Hello, Everybody

I’m going to go ahead and admit that I’m a complete newcomer to setting up any sort of event, but that I’d sincerely appreciate any advice that anyone can give, keeping in mind that I’m new to the process from square one. If someone could define for me exactly where that first square is it would be greatly appreciated and that’s the thrust of my question.

What’s step one? My main area of interest is in setting up arts and crafts shows featuring the works of local artists. I know craft festivals can be pretty profitable but my main interests are mostly social. I’d like to involve local craft vendors as much as possible and give them a place to show off and sell their wares.

At the moment I’m thinking that finding the place to hold the fair might be the best first move. I could probably organize the craft fair at one of our local community buildings, but I have no idea how to determine how much space I’ll need. I have some trepidation about asking local craft vendors to sign up before I have a venue or a solid plan and, of course, I need a solid plan before I can get a venue! If anyone out there has experience with organizing fairs and festivals on a low budget and from the very first event onward, I’d be very appreciative. I’m glad I found this forum and hope someone out there can help me out!

Hi, and welcome to the wonderful world of craft fairs!  To start with,  one of the best pieces of advice I can give you about starting your own craft fair is to try to find out how much interest you can generate frm local artists.  Talk to a few potential vendors and find out what type of space they would need and see how many people might be interested.

Craft fairs are certainly profitable, but they also offer the fun and opportunity that you mention.  I have been to many local arts and craft shows that have truly managed to showcase the best that the area has to offer on a surprisingly low budget.  In fact, many churches are willing to offer up their basements or fellowship halls, and I find that in small towns civic centers and local parks are also excellent choices.  By keeping the overhead low or even nonexistent, you can put together a show on almost any budget.  If your artists are able to bring tables or displays, you may find it quite easy to put together a show with little money.

Advertising your craft show can be easy as well, and internet postings, newspaper classified ads, and signs throughout the area are often all it takes to bring in a wonderful crowd. 

Let me know if you have more questions or if I can be of more help.  I am always willing to offer my experience and knowledge to more people looking to help keep craft fairs alive and thriving and to keep local artists able to share their gifts.

Hi All!

I was the program director for a mid-sized community center and was in charge of handling their first ever craft fair and farmer’s market. I have to admit that it was much more complex than I could possibly imagine. The first recommendation I would make is to plan ahead, and plan for contingencies.

What eventually happened was that the weather was my only enemy and on the morning of the event the rain poured down. Now, that wasn’t a problem because it was an indoor event with good parking, but the water on the gymnasium floors became downright deadly! This means that considering the location requires you to consider any sort of possible problem as well as benefit.

Planning ahead also means being realistic about craft vendors and the prices that they can afford for their booths. I did a bit of research and got some snarky feedback before settling on a somewhat low per booth price. This got us a ton of experienced craft fair participants, which meant organizing the space. I had to ask each vendor what they sold and then assign spaces in such a way as to prevent three jewelry makers from lining up in a row, etc.

My final advice is about advertising, and craft show listings should be posted everywhere and anywhere. It was frustrating to hear people say that they had no idea we were doing the craft fair and farmer’s market when we had posters and signs all over town. What I learned was that people scout out arts and crafts shows in the newspapers and online.

Hello everyone,

CrochetLady, I’d like to add a bit to your statement about advertising. My family and I hail from northern Florida, not far from the borders of both Alabaman and Georgia. As the area in all three states is decidedly rural (unless you head down to the panhandle coast), there are a number of pretty small towns that put on regular arts and crafts fairs. My wife got me into candle and soap making for our local fair (more to enjoy doing something with the townsfolk than for any hope of profit) and it quickly became clear to me that quite a few people don’t know enough about marketing their fair or festival.

Anyway, two years or so after we started going, I decided to see what I could do to drum up some business. I’ve found that the Internet is a treasured tool, what with forums like this one where you can post ads and quite a few other options, too. That said, I’ve also found it a bit limited, particularly with the very rural areas and small venues. As the Internet tends to be so globally oriented, small time attractions like our local arts and crafts fair don’t really make the Google rankings, if you know what I mean.

I did find that a few other options work pretty well. We’ve got a couple of “free” papers that are circulated in the tri-state area and I took out a couple of well timed ads in these that seemed to have brought in a pretty good flow of traffic. I also posted fliers on local bulletin boards (you know the type - they’re in grocery stores, hardware stores, etc) and that seemed to help when the fall rolled around, too.

Have you (or anyone else, for that matter) had any luck with non-Internet centered fair marketing?

Thanks,
FairCrafterTim

Hi mkolberg,

I think it’s an awesome idea that you’re thinking of actually starting your own craft show.  I’m down here in the Texas Panhandle and other than the craft shows that you find at little churches or the high schools to support the cheerleaders, there’s not a whole lot going on.  Our Farmer’s Market is like a giant garage sale and one of our biggest events is a giant garage sale!  You got me thinking about how hard it would be to start your own little craft show and I found this article.  It’s more like an interview, but there’s some interesting ideas in it - http://westcoastcrafty.wordpress.com/2006/05/01/may-2006-organize-a-craft-fair/ . This site is obviously a great place to advertise as well, they’ve got everything on here!

Hi FairCrafterTim and everyone else,

Tim, I’ve got a little bit of info on “non-Internet centered” marketing that you might want to use. I found this article through the website - it’s about a Canadian city, but that doesn’t mean it can’t apply to you. You’re down in northern Florida, right? I’m in north Georgia and we’ve encountered a few of the same problems. This fall, I hope to encourage some of our local arts and crafts festivals to use some of the techniques they talk about in the article:

Here’s the link, btw:
http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/articles/view/festival-city-a-case-study-of-successful-festivals/500

You know, I think one of the key elements in the article that really strikes home with me is the idea of partnering with local businesses. It would be a simple thing to do and you could get those businesses to market the fair or festival to their clientele (as the business would benefit from higher attendance, as well).

Another thing that struck me is the “volunteerism” that’s present with the event in the article. I attend a convention every year and everyone on staff does the same thing - we’re all volunteers. There’s no pay, no glory, just a lot of fun helping everyone out. That strikes me as a great way to get larger fairs, festivals and even crafting conventions and exhibitions off the ground and operating with almost no overhead (at least not in the payroll department, anyway).

Well, I guess that’s enough yammering out of me for the nonce - Tim, I hope the article gives you and yours some ideas about promoting your local events and I hope that anyone else in need of some marketing inspiration finds some value in it; I know I have.

WdCrvrEd

Thanks so much for all the information! I was worried about the per booth prices because I know a lot of the local artists may not be able to pay that much but that they’d certainly draw a crowd if they could display. I was wondering if getting them to offer some assistance with setup and tear down might be worth letting some of them slide with the per booth fees.

Where there any particular types of sites on which you had luck posting advertisements? I know a fair amount of our clientele at the show will likely be older and I’m not sure where they go online to find local information. I’m sure getting any kind of search engine presence for such a thing would be out of the question and probably not worth the trouble, in all reality, as there likely won’t be that many people searching for craft fairs in this area before the event actually happens.

I was wondering about the liability thing with the wet floors. I’ll have to find out if the venue’s insurance would cover anyone wanting to go to court about some sort of accident—one never knows these days—or if I’d have to find some way to carry my own insurance and where I’d get that taken care of.

Hi!  Welcome to the craft fair world.  I really enjoyed reading all of the replies to this topic, as I feel that even after years in the business, there is always more to learn.  Everything changes over time, and learning everyone’s tips and tricks is quite helpful. 

I just returned from doing a local show all day yesterday, and I think that had I answered this post two days ago, my reply to your question may have been totally different.  Coming directly from the show has reminded me that my best piece of advice is to set up as early as you can.

I have two reasons for this.  First, when it comes to outdoor shows or anything without an admission gate, you will have early birds.  These are people who show up well before the slated opening time hoping to beat the crowd or just stopping by on their way to work or somewhere else.  If your wares are already set up, you can actually do great sales during this time.  Unfortunately when there are many early birds, if you aren’t set up yet, you may find yourself so busy answering questions and making polite banter that you still aren’t ready when the start time arrives.  Arts and craft festivals are always fun, but for me, taking the time to set up well beforehand makes the entire day run much more smoothly.

Another benefit to this is that for most of us, before the show is the only time we really have to see what other vendors are offering.  When your wares are out early, other vendors can see what you have, often offering a chance for more early sales.  It will also give you time to see what other vendors have if you aren’t busy setting up until the moment crowds arrive.

It may seem like a small tip, and in many ways it is, but it will streamline your entire experience.  It’s always nice to be accommodating to early birds, even when they are significantly early.  The sales are great, the people are always friendly, and it really seems, at least for me, that setting up early makes all of my fair events run much more smoothly.  Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions I can help with!

Hi mkolberg,

Your initial post got me thinking past my response concerning advertising. There’s a lot more to the process than just getting word out about the event. I also have to agree with the last poster’s comment about setting up early - nothing beats being there first. I’m notoriously early for everything (craft fair or not), just because I hate feeling rushed. Getting to the fair early lets me setup, talk with other vendors and still take advantage of the early bird fair goers.

In my ramblings around this website, I did run across a couple of articles that you might find useful. Here’s a link to an article that has some great information about making better money at fairs and festivals and I thought you might be able to use at least some of the information here to get going: http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/articles/view/how_to_profit_from_craft_shows1/46

This article is a little different and, as I’m from Florida, I thought it was pretty neat. Not sure if anyone else here is from my home state, but I thought I’d post the link anyway, as it does have some decent information about the process needed to be successful in a fair or festival setting: http://www.fairsandfestivals.net/articles/view/2009-florida-art-and-craft-show-season/177

FairCrafterTim

Hey guys,

The information here is really quite priceless. I love that we got the inside scoop on the organization and planning of fair events and arts and crafts shows, because I always have wondered where the figures came from for booth pricing and other expenses.

And I couldn’t agree more about the organizational aspects of running a business such as this. It is critical that we not only know what we have when we get there and how to price our goods based on the venue and the crowd, but that we learn how to project what we need. Just as stores configure a schedule based on what they have sold statistically so that they can order what the public needs, we have to create our own demographics sheet, based on what sells best and where.

This, of course, comes with time. I have had my share of setting up my booth with 100 things I love that didn’t sell, while my least favorite product was sold out after an hour because I only brought 10 of them.

Great posts guys!

Hi mkolberg,

I think it’s fantastic that you are interested in setting up a crafts show. Like wordsyouwant mentioned, there are many locales around the country that could definitely use more venues for craft events. Have you thought about hosting a cooperative show? Since you’re just starting out this might be a way to get your feet wet, so to speak. I do concessions and one thing that I have noticed as I’m starting to branch out more is that this is becoming somewhat of a trend. Basically, a group of different crafters get together and host their own craft show. Seems like a pretty good way to display your own work while splitting up all of the duties related to hosting a craft show. Also, since you mentioned that you’re working on a low budget this might be a good way to keep costs under control because everyone that participates could help fund the costs for getting it set up. I found this article that gives some ideas on how to go about holding a cooperative crafts show and thought you might be interested in it—http://artsandcrafts.about.com/od/sellingatcraftshows/tp/cooperativecraftsshows.htm. Hope it helps and you get some great ideas from it. Best of luck to you!

A lot of great points!  I’ve found that when visiting craft fairs, you really have to take the first few times as learning experiences.  I mean you will spend literally hours putting crafts together for the big show.  It’s easy to say that you should make so many crafts, but I think finding the right balance comes with time.  You start to learn the crafts fairs you go to.  So if my table starts by making 50 sculptures, and then we sell about 40% of them, we write that down and plan for the next event.

I remember the first day I really started getting into this, my cousin told me to just start slow.  She said I should just make a few items, enough that I’m comfortable with, and we can see how well they sell.  And that’s a good point, because there are always more craft shows happening somewhere in the state.  But if you wear yourself out early on trying to over-sell and over-produce, you’re just going to burn out. 

I’m a newcomer to craft festivals myself.  But for someone like me, if she were attending for the first time, I would just welcome her to the scene.  Let her enjoy talking to people and observe how the buyer and seller conversation goes.  And of course introduce this person to more experienced crafters.  I think in the end, we want more people at these art shows so they can become a part of the extended family.  In the end, we’re artists and we are stronger in numbers.  :)  Just my two cents.