One of my favorite e-zines is from Molly Gordon, author of The Way of the Accidental Entrepreneur. In her last issue (Vol. 11 No. 36), she discusses pricing one's work. Please read her article titled Why lowering your prices doesn't work and how to resist the urge. It has many interesting points.

"When you sell art on the street you have left the cathedral for the carnival. It's no surprise people expect to pay less", and "...there is always a path, but until you take charge of the landscaping and maintenance, the path is likely to lead your customers into the wilderness instead of into and ongoing relationship with your work" are thought provoking statements.

Doing festivals - even if you only do one or two a year - is often a good way to network, to show your body of work, to see what's going on, and to make a little money. Choosing the best events to accomplish whatever goal(s) you have, however, is very important.

First, you've got to decide whether you need "the cathedral" or "the carnival". If you sell originals priced in the thousands of dollars, it is wise to exhibit where others are also selling originals; and, attendees expect to buy art. If you are selling handmade holiday decorations, two for twenty dollars, look for people with disposable income who don't mind spending some of it for something really nice. Choosing the best shows for your work is taking "charge of the landscaping".

Often the most important take-away from a festival is the people who bought - or were very interested in buying - your work. Cultivating an "ongoing relationship with your work" is vital to your business. It is easier to sell to a previous buyer than it is to find a new client. They already told you that your work is valuable to them. When you get home from the festival, send them a hand-written thank you note for their purchase. Put them on your e-broadcast list. Ask them to Fan or Friend you on Facebook. Regularly, tell them about what you are working on. Post images of your latest work on your website and your Facebook page. Tell them where your work will be shown. Invite them to your Open House. Keep your name and your work in their minds. Ask for referrals.

I know, I know... and I hear you even while you are reading this... "I don't have time to write thank you notes." "I don't want to get involved with Facebook. It takes too much time." "I don't want people tromping through my home-based studio." You are in business. Marketing yourself is of utmost importance.

Write those thank you notes. A note will really, really impress your buyer. Sign up for a Facebook profile or page. It is free, and easy enough to set up. If I can do it, YOU can do it.

There are many Open House tours around the southeast. Find out where one is around you. If you don't want people coming to your studio, ask a studio owner who does open his doors if you can have some space in his Open House. Take the time to nurture your business.

With all that is happening, to be successful, it is more important than ever to act thoughtfully.

A very sad story about a local man who seemed a pillar of the community had embedded in it a lesson for exhibitors. As Howard Sills, Putnam County's Sheriff puts it, "Those types of trailers (referring to concession trailers)are the highest theft items in the State of Georgia. I know it seems strange, but this kind of theft is as common as the rain." I've been in the festival industry for 30+ years and was not aware that concession trailer theft was even an issue. If you use a concession trailer in your business, please beware! Keep the insurance commiserate with both the trailer and contents. And do your best to make stealing the trailer very, very difficult.

Sarah Kuhn, Jaimie Painter Young and Dany Margolies posted a blog entry at Backstage, the Actor's Resource that hit it to the bleachers with me. I've taken their 10 Ways to Advance Your Career and adjusted them to Events2000 blog readers' concerns:

1) Have an advocate. Who's willing to be in your corner and pitch for you? Who's looking at the big picture, constantly readjusting your long range vision, selling your talent?

2) Find a Supportive Environment. Where is it that you can go and people understand what you are trying to do? Some creative types belong to artscentric organizations, or have their studio in a co-op or center with other working artists. Do you know who's in your area? Do you have a group you can throw ideas off of? Look around. Find some support, even if it's your best friend.

3) Offer your talents to projects in the schools. Project-based creative programming is becoming more popular as schools find less time to teach art. Teachers of various subjects - shop, technology, science, math - are collaborating with area artists to enhance the creativity of their students in projects. Call the principal of your middle school; see if she knows of such activities for the coming school year.

4) Create something different. Have you been thinking of trying video? or carving? or textiles? Go wild. See what comes out of your hands when your heart is leading the way.

5) Take a look at the way you present yourself and your work. Is your work well coordinated so that one piece easily draws the viewer into the next? Do you have a good story that people can repeat to others as they are showing off their latest purchase from you? Do you keep your collectors informed about what you are doing?

6) Give the Business Side of your work some time. Are your festival applications getting to the shows BEFORE the deadlines? Are you caught up with your monthly sales and expenditures recaps? What does your collateral (business cards, brochures, etc) look like?

7) Promote yourself as if you are selling your personality. Because you are. Years ago, we knew a quirky guy who lived in a different world than most folks. I found him on Facebook recently; and, the guy is still quirky, living in a different world. But that's how he sells his work. He's still writing, drawing, and telling stories. And his FB profile seems to indicate he's doing well. He always understood his personality was a part of his work. And it sold/still sells it.

8) Find where you belong. Do you thrive doing festivals? Is teaching what you look most forward to? Is design what excites you? Whatever it is that makes you most happy is where you belong. And nobody can find that niche but you.

9) Learn how to network. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, networking is the most important task you have every day, week, and month. Do people in your neighborhood, county and area know what you do? Are you a member of local or regional groups like the chamber or a tourism committee or arts boards of directors? Experts disagree as to how much networking a businessperson needs to do. It goes from 20% to 80% of your time on the job. Whatever the percentage, it's a wildly important part of entrepreneurship.

Fortunately, some networking can be done at your desk in your ratty tshirt and shorts. Facebook, newsletters to your peeps, phone calls just checking in, are often as important as public face-to-face meetings.

10) Shut the door on your business and do something totally unrelated. Go see the Braves play ball. Take a camping trip. Ask your six best girlfriends over and have potluck and a gab session. There should be time regularly that you take off and just have fun. Work shouldn't be your whole life! And after some time away, work often is welcoming and brings you back into the rhythm of your life.

We just got back from the July 18-19: Uncle Dave Macon Days,  held in Murfreesboro, TN.  The setting was almost idyllic, a historic district full of prior effort... A 1800s era town, complete with town hall, church, mill, blacksmithy,  school and numerous other facilities, most of them functional.  The show wound around the central town park, and was almost inundated with groups of blue grass and gospel musicians practicing their art. It was a remarkable backdrop for any show.

Attendance was strong, but sales were lackluster for such a large and well-publicized gathering (ours were about half what we earned the week before at the similar but smaller and less ambitious Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree).  Given that the event was front page news in the local paper, and Murfreesboro (a suburb of Nashville) is a much larger city than Smithville, this was all the more problematic.

Weather was near-ideal for July, so another variable that could have weighed on results was neutralized.

Some notes I made while trying to figure out the show's odd lack of productivity for its arts and crafts vendors...

The local civic and religious organizations were notably sparse. The food court was largely populated with the professional vendors one usually sees at these events.  Local groups should be key supporters of any such endeavor.  Well-heeled festival visitors were simply not there - a structural problem for whoever is planning the event's advertising and promotion.

After some discussion, we have decided to try it again next year, just to see if this was a fluke, since we both really like the venue and the wonderful historic setting. <Ed note... it wasn't a fluke. Uncle Dave Macon Days has always been MUSIC oriented.>

July 25-26: Save the Music, LaFollette, TN. CANCELLED two weeks before it was scheduled to happen!!!

OK, some strong words for these folks.  We JUST received a single page letter by mail that this show has been cancelled!  Given that we held a lengthy phone conversation with them 10 days ago, this was both surprising and financially costly for us. We made binding hotel reservations as a RESULT of that telephone conversation, during which the representative gave no warning whatsoever that the festival may/may not be held.  Everyone be advised, this show HAS been cancelled. Do NOT make any plans if you have not yet received your very tardy notification.

Updating my May 25, 2009 blog entry, FireRaine Studios has now completed the following shows:

June 6-7: Arts & Crafts Festival, Hiawassee, GA - This was a show set in the extensive Georgia Mountain Fairgrounds there, so each exhibitor had a fairly weather-tight rustic shed to sell from (no canopies needed).

The Fairgrounds is spacious and very interesting. When in full use, it features a LOT of permanent structures for various local civic groups, churches and clubs to sell food and other products. Of particular note is the extensive Frontier Village, which includes historic structures donated to the Lions Club (which owns and operates the facility). It's fantastic when all the authentic village functions spring into action, the blacksmith, the cotton gin, the various grinding and milling operations...

But unfortunately for us, NONE of these things were active during our event.

The primary draw was the list of professional performers appearing at the large music hall located on the property, many of whom were names known to me - folks with real musical talent...

But unfortunately for us, THEIR event schedule (which cost about $40 for the 2 evening slate) and ours rarely overlapped. The music STARTED Friday 1.5 hours after the advertised end of the arts and crafts show, and there was only about 3 hours overlap Saturday with the two events' schedules...

And NO music on Sunday.

Predictably, sales and attendance was awful Friday and Sunday, and spotty Saturday.

June 13: Cave Spring (GA) Festival - This is a really lovely setting for a show, in a park featuring the signature Cave Spring and on the grounds of the historic school. The show was well-attended but not huge, and rather loosely juried, but sales were good and it was a worthy effort by all concerned. The hard-working members of the local Historic Society did their best to bring an old-fashioned southern welcome to the vendors. I like the small town atmosphere and the show.

June 20: Stone Mountain (GA) Village Arts & Crafts Festival - This is one of those historic district renovations that just has not "taken". Having participated in a similar effort in Roswell, I feel for the few remaining merchants striving to keep the flame burning, but the show simply has too many strikes against it. Attendance is lacking and though cut down to 1 day from 2 last year, it is still best characterized as "struggling". With the focus on the BBQ activities dominating all, it was a physically taxing event - hot and humid, with smoke and fumes from the adjacent mega-cookers and smokers at times choking the air. Many of the visitors came expecting a "Taste of Atlanta" event, with sampling of BBQ or at least a wide assortment for sale - when in fact, the professionals were there to earn points from the judges, and rebuffed the questions of the festival's attendees.

July 3-4: Smithville (TN) Fiddler's Jamboree - This is a wonderful show for lovers of classic bluegrass music. Weather this year was particularly fine (cooler than usual, and with enough cloud cover to keep the sun at bay). The music was, as always, plentiful and amazingly good...

But the crowds were down even further from 2008, which was by all accounts a pretty down year. We made good sales, and we are returning next year, but its obvious that even a high quality, FREE show like the Jamboree is struggling with the local economy and heavy festival competition on the key 4th of July weekend.

Coming up next:

July 18-19: Uncle Dave Macon Days, Murfreesboro, TN

July 25-26: Save the Music, LaFollette, TN.

It was hot and the sunflowers weren't at their best due to severe lack of rain, but the Rutledge Georgia Sunflower Farm Festival was in high gear when I visited yesterday. But something happened there that I need to comment about...

I had barely walked into a booth when the owner came over to me and said "Anything that you see here, just ask me the price of. They are marked for what I sell them through a gallery. I have to pay a big commission there. Here, I don't. So I can do better on anything at all!"

The booth owner knew nothing about my interest level. She didn't know if I were a festival visitor, a gallery owner or a fellow exhibitor. But she freely imparted disturbing information on any level... She'd give me a better price? She'd undercut her "gallery"? Why didn't she tear off the masking tape price tags and put up the prices she wanted to sell the pieces for?

Festivals are NOT garage sales. And, if you have work in shops and galleries, do not undercut yourself.

This new economy is a different market from the past. FREE is a good thing. What about offering something (a sunflower, a cold bottle of water, a sample of your newest product) when someone makes a purchase? Added Value is a good thing. Cutting your price without provocation isn't. It never has been, though.

Another exhibitor at the Festival had a better idea. She offered a huge range of prices - $1 postcards to a $1200 original acrylic painting. Coincidentally, she is a gallery owner. Imagine her surprise when she popped into the other exhibitor's booth and was told all prices were subject to change!

Which blogs do you follow? I follow a number of them and learn several things every day. These are my recommendations... Just click over to each one and sign up for the ones that hit it to the bleachers for you:

TonyMoffitt.blogspot.com

www.artfairinsiders.com (click on the Blog link)

www.smARTistCareerBlog.com (Ariane Goodwin has a FABULOUS telesummit annually that is invaluable for your art business.)

GeorgiaMadeGeorgiaGrown.com/index.php/blog.html

SethGodin.typepad.com

KeithBond.com/blog

LuannUdell.wordpress.com

artbizblog.com

ClintWatson.net/blog

ArtsJournal.com/artfulmanager

barbarabrabec.com/announcementlist.htm

Search for blogs in your interest range. For FREE, you can connect and enjoy learning about what others in your medium are doing.

How do you make money selling your art, craft, performance or concessions? Early Spring was wretched at most festivals - rain, cold, wind seemed determined to do them in. Later in April & some weekends in May, the weather was better, but those few weekends didn't always bring in the money exhibitors & performers lost earlier. So most entrepreneurs who depended solely on shows just weren't coming up winners.

Do you market your products other ways? Through galleries or gift shops? Open Studio tours? On the internet?

I'm always tickled when exhibitors tell me they can't afford to wholesale. What do they think gambling on a show, traveling, staying overnight, buying and always upgrading display materials, investing in websites and collateral is? I counter those odd statements with "You can't afford NOT to wholesale!"

In the past month, I've been pleased to participate in several Open Studio tours. A brand new Art Stroll in Washington Georgia was a great start to what can develop into a strong stream of income. Galleries, workshops and individual artists' studios/homes opened to the public. A few hundred visitors attended, enjoyed meeting and talking to the artists, having locally-prepared snacks and wine, and often, buying artworks. And several of the artists picked up workshop/classes patrons.

The internet has dozens of sales venues, even if you do not want to do your own Online Store. Etsy.com , RedBubble.com , www.handmadecatalog.com , www.fineartamerica.com and www.gmgg.org are a few sites offering low cost/no cost, easy setup.

I just read a Grand Re-Opening ad from Cabot Lodge in Ridgeland MS... "Please join us for guided tours, fantastic hors d'oeuvres, cocktails and craft demonstrations from some of Mississippi's finest artisans." Could an activity like this turn into a Stream of Income? Perhaps... Look at the possibilities.

Management from Cabot Lodge HQ, the architect, the developers, the builders will be meeting and greeting; chamber/CVB reps will be on hand. Other attendees may include restaurant and other local business owners, and your friends and neighbors. The occasion may be excellent for NETWORKING. The old saw "It's not who YOU know, it's WHO KNOWS YOU" is right on the money. What better way to make sure your product is in the minds of leaders and buyers than to participate in a gathering...

Most exhibitors go slowly in the hot Southern summers. Take some time to think about and develop other streams of income.

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

Just wanted to drop a line about the Canton Arts Festival held 2 weeks back in Canton, GA. VERY well run and organized show, and one that was finally housed in the town's cozy old downtown Park (where it should always occur, in my opinion). We had rain almost solid both days, always a chore for an artist like me that sells drawings, paintings and prints on paper, but the organizers were amazing, and the local shoppers brought their umbrellas and shopped! This was an "average" sales show for me, DESPITE the terrible weather. I rarely write these reviews (as such this is) but felt that the local Canton Arts group that puts on this show deserves cudos all around. I have NO critique for what they did (and it is my usual habit of being over-critical that usually holds me back from doing show reviews). Please keep this in mind when viewing any reports or listings for this show. Canton did a bang-up job.

It's always a treat to hear from a happy artist. Thank you, Stan Bruns, for this review!