Atlanta Dogwood Festival Reviews.

Medium: Painting
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:
2015
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $500
Price Range of your Work: 30-2000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show:
2-3 times
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: Forever...
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5
Location: 5
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 1
Sales: 1
Overall: 2
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
It did not rain on Saturday or Sunday during load out.

Load out went well, was organized allowing a timely exit.

Judges did make sure that you knew they were looking at your work.

They had dedicated port-a-lets for vendors and mostly was honored by visitors.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Badly organized load in.

No oversize parking, and the one parking garage was very difficult to get to. No maps just addresses for a very confusing city. No breaks on parking anywhere.

People coming into the park were mostly there for food and entertainment and drinking.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Most sales were of smaller items for tents near the entrances. This is a very large show and is laid out around a very large pond. If you are near an entrance bring a lot of $20 - to $40 items for impulse buyers. I did see larger items walking out. Framed pieces but cannot say how much they were sold for.

I saw a lot of matted art also. A lot of yard art came past my tent also.

I did this show in 2007. It was great. I sold large pieces for over 1000. Perhaps it was my location this time as I was near an entrance, many customers were reluctant to purchase and said as much, they knew there were another 250 tents to see and did not want to spend right away.

If you are a Georgia artist you have a great spot as the Georgia artists were in the middle of the circuit. someone has to be on the end, so if you are, plan accordingly with lots $10 to $60 products. Art does sell here.

As far as the parking and other issues with setting up, I was told that this year there were new volunteers so maybe they will get better, when I asked for a map to find the parking at check in the volunteers said, "that's a good idea" but they did not have one this year. We were not even given a map of the fair layout or the park.

Last time I did the show I don't remember paying a lot for parking, but the oversize lot that was supposed to cost $25, did not exist and we had to pay $40 a day to park. Street parking was available if you could find it.

Posted by: Jennifer Hamilton | 04/15/2015 at 02:03 PM

Show Name: Atlanta Dogwood Festival
City and State: Atlanta, GA
Your Medium: Wood
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2013
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $2001-$5000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 2-3 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5 (great)
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 5 (great)
Overall: 5 (great)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Great
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Fantastic art buying crowd. Not just a social event. Plenty of knowledgeable patrons.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Load in can be a bit of a pain. You have a scheduled load in time. First meet up at the Atlanta Civic Center then get police escorted on site as a group, based on booth number. Plan on 2 hours to unload and set up. Good for some people, others were set up in under an hour then were impatient, waiting for the group to exit the park.
Late afternoon is not good for sales. Lots of folks carrying their fair food/kettle corn.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Take a deep breath when you finish setting up and patiently wait for the group to exit the park.

Posted by: Matt Estrada | 05/16/2014 at 11:39 AM

Show Name: Dogwood Festival, Piedmont Park
City and State: Atlanta, GA
Your Medium: Other
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2012
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $2001-$5000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 3-5 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 4
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 3
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair: This is home area for me about a 45 minute drive. So no hotel expenses. This show gets 250,000 people BUT most are not there to buy art. It is a numbers game that you will eventually sell to those who came to the show to buy art. My medium is Soft Pastel and I am put in the drawing category, which in any show is the smallest category so my odds of jurying in is good. Well organized, they stage for load in and you are given a time for that. The police stop the traffic and you caravan in. They give you a pass for a parking garage at a discount of $5.00 per day. It is a bit of a walk from the garage. It is tough to find street parking but I know where to look, most would not. The amenities are scarce, ie food but I don't do shows based on the breakfasts etc. The hospitality tent can be a hike depending where your space is. This is a 3 day show and the hours are long. They also put all Georgia artists in one location, which can be an advantag e to us locals. you can price line hotels pretty reasonably in town but usually have to pay $20.00 at the hotel for parking.

Bad Things about this Art Fair: Set up is Thursday and Friday hours are 12 to 7 pm. very long and very few buyers on Friday. A waist for most artists. Saturday is 10 to 7, again a long day with overwhelming crowds. Sunday the same crushing crowds. This is a big show with about 300 artists. The competition to get in is tough. it is the largest and most known show in Atlanta. Load out can be tough but It always seems that we have good luck and are out of the park in 1 hour. You must breakdown and get a pass out and the police decide when you are allowed into the park.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: You need your walking shoes to do this show as parking is blocks away.

Posted by: Virginia Dauth | 04/21/2013 at 01:55 PM

I have to reemphasize how good this show was for me in 2012. It was my 1st time. I have handtinted black and white photography. Crowds were great and feedback was also great.

Posted by: Susan Bock | 07/21/2012 at 08:47 AM

Show Name: Atlanta Dogwood Festival
City and State: Atlanta, GA
Your Medium: Painting
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:2012
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $2001-$5000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5 (great)
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 3
Sales: 4
Overall: * 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Good
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair: Lots and lots of people. Weather was almost perfect for an outdoor fair, not too hot, not too cold. Crowd was interested. Art available was really, really good. Good food too! Hours of show were perfect. Some of the other artists I knew reported great sales.

Bad Things about this Art Fair: Bad is not a word I would use .....there was nothing really BAD about the show at all except that I was there alone and wish I could have walked the whole thing at one time... There was a lot of 2-D work. Maybe too much in terms of competition for 2-D artists/photographers. Happy to have the sales I did considering all the competition.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: Bring your patience for set-up and tear down. If you can't handle the wait times and the way this is done, it is not for you...

Additional Commentary on this Show (or about this form): This is a Festival....music, entertainers, carnival, dog frisbee competition etc. You need to understand this going in. Be-backs could be tough as the show layout is HUGE. It's a long walk from top to bottom but there is something for everyone here. Sometimes I think about the shows in the sense of 'If I was a fair-goer'. I would have loved to spend the day at this fair, truly.

Posted by: Mary Johnston | 05/07/2012 at 03:10 AM

Show Name: Dogwood
City and State: Atlanta, GA
Your Medium: Jewelry
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2011
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $5001-$7500
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5 (great)
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 5 (great)
Overall: 5 (great)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Great
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Great location in Piedmont Park in downtown Atlanta. This is the premier show for Atlanta and is very well attended. This was my first time to get into the show and sales exceeded my expectations.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Load in and out is challenging since the location only allows one way passage and you have a staged time for admittance. It can be very windy so be prepared with weights. You have very little storage space behind you booth and can not store anything on the grass.

Crowds hang around long after the close of the show so it is hard to get vehicles into the show for load out. Parking is a long walk to the show.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Difficulties of the show are small considering the show potential. Sales are the goal not the show conditions. Some 2-D exhibitors did not do very well. Booth sitting is poorly handled, but staff in general are great.

Posted by: Michael Stephens | 06/17/2011 at 11:01 AM

Tthe 75th Dogwood Festival in stunning Piedmont Park, Atlanta:

Load in was extremely organized (the city police were in charge) and and even though there was a lot of waiting to be brought to a section, it went off with out a hitch. We were able to set up on Thursday and Friday morning with ample space behind our booth for the most part.

On Friday the show opened to a medium sized crowd because it was cloudy and all day impending clouds looked threatening. We were supposed to be opened until 9 but the organizers came by and since there was to be a big storm said that it would be a good idea if we could clear out by 7:30, which most of us did. Storms that night were pretty awful and I know that most of us wondered what we would arrive to the next day- but the brunt of the storm didn't hit the middle of the city, so all we had to deal with was a lot of standing water and in my case a soggy indoor-outdoor rug. Since my booth smelled like a wet dog my husband went to buy a squeegie at Home Depot and that really helped.

The crowds came in droves...it was wonderful! Interested educated public that wanted to discuss art and genuinely interested in the artists work. And BUYING big time! I think that people are just sick of being frugal and plus it was a beautiful day and the beer and margarita booths were on every corner too.

I had my best day on Saturday but the fiber artist next to me was really worried that she wouldn't make expenses (she had come from Calif.) but on Sunday she made bank and it was a good show for her.

The show is laid out all over the park with 260 (I think that is the number) artists- it's massive and I didn't get to see half the artists exhibiting so I can't speak for the whole show. As with every show some did better than others, I certainly have had horrible shows but this one proved to be the best of the year for me.

The show organizers came around frequently and talked to us asking if we needed anything and what were our thoughts- I have never had so much personal input from this size show and it just proves that The Festival is a well oiled machine.

Sunday was a bit cooler but the crowds were out in force again and it was a busy day for most.

Take down was as organized as it could be- The city doesn't want any parking on the grass and the walkways are narrow so there was a long line to park on one side and leave on another. Plus, there were so many crowds that even though the show closed at five we could not start bringing in vehicles until seven.

The people around me did pretty well and the Best in Show went to a sculptor down the way with large scale work that was incredible. I have no idea about any of the other prizes- I was too busy and too far away.

Breakfast was provided each day to artists and people were extremely nice. Great venue, great people, great city....

...GREAT SHOW 2011 DOGWOOD

Posted by: marge Luttrell | 05/17/2011 at 12:18 AM

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