A Tale of Two Shows
It was the best of shows, it was the worst of shows.
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A review of the February and March Bonita Springs National Art Shows: 
The February show (“Show #2”) was my first time doing this Bonita Springs show. It was at a new location from previous years and I was worried because I was not set up on one of the main paved streets but rather in a grass field behind the main strip of artists.

   Setup was a breeze in that I got to drive on the grass right up to my booth to unload the day before the show and then park within walking distance for free. I also got a nice corner booth under a historic banyan tree that provided great shade all weekend long.
    Saturday’s sales started slow and continued slow all day. I did get a few prospects and a few sales, the buyers were not there. I did get tons of compliments and I had great conversations, however I left Saturday’s show extremely worried in that the sales were half what they would be for a typical Saturday of a show this big.

  However Sunday quickly put my fears to rest as I sold, sold, and sold some more. In one 45 minute period I sold my 2 biggest metals and another medium metal. In addition I took a few special orders and sold a variety of prints, metals and frames. It seems this show brings the buyers out on Sunday. In fact it ended up being MY BEST SUNDAY EVER in terms of sales.

It was THE BEST OF TIMES!
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It was the WORST OF TIMES!

That would be the March Bonita Springs Show (“Show #3”).  I had my worst show EVER!
This includes shows that had costs of only $100! This show cost me over $1,000 to go to and do and produced sales that were 90% less than February.

I made 4 sales all weekend. Four sales and an ‘Award of Distinction’ is all I have to show for all this work.  

Why the huge difference in only 1 months’ time? I can only attribute it to 3 reasons:  LOCATION, LOCATION, and LOCATION. After February I asked the show’s organizers if I could please be moved to a street booth along one of the main thoroughfares. If I could not get there, I wanted to get back into space #174 where I was before. That is a simple enough request, 2  preferences, I thought.

However this past weekend I was placed in the totally different location from what I wanted or what I was expecting. It was in the middle of a round grassy area near the ‘Food Court’, a civic organization, and a Costco booth. There were also about a dozen other unlucky artists stuck in this no-mans-land. The only visitors we had were ones that were at the food court and happened to wander past our booth. I requested to move after Saturday’s ONE sale to a space that was empty on the main street. My booth takes 4 hours to set up and tear down myself. That was how serious I was to get over there and improve my sales. My request was denied. Sunday was horrible as well.

This weekend was a serious kick to my groin as I am stumbling to recover still.

I have two more shows this month while down here in Florida. I checked out both of the shows layouts and they are more logical with artists placed along a main avenue of ingress and egress.  My hopes and dreams are not resting on these next two weekends.
No pressure. HA!

Onward and Upwards!!