Port Orange Art Fest Reviews'

I did the art show last year. I won a prize the year before. There seemed to be a slight mix up in judging while I waited to claim my jewelry this year, they kept questioning my number. I am not a sore loser or anything but the judges I believe were not qualified. my art was a very detailed glass enameled copper tree branch with about 8 3D glass enameled butterflies with gemstones. Weeks of work. Another artist that simply did pearl string beading (not knotted) won. When I asked the reasons, the older judge simply said.."if my grand daughter could not wear this then you could cannot win, the average person would not wear this". lol not the answer I wanted to hear-so it was judged on uninformed taste and not the skill level.Sales were not that great either.

Posted by: Brenda Cline | 11/14/2017 at 10:11 AM

I also participated in the 2017 Art Fest. I also had weak sales.
I am a jewelry maker using recycled materials. Saturday was by far the better of the two days. Sunday was pathetic, barely making $100. I heard that perhaps the main reason for poor sales was that in previous years, the local newspaper was the sponsor and that this was the first year the city of PO was in charge. There were many 'growing pains' the major one, was lack of buying clientele.
Also, the odd jurying process, prize distribution and no accessible way to find out who were the winners.
No booth sitters, no artist amenities like snacks or water
So that's the bad-

The good; Very nice venue, on asphalt, overlooking a lake/fountain, drive right to your booth. Nice jazz playing all day Saturday and this HS jazz competition was what brought out what patrons there were. Clean restrooms, well organized information and the coordinators were very nice.
Sad to say, but if you have another option that weekend, I would take it- this show has a lot of growing up to do.

Posted by: Everly Tammie | 10/20/2017 at 09:48 AM

From a vendor point of view, this was a horrible event. The people and help were great, but sales were awful. If I was the only one who didn't make any money (I was actually negative $30)I wouldn't say anything. Many vendors didn't even make their table fee. I noticed that the food vendors were sitting around without sales. The event coordinators allowed the concession stand to be open on Saturday, which killed sales for the street food vendors. The music was provided by local high school jazz bands, which is a cool idea, but the parents and students most certainly were no buying anything other that $5 items. No beer, no rock or blues bands = disaster for the vendors.

Posted by: June Brown | 06/05/2017 at 05:28 PM

Hello Paul, We have not heard who won the awards at
the Port Orange Art Fest. Sorry, but if you can't find the results they must not have published them.

Posted by: Jacki Bils | 05/28/2017 at 11:20 PM

Who were the Award winning artists in the 2017 Port Orange art show. I have been to the News Journal but could not find the list.

Posted by: Paul Pilblad Sr. | 05/24/2017 at 01:29 PM

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