Hopping on the art/craft show circuit has always felt a bit “carnie” to me… a bunch of gypsies pulling into to town, working the locals in an attempt to make an honest dime. Truth is, it’s only part-way to a real carnie lifestyle, but every once in a while, there’s a stop along the way that feels a whole lot closer to a full-fledged circus.
Cue the bigtop music as I recall Warrens Cranberry Festival. Normally, the tiny northern Wisconsin town of Warrens is nothing more than a few homes, a large campground, a gas station, a few shops, a restaurant or two out by the highway and a bunch of cranberry bogs.
It’s Like the Circus Coming to Town
The locals told me that about a week before Cranfest, the vendors start arriving. Their RVs and vans claim spots on the baseball diamond and the fields outside of town. Each day, more tents filled with various merchandise pop up.
By the time we arrived last Thursday, about a one-mile stretch of road from the outskirts of one end of town to the outskirts of the other end was lined with vendor tents and food carts. In the heart of the village, the tents snaked down every side street and covered every front yard and side yard and any other open space.
We pulled onto Main Street’s frenzy as trailers were being unloaded and booths constructed. Golf carts zipped by as volunteers in fluorescing vests referred to their clip boards and relayed messages barked over walkie-talkies. Other vendors and customers had warned us of this scene, but we had no idea it would be like this until our wheels touched Warrens’ soil.
Despite very specific directions from a volunteer pointing directly at the general area of our site, “Booth number 426 is on the lawn of the white house with the pillars, next to Warrens Street,” it still took me fifteen minutes to find our spot. Fortunately, Liam found an open streetside spot where he managed to chat up a police officer who reprimanded anyone else who tried to park nearby.
Quite a Mix
Unloading went surprisingly smooth. However, the 40-minute walk to our parking spot provided a parade of characters. We were in the center of town where the arts and crafts booths were assigned. That core was surrounded (and interspersed with) a ring of various buy and sell booths peddling yard art, shoe insoles, holiday decor and imported paintings normally only available at lower-end furniture stores. On the perimeter, the flea market vendors were selling everything from broken doll parts to flower planters to t-shirts to “as seen on TV” mops… just about anything one could imagine appeared in one form or another.
The same could be said about the vendors… I believe I heard nearly every accent in the US except those from New England and every type of vendor out there as well. Many of them frightened me a bit… but the reasons varied from those with shifty eyes, with missing teeth, with cackling laughs, with hacking coughs… and those who were simply over-dressed (do you really need a fancy dress to sell painted garbage can covers?). There were those who were selling scary products and even a few folks with dirty fingernails serving corn dogs and fried blooming onions.
All things considered… and scary factors aside, these people were probably a lot more like me than I would initially expect. In the end, they were making things happen in a non-traditional way. Although I can’t see myself hawking racy refrigerator magnets, I have to commend them for making it work.
The town was also lined with port-a-potties. I thought this rental company had a peculiar name.
Here’s the Math
850 arts & crafts booths, 350 flea market booths, 100 farm market vendors and 100 food vendors… that’s a grand total of 1,200 BOOTHS ranging from fine art to color-changing magic markers.
Our final tally came out to be completely… “okay.” Not our best show and certainly better than most, but considering the volume of people, the extremely long hours and the tricky load-in and load-out, it proved to be worthwhile, but not a barn burner. That said, we were competing with 1,199 other vendors.
In the end, we were reminded that we always do better at shows focusing on art and fine craft. Even if we don’t sell as much at those shows, the clientele embrace our work much more willingly.
Oh, I have to also note that Liam’s mom had to cancel her plans to join us. She ended up in Michigan for the weekend. It was just as well, this would have been the wrong festival for her to attend… just too big and too much walking for a woman with two bionic hips and two bionic knees.
At the moment, Liam’s busy writing up some of the real highlights of the weekend… the people we met and the foods we ate – think cranberry smorgasbord. That should be ready in a day or two.
From Scott:
Wow. Forget cranberries, this is nuts. With an event that large, I would think both vendor and customer would be a bit numb by the time they encountered the 425th version of each other.
Still, it apparently works. I mean, look at that picture (nice wide angle, btw) — it’s an instant economic commerce zone. One wants something to buy, one’s got something to sell… maybe making a living doesn’t have to to be all that complicated.
What are your thoughts on craft shows and the like as sales channels? Fun opportunities? Necessary evils? Are other channels (retail partners, websites, eBay, etc.) nearly as viable, or does the hand-to-hand combat of working the crowd win out every time?
From Corey:
We were numb. Fortunately, we were in a grassy spot with a wide alley and good neighbors (all factors that make a big difference in the sanity department).
That shot was taken using the Pano app on my phone, it stitches together photos. It does a decent job, but it’s tough to use with people moving about.
Shows are our primary method of selling Liam’s jewelry. However, not all shows are created equal. It’s all about finding shows with the right audience. We definitely do better at shows that concentrate on fine art (as a folk art, Liam’s jewelry walks the line between art and craft).
The toughest shows are the ones that mix hand-crafted with buy & sell… we can’t compete with $10 jewelry shipped in from China. That said, we’re not trying to sell to those people, and if they make up a majority of the audience, selling is tough.
The good thing about traveling with the RV is that we can roll in for the night and pretend like we’re on a holiday.
From jessiev:
cool photos! i think i would totally freak out there. i don’t like crowds!!