Art Practice: Participating in an Arts Festival
Choosing to participate as a vendor in an arts festival is an exciting opportunity. On one hand it is quite an endeavor to curate the types of works you will present, on the other, you have the opportunity to present yourself to an audience who may not be familiar with you or your work. For my first arts festival, both were true. I was excited to participate and knew it would be work to create a ‘space’ that is reflective of me and my art.
I was invited to participate in a local annual arts festival at the end of March. The actual festival took place mid-May and lasted only a few hours for one day. Because my teaching load did not conclude until the beginning of May, I felt I had enough time to complete smaller works to show and enough time to secure all of the materials needed for my tent.
One major requirement for this festival was that each vendor was to have a 10’x10’ white tent. The event coordinator was kind enough to make herself available to any vendor who had questions; and I took advantage of this offering as most of my questions centered around tents - what type? where to get them? how much to spend? Once I felt comfortable with the type of tent I was planning to purchase, everything else came together.
In terms of arts festivals, there are varying degrees of involvement concerning the a vendors booth design. The fact that this was my first arts festival and that the participation requirements were minimal (just have a white tent), I felt comfortable with a ‘stripped down’ approach to designing my booth space - in design and budget. My design concept was to create a ‘white canvas’ with the objects and accessories that would go in my tent and allow the art work to be the ‘life’ of the space.
Below are a few of my reflections, ‘lessons learned’ from my first arts festival:
Know the Festival Culture:
Knowing the type of festival you will participate in may sound like a no-brainer, but I had to give thought to the type of items I would show for the 6 hours the festival was open to the public. Knowing this was not specifically a ‘fine arts’ festival and that people might not necessarily come to purchase big ticket items, I wanted to make sure I had items that could be purchased as gifts (stationery, holiday ornaments, small paintings) as well as items that might start conversations about the work I do. For conversation starters, I created a display of my current offering of artist-inspired wallcoverings homeowners might be interested in knowing about. What was surprising to me was how many people were interested in learning more about the wallcovering. They loved hearing about the process from painting to wallcovering. Because of this, I was able to sell a few pieces of smaller works and gave my business cards to those who viewed larger works and the wallcovering. For this particular festival, I had items with prices ranging from $30 - $1000.
Art Booth Budget:
I initially set a budget for a modest $600. The tent was the most expensive with a final cost (tent only) at $250.00. After I paid the participation fee, artist insurance (all vendors needed insurance to cover the length of time you displayed work in your tent), white table cloth (I already had a 24”x54” folding table) display racks and nesting boxes that would rest on the table and my signage. The elements I already owned were my plant in a white ceramic pot, a white oblong ceramic bowl, a folding table, a Square POS reader (to take payments). Because I had done pop-ups in the past (pre Covid), I had a lot of the miscellaneous items needed to make a sale and was familiar with the process. If you have never hosted a pop-up or been involved in an arts festival, I would suggest creating a ‘test purchase’. From start to finish, this will show you where the holes are in your purchasing process. By crating a ‘test purchase’ you will become familiar with:
What is the step by step process of using the Square POS card reader?
How will collectors know the price of items? How will this be displayed?
If a collector purchases a small item, how is it wrapped?
What bag will small items go in? What other marketing materials can be shared with a new collector (business card, marketing sticker, postcard, etc)?
What conversation will you initiate if someone is just curious? (curious is good!)
Art Booth/Tent Design:
Once I learned that I would be participating in an arts festival, I began looking at a variety of booth designs on Pinterest. As mentioned, art festival booth designs can range from very simple - having a table to show your work, to completely outfitting a space with paneled walls, expert lighting and floor systems. I had to first select a tent and chose to purchase a white tent from Euromax on Amazon. Knowing the structure of your tent is critical; because this determines how you will display your art - off of the structure of the tent or independent of the tent entirely. Because the structure of the tent I chose did not have its internal structure bars running horizontal to the ground (they ran diagonally), displaying my art would take some figuring out. I knew I would not have a lot of work to hang, so I opted to use self-standing white retail grid walls, which stood 5 feet high, 2 feet wide and were movable. This allowed me to hang art on both sides of the grid wall, and not have to deal with hanging anything (except my signage) from the tent.
There was a lot of back and forth with me finalizing how the tent would look overall, but once I figured that art would not be hanging from the tent, I was able to finalize the design of the tent. For my overall aesthetic and to unify my display elements, I chose to have a white backdrop for the entire tent (white grid walls, folding table with a white tablecloth, white storage boxes, white plant holder, a white display dish). Because I did not have a large inventory of work, I chose to place the table and self-standing grid walls at front of the tent, angled at each side of the table, which was positioned in the middle. It was designed so that no one actually came inside of my tent - everything happened in front of the tent. To add visual interest and height to my table, I used the white nesting wood storage boxes to place smaller paintings inside of and stationery on top of by turning the boxes on their sides.
Tent Stability and Electricity:
Tent stability is quite important because you never know what type of weather you will be facing. Because this festival had a “rain or shine” clause in the contract (meaning the show would go on independent of the weather), it was critical that each vendor had their tent weights (typically heavy canvas bags filled with sand, or actual weights). With all of focus I placed on designing my display, I completely forgot my tent weights.
On the morning of the event, it was ominously overcast. We were able to load my vehicle without rain, but once we arrived at the festival site and began setting up, the rain and wind started. My tent came with 4 empty canvas sand bags, but I failed to fill them. I completely forgot! So my tent was just standing and stable with prayer! Once the rain started to fall heavier, the wind picked up and nearly took my tent with it. The vendors next door to us were able to hold my tent and keep it from blowing away. Once the festival started, the rain stopped, the sun came out and the day was beautiful. But, lesson learned: do not forget your tent weights!
Another thing you should not forget? A portable charger!
I had my cell phone…and that was it. I was charging it on the way to the festival, but with wanting to take photos, videos, etc. my battery was losing power quickly. The festival did not have immediate access to any power, so each vendor was on their own for power. Thankfully, my phone did not die and I was still able to take payments, but had the event lasted an hour longer, I would have missed a few sales. Another critical lesson learned: bring a portable charger.
In conclusion, my experience in my first arts festival was a positive one. I would absolutely attend another one, but please know - they are a lot of work. From creating the work, to planning your booth to transportation and all of the little critically important, but miscellaneous items to make your day run smoothly.
I do hope this has helped to demystify the details of an informal arts festival and will help you should you choose to participate in one. If you have a question about something specific I may not have covered here, please reach out to me at dawn [at] dawn m trimble art [dot] com.
