega, GA
Oct 24-25 Jonquil Festival Smyrna, GA
Nov 7 Bostwick Cotton Gin Festival Bostwick, GA
Nov 14-15 Mobile Renaissance Festival Mobile, AL
Nov 28 Swine Time Climax, GA
Dec 4-5 Apple Annie's Marietta, GA
Dec 11-12 Christmas in Cumming Cumming, GA
