Bele Chere

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=90 BGCOLOR="#006699" TEXT="#080000" background="05bfd5a3.jpg"> <div> <B> Bele Chere 2006</B></div> <div> <B>6260 N.W. 19 Street, Sun</B><B>rise, Fl. 33313 Toll Free 1-877-512-3333    Email: </B><A HREF="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:mike@mikealbin.com"><U><B>mike@mikealbin.com</B></U></A></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=210 BGCOLOR="#FFCC66" TEXT="#080000" background="05cd2043.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Mike Albin.Com "><U>Mike Albin.Com </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="wd.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Web design"><U>Web design</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="ma.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Articles"><U>Marketing Articles</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="sr.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Show Reviews"><U>Show Reviews</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="mt.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Marketing Tools"><U>Marketing Tools</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="l.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U>Links</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=390 BGCOLOR="#777777" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>July 28-30, Bele Chere, Asheville, North Carolina. </B></div> <bR> <div> Bele Chere is more of a music festival, with art on the side. Most of the festival-goers are here to see one of the numerous bands on one of the many stages scattered through the streets of downtown Asheville. Connecting all of the stages are rows and rows of street vendors, food booths, artists, crafters, buy/sellers and corporate sponsors. The booths are there to give festival-goers something to see or buy as they walk from one stage to the other. Nearly all of the marketing is geared toward music.</div> <div> The juried fine artists are in two adjacent parking lots (called Arts Park), and the area is large enough to hold 60 or so booths. Arts Park gets a lot less traffic than booths on the street, but patrons are starting to realize that this is where the fine artists are. There was a new addition to Arts Park this year, a mammoth corporate-sponsor booth that left the area with about 10 fewer exhibitors than usual. Not a welcome sight for artists!</div> <div> Asheville is one of our favorite cities to visit, tucked away in the mountains of western North Carolina. It has great restaurants, cool summer nights and a diverse group of people. Bele Chere, however, means long hours - the show goes until 9 p.m. - and it's usually very hot on the asphalt. It seems to storm at least one day every year. On top of that, security has been a problem here in the past, with booths being vandalized and urinated on, but this year the city seemed to make security more of a priority. </div> <div> Setup can be fairly easy if you know where to park, but some dollying may be required. The show is usually well organized, with friendly and helpful staff. Plus, Bele Chere awards prizes totaling $3,500. New people ran Arts Park this year, though, and several problems arose from their lack of experience.</div> <div> Sales are usually about average. This was our seventh year, and sales for us were slightly above average. They were helped by a really good Sunday, sending out a mailing list and attracting return business from previous years.</div> <div> I spoke with three photographers: One had a slightly above-average show, while the other two reported slightly below-average totals. Two jewelers reported, one claming average sales and the other slightly below average. Two painters had the same story, and one potter reported average sales. </div> <div> Several artists I spoke who were exhibiting at Bele Chere for the first time said they would not be back because of the long hours, hot temperatures and young, partying crowds that were too much to deal with.</div> <div> Those new artists were right about at least one thing: The 29th annual show was hot! The country was in the middle of a heat wave, and Asheville was not spared. Patty and I have signs in our booth made of PVC pipe, and one of them melted - that's never happened before!</div> <div> Breakdown was well organized and fairly easy. We dismantled our double booth and dollied across one of the parking lots in about 90 minutes. We'll definitely be back next year.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>