Fall Festival....not so bad!

So, this past weekend was the Sojourn Fall Festival, which included free food, games, live music (which was all GREAT by the way) and the affordable art show.  It was my first time to have a booth in an art show and I learned a lot!  So, I'll give ya some lessons that I learned from the day.

By the way, please forgive my photography!  I took the photos at around noon time so they are way too stark, overexposed, I was frantically trying to prepare for customers during this time = YUCK.

 Lesson number one:  Make sure you have your own tent!  As you can see in the photo above, we were out in the open.  Not too cozy.   If there are any veteran art booth sellers out there reading this, I'm sure they are laughing at me right now.  But, for some reason I thought the tent was supplied at this art fair.  However, thankfully I wasn't the only one without a tent, which made me feel much better!

 Lesson number two:  Be sure that what you are displaying can withstand the wind!  See the cute little sign in the flower pot in this photo to the right?  Yeah, that was gone after about half an hour.  Even the slightest breeze was blowing it over (even after I filled it with rocks).

 Lesson number three:  Chill out!  I was, ahem, a little frantic before the show started.  If I would have loosened up, I could have enjoyed myself much more the first part of the day.  However, thankfully Kyle and Liam were in a great mood and very helpful.  Okay, Kyle was helpful (set up my tables, got me food and water, etc).

Liam just wanted to eat rocks.




Some other things I learned:

 Don't be afraid to talk to customers.  I met a lot of great people this weekend.  Some of which I hope too see again!   Also, people are more likely to want to buy what you have to sell if you explain your artwork to them.  It makes the artwork and you as a seller more appealing.  Thankfully, I learned this before the end of the day!

Make friends with the people in the booths next to you!  I was next to some really sweet people that were selling baby clothes and hair bows.  They really made my day go by faster.  Plus, the people next to you can teach you a thing or two, ya know?

Take more photos!  I wish I could show you guys other photos from the festival!  I also had friends come to visit, which really made my day.  Wish I would have caught that on camera....

 Okay, one thing I think I did right was bringing things I "just for in case".  This included: scissors, string, extra table clothes, tape, and boxes.  All these supplies I used for displaying my artwork.

I had also read that it is good to display your artwork at different levels to make the display more interesting.  I'm so glad I did that!  It looked much better than lying everything flat on the table.  Oh yeah, you may have noticed the black display pole in the first photo....a friend of mine made that for me!  Isn't that sweet?  It really came in handy!

 I was also glad that I made small signs and business cards for Saturday.  There were a lot of people that took (and actually asked for) business cards on Saturday.  Also, the signs made the display look a tad more professional.

A couple more things I did that I was thankful for:
 
Tissue paper and bags for the artwork

Plenty of change for customers

Inventory of all items for sale (I was able to go back a view what sold the best after the show)






So, overall I think my first art booth was a success.  I was very thankful for the friends that came out to support me and thankful that I made a profit at my first art show.  So, I really can't complain!