Paradise City Arts Festival

<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>Paradise City Arts Festival</B></div> <div> <B>347-LOVE-ART  (347-568-3278)   Toll Free 1-877-512-3333</B><B>    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> 2004 Paradise City Arts Festival</div> <div> January 23-25 Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  3rd Annual Paradise City Arts Festival, Broward County Convention Center.  Contact: Jeff or Linda Post, Paradise city, 30 Industrial Drive East, Northampton, MA 01060 toll free: 800-511-9725. Web: www.paradisecityarts.com   </div> <div> This is an indoor show at the Broward County Convention Center.  Paradise City puts on several museum quality art shows in the north east U.S. and this show is their effort to expand throughout the country.  There were artist here from 26 different states and again the quality was very high.  As an artist you walk around the room in awe of the talent and creativity on display here.   The convention center is very upscale, a great place to be, although the booth space fee is the most expensive show we do, about triple what the average outdoor show cost.  </div> <div> Set up is on Thursday, you park on the loading dock and dolly your work into the room.  Parking was a bit of a walk but there was plenty of space and easily accessible.  </div> <div> This is a three day show that starts on Friday.  There is a $9.00 charge to get in the door and another $9.00 to park your car, so the clientele here tends to be a little more upscale than the average show.  Paradise City advertised the show in local newspapers but for whatever reason the attendance this year was still pretty disappointing.  I estimated the crowd at between 3000-4000.  I contacted Linda Post for attendance figures and she did not get back with me.  This was our second year for doing this show and last year attendance was about the same.  This is one of those shows where there aren't so many people walking around but the ones that are usually spend big so it only takes a few of them to come in and make your show a success.  At last years show we had 5-6 sales but they were big pieces so it was a good show.  This year for us we only had two customers in three days and it just wasn't enough to make our show.  Last year also we heard a lot of artists saying they made little or nothing at all and a few artists did well, this year was no different.  A jeweler and an artists selling lamps did very well, another lamp artists was hoping for follow up sales to make his show.  Several jewelers I spoke with were very disappointed, a potter that returned from last year said she did better but it was still not a good show for her.</div> <div> On Sunday Linda came around and asked several of the local artist about ideas for moving the show to a different location.  She was shaking her head trying to figure out why people in Florida just don't seem to come out for a indoor show. </div> <div> The bottom line for this show this year for us was not good but all of our shows have been down.  If you have big expensive items there are people here that will buy them.  There just were not enough of them to make this a good show for most of the artists I spoke with.  I am not sure we will do this show again next year, we are planning on trying one of their northeast shows.  Most of the artists here were veterans of those shows and had very nice things to say about them.  Linda and Jeff are two of the nicest promoters we have dealt with, very hands on and I have never seen either one of them raise their voice to an artist for anything.  They are glad to have you at their show and treat you that way.  It's quite a refreshing change from some of the other promoters screaming at you for parking violations.    </div> <div>  Break down was smooth and easy.  There seemed to be plenty of loading space for everyone.  Make sure you have a good dolly and a fresh set of legs, you do get your exercise here.<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > </FONT></div> </td> </tr></table></body>