Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival 2007

<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>Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival</B><B> 2007</B></div> <div> <B>6260 N.W. 19 Street, Sunrise, 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="#DDDDDD" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>March 16-18, Fairhope, Al.  55</B><B>th</B><B> Fairhope Arts and Crafts Festival.  Contact: Eastern Shore Chamber of Commerce, P. O. Drawer 310, Daphne, Al. 36526, Ph: 251-621-8222.  Web: www.eschamber.com  </B></div> <div> <B>App fee: $25.00, Space fee: $265.00, space size 10x10.  Number of spaces 234, 450 applications last year.  $14,000.00 in awards.  </B></div> <div> <B>This was our first year participating in this show.  We live in South Florida and drive to Houston for The Bayou City Arts Festival the weekend after Fairhope.  Patty and I decided, we have to drive right past here on our way to Houston, lets leave a little early and do two shows for basically the same gas money as one.  We heard this was a well established show with good attendance and there are lots of high value real estate in the area.  Sounds good, right?  </B></div> <div> <B>Actually there are two shows here right next to each other.  One put on by the Chamber, the other put on by the Eastern Shore Art Center.  They are both well organized and most patrons don't realize there are two different shows.  Some artists we spoke with prefer one show while others claim to sell better at the other show.  Go figure!  </B></div> <div> <B>Setup for the Chamber show starts at 7:00 pm on Thursday evening.  We figured with everyone trying to set up at the same time it would be quite hectic.  We arrived at 9:00 pm and except for a few other artists we had the place to ourselves.  I was able to park right next to our booth for the entire setup.  Booths are in the street and arranged back to back in sets of four so every booth has a corner spot.  Booths are off set to one side of the street to allow for vehicle traffic on the other side.  This means two of the four booths have a very wide area for patrons to walk and the opposite two booths have a very narrow area for patrons to walk.  Our booth was on the narrow side and on one of the side streets but right on one of the intersections with the main street.  I'd have to say we did get good traffic past our booth all weekend.  </B></div> <div> <B>Sales for us was another story.  Coming off of such a great show the previous weekend in Vero Beach, we were hoping to keep the momentum going but it was just not the case.  We passed out lots of business cards and heard lots of compliments but had no sales!  Most of the artists I spoke with selling high end work found this a tough sell this weekend.  I spoke with two photographers, both selling fairly low end work and both reported above average sales.  One sculptor reported about an average show, a wood worker had slightly above average sales, a clay artist said sales for him was slightly below average and a fabric artist selling low end work reported average sales for the show.  </B></div> <div> <B>All said they would return to try again next year.  Patty and I will come back for at least one more try, we like to give a show at least two years before giving up.  It is on our way to Houston and we really enjoyed the town and the people of Fairhope.   If you do not have to travel too far or you can combine this show with another show I would recommend you to give this show a try if you have some moderately priced items you can rely on for sales.  </B></div> <div> <B>Breakdown was much easier than anticipated.  We had planned on going to dinner and avoiding the madness but there was room for our truck and trailer right next to our booth as we were packing up so I drove over, parked and we were out of there in under 90 minutes total.  Probably one of the easiest breakdowns we have ever had for a show on the street.  </B></div> </td> </tr></table></body>