Art Under the Stars Reviews'

Medium: Photography
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2016
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $500
Price Range of your Work: $10 - $495
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) 1
Location: 5
Facilities: 5
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 1
Overall: 2
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Great location in a beautiful park. Great artist amenities, including hot breakfast Sat/Sun, real bathrooms, attentive volunteers.

I like the nighttime hours, it makes for a unique show. The Rotary really stepped up promotion this year (although, it didn't seem to enhance attendance).

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
Attendance was best on Friday night, but everyone was there to socialize, not buy. There were more people at the concert than in the booth areas.

Attendance Saturday and Sunday was not good. (Saturday was understandable, a huge event in downtown Orlando was rescheduled to that day due to Hurricane Matthew.) Not enough customers to justify three days. Saturday is really long, 10 to 9.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show: This is a very social event (especially during the nighttime hours) with people looking for a night out, not necessarily to shop for art.

The artists that did well had really unique products. The traffic is just not there for this to be a really good show.

Additional Commentary on this Show:
My booth was in the worst possible location, blocking an exit. The Rotary staff tried to "sell" it to me as a "cul-de-sac" that people would linger in, which I knew was a load of BS. There was no way for me to have a good show in that location. I should've asked to be moved.

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

Posted by: Karen Kurta | 12/14/2016 at 12:44 AM

Show Name: Art Under the Stars, The 37th Maitland Rotary Art Festival
City and State: Maitland, Florida
Your Medium: Painting
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2013
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: < $500
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4
Location: 5 (great)
Facilities: 5 (great)
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 2
Overall: 5 (great)
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Okay
Estimated Attendance: Not really sure.

Good Things about this Art Fair:
This is Florida's only night-time fine art festival and what a magical event it was with each booth lit up and all the twinkling lights reflected in the lake. There seemed to be lots of enthusiastic crowds on both Friday and Saturday nights. I had a spot on the lake and absolutely loved it.

This was my first art festival ever and being an oil painter, I'd been warned that it wasn't uncommon not to sell anything until people had seen you and felt that they knew you. I did, however, make a few small sales that covered my booth fee. Both the woodworker who made boxes and the jeweler who were my neighbors seemed to be making some nice sales. The location and the maintenance of the grounds and facilities were fantastic.

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
The hours were long: Fri 6-10, Sat 10-10, and Sun 10-5, but there was talk of changing to easier hours next year. Not having done any other festivals, I have a hard time thinking of what people might not have liked about this festival... the downpour that happened right as we were all packing up wasn't good but of course was out of the event organizers' hands. I don't know the extent of the advertising.

Additional Commentary on this Show:
This was my first art festival ever and the most challenging thing about it was setting up my tent the first day. While I'd set up the basic tent in my driveway, I hadn't set it up with the add-ons such as awnings, french wall and rear door. I wish I'd practiced setting up the whole thing beforehand so that the first day wasn't so difficult.

Posted by: Helen Avalon | 11/07/2013 at 09:37 PM

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