RiverArtsFest Reviews.

Medium: Photography
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2016
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $5001 - $10,000
Price Range of your Work: $20 - $700
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show:
2-3 times
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: 2-3 years
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 5
Facilities: 4
Ease of Participating: 5
Sales: 4
Overall: 5
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Great
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Art savvy crowd that comes ready to buy. Great location with other area attractions that help drive traffic to the show.

Artist amenities like food, etc are 2nd to none. I was shocked this year as the show director came around on the last day of the festival to refund artists electrical connection fees because their grant request for power came through. Totally unexpected!

High level of artists from all over the country with a small mix of local artists as well. Well thought out load-in / out procedures that are clearly outlined.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Not really anything other than occasional weather. If it's nice weather, expect nice sales!!!

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Consider staying outside of downtown where the hotel prices can be high, but the local area for food, music, etc. is fantastic!

Posted by: Donald Golden | 11/03/2016 at 12:49 AM

Medium: Photography
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:
2015
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Price Range of your Work: $20-750
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show:
1st time
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: 2-3 years
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 5
Facilities: 5
Ease of Participating: 5
Sales: 3
Overall: 4
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: 10,001-50,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Very professional, high quality artists, well laid out, busy area, amenities for artists were the best I've seen.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Art buying crowd is tepid at best. Last year was monumental for rain for the weekend. Greatly impacted sales.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Do not stay downtown where hotel prices are steep!

Additional Commentary on this Show:
Tough show to get in, high quality artists, clear weather would probably bring a much better buying crowd.

The URL of your profile on ArtFairInsiders.com. http://www.artfairinsiders.com/profile/DonaldGolden

Posted by: Donald Golden | 04/05/2016 at 06:05 PM

Show Name: RiverArtsFest
City and State: Memphis, TN
Your Medium: Fiber
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2013
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 2-3 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 5 (great)
Ease of Participating: 5 (great)
Sales: 3
Overall: 5 (great)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 10,001-50,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
The volunteer staff and amenities at this show are exemplar. From the food to the indoor bathrooms it is a good show to do.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Was disappointed with my sales which were about half of what I had hoped for, and expected.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Consider carefully request for Friday night market. My other half did very well on Friday night and I was happy enough too. But some people I talked to said they had tried it before and it was not worth it. (Which is good, since we would definitely request to do that again!)

Additional Commentary on this Show (or about this form):
The costs for us were very high for this show. If you want to stay in downtown memphis it can be expensive (or scary, take your pick). Plus we have addl expensive in boarding our six dogs, which is as much as our expensive hotel. However we will try again next year because I met some new and wonderful customers who made multiple purchases, and also love Bonnie and Nancy and the other volunteers. I plan to save my hotel acct points to use next year and save about $500.

Posted by: Suzanne Ens | 11/19/2013 at 04:53 PM

I did this show in 2011. I had 8000 in sales and it was mostly to a few higher end customers. First time luck? The weather was good. I found the show easy to do logistically. I think my experience was above average. Weather was good. I like the city; the show is in a warehouse/light industry neighborhood bordering downtown that is in transition to arts and non or light manufacturing arts related lifestyle. I loved the show but it is a gamble.

Posted by: Paul willsea | 07/07/2012 at 11:23 PM

Wow, thank you for the review, I was on the fence to do the show, but I suspected it was going to be a beer stroll. Glad I didn't participate

Posted by: Barbara Poole | 02/07/2012 at 11:57 AM

Show Name: Memphis River Arts Fest
City and State: Memphis, TN
Your Medium: Photography
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2011
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501-$2000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 2-3 times
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 3
Location: 2
Facilities: 3
Ease of Participating: 3
Sales: 1 (poor)
Overall: 1 (poor)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 10,001-50,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair: The show staff is artist friendly, offering to booth sit, providing food and drink much of the day.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
The show has potential in a market this size, but the show is too spread out and has too many artists for the number of buyers. Maybe the biggest issue is the shows inability, at this point, to get the real buyers to attend. The show does get a number of people there, but people who come do not seem to see it as a real art venue, but rather just another downtown event to get a beer and walk around. The staff, I think can run an event well in many ways, but maybe the problem is that they do not see it as a real art venue either.

There were people who were having good sales, but most tended to be under $100 and the artist who brought t-shirts really seemed to be doing well.

Posted by: name witheld by request | 02/06/2012 at 04:57 PM

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