The Fountain Hills Great Fair of Fine Arts & Crafts Reviews..

Welcome to the Art Show reviews for The Fountain Hills Great Fair of Fine Arts & Crafts

Art Fair:  The Fountain Hills Great Fair of Fine Arts & Crafts

Location:  Fountain Hills, Arizona
Held on the Avenue of the Fountains

Dates:   February 21 - 23, 2020

Presented By:   Fountain Hills Chamber of Commerce

Founded:   1986

Show Type:  Outdoor

Expected Attendance:   200,000 people

Exhibiting Artists:   500

Artist Application Deadline:   November 12, 2019

Jury Fee:   $30 

Booth Fee:    $500 - $1,000

Web site:  www.fountainhillschamber.com

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Comments

[Dan Skaggs]

Your Medium: Painting

Year you most recently exhibited at this Show:
2024

Your Estimated Sales at this Show: < $500

Price Range of your Work: 500-2500

Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show: 1st time

Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: Forever...

Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 4

Location: 3

Facilities: 4

Ease of Participating: 2

Sales: 1 (poor)

Overall: 1 (poor)

Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor

Estimated Attendance: 501-10,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
well organized and executed

What could this Art Fair have done better?:
Be honest that this is as much flea market as it is a juried art show

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Too much low end flea market stuff for an "Art Show"

Additional Commentary on this Show:
Very deceptive on what the show is about and the so called "jury" Seems like if you could fog a mirror, your're in.

The URL of your profile on ArtFairInsiders.com.
http://artbydanskaggs.com

[Steve Appel]

Just got a survey from the fountain hills show, i figured it would be from survey monkey's WAS I WRONG! The survey wanted to know if they went up in price to 550 would it help the show. WHAT A JOKE! As was mentioned in an earlier post if the show was free an artist would not do the show. With no parking, and setup, and teardown a disaster, and all the buy/sell suggestion to anyone thinking about it stay home unless you sell buy/sell

[Steve Appel]

Medium: Metal
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2017
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $501 - $2,000
Price Range of your Work: $30 - $100
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) 2
Location: 4
Facilities: 5
Ease of Participating: 4
Sales: 1
Overall: 2
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 10,001 - 50,000 people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Bathrooms were convenient and clean. Food was within walking distance to the booth space I had.

There was some real nice art at this show, but then again there was a lot of Buy/sell. And the way I see that is there were a lot of dishonest artists.

Parking if you were on the East side of the show was good.

What could this Art Fair have done better?:
Some kind of coordination in letting artist in to set up and tear down. It was chaos, after 30 years of this show existing one would think they would learn from the mistakes.

GET RID OF THE BUY/SELL. Advertise like they did 15 years ago. Saw nothing on local TV saw 1 sign on Shea blvd. pointing to the show.

They added another street to the fair so now there are more booths and less money to go around.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
Stay home, find another show. Not worth the time

Additional Commentary on this Show:
Saw a lot of buy/sell at the show and instead of worrying about filling space get better quality. This used to be a good show 20 years ago. What happened, I think they are greedy.

The URL of your profile on ArtFairInsiders.com. http://boltpeople.com

See my blog on ArtFairInsiders.com for additional commentary on this Show

http://boltpeople.com

[Steve Appel]

Did great fair in fountain hills and it far from Great, Actually it was a Terrible Fair, Setup which i missed was horrific as usual, and teardown was even worse since i was there for that. My neighbor said setup was bad. I emailed Paige and asked if there was going to be some sort of order to this and she said no. I do not think they care. I barely made my booth fee, with show fee, travel, hotel, not worth traveling less than 100 miles. Walked the show and quite a bit of buy/sell. Windows, knifes for the kitchen, direct tv. There was one booth that i saw at the show was all stuff you get at a swapmeet it was all cheap junk. How this artist got in is beyond me except i believe they are good friends with the promoters. Parking is a mess do to all the construction around the main drag. If someone were to ask me if they should do the show i would tell them stay home or find a better show. Buyers as mentioned above most retired and not buying unless for there grand kids. I did the show 12 years earlier and thought maybe i should try again. MISTAKE!!!

[Bob Franzese]

Medium: Photography
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2017
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: < $500
Price Range of your Work: $395 - $5,000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show:
1st time
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall:
5-10 years
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5
Location: 5
Facilities: 1
Ease of Participating: 1
Sales: 1
Overall: 1
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Location. Security. Booth sitters

What could this Art Fair have done better?:
Fair made it needlessly extremely difficult to load in and load out.

The majority of booths are buy sell selling cheap crap. It is not an art show. Artists were treated like dirt. They should have half the number of booths and enforce buy sell restriction.

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
If you sell fine art don't do it. Every fine artist we talked to is not returning. I would never do again even it it were free.

See my blog on ArtFairInsiders.com for additional commentary on this Show *

[Robert Johnson]

Medium: Wood
Year you most recently exhibited at this Show: 2016
Your Estimated Sales at this Show: $500
Price Range of your Work: $175 - $3000
Number of Years You have Exhibited in this Show:
1st time
Number of Years You have been doing Art Fairs overall: 3-5 years
Attendance: (1 is poor, 5 is great) 5
Location: 5
Facilities: 5
Ease of Participating: 5
Sales: 1
Overall: 3
Booth Fee vs. Your Sales Ratio: Poor
Estimated Attendance: 50,001+ people

Good Things about this Art Fair:
Great Location

Bad Things about this Art Fair:
This show is is too big for the size of the market. Lot of very low-end crafts and Buy Sell vendors abound, even though they're officially forbidden.

Load-in and take-down are in the dark. High booth fee with minimal amenities

Advice to Other Artists Considering this Show:
If you can keep your expense down give it a try but if you have to pay for lodging, food, etc think twice.

If your price range is $20 - $100 then you will probably do well.

Additional Commentary on this Show:
Love Fountain Hills and have thought about doing this show for several years, attended it as a patron several times and finally did it this year. Won't do it again.

Demographics is very poor for me and I knew this before applying but did it anyway, thought maybe the demographics were incorrect and gave it a shot.

Most are older retired or snowbirds and don't buy high end, looking for low priced items. There were some very high end art at this show, just not the majority.

This show is very heavy with BUY-SELL JUNK. Buy a article of clothing and sew a button on it and say you made it. Promoters don't care, all they want is the booth fee.

This is becoming more of a flea market than a fine art festival. Talked to many artists, (painters, photographers, ceramics, wood, mixed media) and only one mixed media did well, the rest did not even make close to booth fee.

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