One show down and one (two-day show) to go. I'm going to be testing my endurance at the
Stone Mountain Arts and Crafts Festival this weekend. The
Indie Craft Experience took a lot out of me, but I have to say I learned a lot about how to do an outdoor crafts show.
Here's my synopsis:
The Good:
-The event was very well organized (especially the loading/unloading areas, the cooperation of the Atlanta Police Dept, the layout and identification of the booth area). This was my first outdoor show, and I'm really looking forward to doing more thanks to the ICE's organization.
-The location meant that in addition to people who had been notified via advertising and word-of-mouth, we had some buyers/viewers attend who may have just been hanging out in
Centennial Olympic Park that day.
-The ICE organizers picked some talented (and friendly) vendors to represent indie crafters. It was an honor to be among them.
The Bad:
-There was a lot of construction on the highways around the city. I wasn't affected, but I imagine others were. Coupled with the heat (see "The Ugly" listed below), I'm left to wonder if I would've made more sales on a cooler day with a more direct route into the city. Fortunately/unfortunately this wasn't the fault of the ICE organizers. I say unfortunately because it means that they can't "fix" the problem in the future.
The Ugly:
-It was hot as hell - literally. There were a few, uh, "tart" smells looming among the booths as the heat mixed with sweat. The last time I sweated that hard, I was running in the Peachtree Road Race (a 10K in Atlanta). In short, people may have just been too uncomfortable to shop like they would have with a better temperature. Again, it's unfortunate that this isn't a solvable problem in Atlanta in June. At the same time, though, at least it wasn't raining.
With all of that said, I would participate again next year, if I was juried in. I made my booth fee with some to spare. As this was my first outdoor show, hoping for big bucks was a goal but not an expectation. This was a learning experience for me.
In the future, I would hope to see more media exposure (i.e., on the news, in Creative Loafing, in the paper) to draw larger crowds. It would've been great to see news cameras out there. Also, I think there could have been a little more space between the booths, so that the walkway was more open.
I hope to incorporate what I learned about setting up my booth at next weekend's show. Come check me out!
