My first question that morning was: Why in the Bloody Hell is Everything in My Art Tent WET?
My second question was: Is THAT a sprinkler head?
And yes, yes it was.
I was all set up on Saturday morning at the Delray Beach Craft Festival. Now, I generally stay away from straight craft festivals because I prefer to do juried art/fine craft shows, but this was being held
in a popular cultural area of Florida (Palm Beach county), and it was a week before I'm set to go on vacation, so a little extra cash would be outstandingly helpful.
This is a "promoter-run show," which means it is staged, promoted and run by a company whose sole purpose in life is to make their living from filling up 10 X 10 spots in popular cities with artists and crafters looking to make a buck. Most of these places are in public parking lots, mall parking lots, public parks and smaller downtown venues. But, that's a whole 'nother blog post to come. Anyway, the objective is to get as many artists as they can to fill up those spots to pay their application fees and booth fees as to pay for all the public permitting, facility use, staffing, police security, and other sundry costs, and still make a ton of money for themselves. So, the point being, their reputation as a promoter of art shows and art show venues is at stake if they screw up.
Now, I have done many promoter-run shows. Some promoters have a genuine love of the game, and some know that it is just plain profitable. Low-end cost on a promoter-run booth fee is $225. Multiply that by, let's say, 120 (classified as a "boutique" show) and what do you have? $27,000. is your answer. Now, remember, that does not include the "application" fee of (low-end) $15...which adds another $1,800. That is a craft vendor fee. Artists fees are higher (low-end $405; application fee $25)
with food vendors even higher (because they make a LOT more money than artists). Promoters increase their costs down the line to the artists, crafters and food vendors depending on the costs in the area. For example, South Florida venues are much more expensive to promote than Central Florida shows due to use costs, so the fees for Art Gypsies are higher, to offset that cost.
All this to say, we are ultimately paying the entire cost of doing the shows, therefore, we deserve
to have reasonable accommodations, such as (preferably) level ground, space behind the tents to store additional inventory and necessary items, and some sort of security overnight. The other perks, like dedicated parking, booth-sitters and water/breakfast are great, but Art Gypsies are a hearty bunch, and never without our own provisions.
Didn't make money at this show on Saturday, but decided as we were in a seafood town, to at least treat ourselves to great food and music, and then hunker down in the motel for a Golden Selling Day on Sunday.
When we opened the tent on Sunday morning, the place was flooded. Not wet with overnight rain (none). Not wet with humidity (some, but not like that). Wet as in torrential, all-morning SPRINKLERS. And, of course, my booth was set up directly on top of one.
I had pools of water IN my closed plastic bins. I had water-damaged art hanging on the walls (24 pieces in total). My booth banner was soaked, my walls were soaked, my chairs were soaked.
Not one thing was left untouched by the sprinkler, which was finally located under my sales table in the back left corner of the booth.
Now, after my blood pressure and migraine headache subsided...
I asked the two men who "help" out with this promoter show what could be done...they just stared at me with a blank expression and shrugged. Many of the other craft people who do this show on an annual basis, as well as other shows by the promoter, just said they were amazed that no-one told the Tennis Center at Delray Beach (where the show was held) to turn OFF the sprinklers.
I probably have no real recourse, but I will pursue a line of questioning to the promoters on how they could compensate me for lost art. You can bet it will be a question I ask every single time I apply to one of these promoter shows...have you done your due diligence?
No comments:
Post a Comment