Show Report - Florence ArtsFest 2010

This was my second year participating in the annual Florence ArtsFest, put on by the Florence Regional Arts Alliance in Florence, SC. Last year was a pretty good show, with two floors of artists, probably 30+ in all; an excellent opening reception very well attended; good if not great traffic with people who were actually buying, and not just bottom fishing.

This year was a total bomb. No signs outside, no signs on the street, next to nothing in the local media, nothing on the internet… A number of people I know in Florence had no idea the event was even going on.

Less than half the artists from last year – 16 this year – all on one floor with plenty of room left over, so it looked rather lost. Less than half the people at the opening, and unlike last year they weren’t buying. I saw customers who bought my high end pieces last year leaving with nothing – just partied and left.

We opened Thursday night this year – last year it was Friday night. We had open hours on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this year. Last year it was just Friday night and Saturday. They had a total of 10 buyers for the entire show all day Friday… 10!!! If we had 10 people come through on Sunday I would be amazed.

Florence is a good sized city, with over 133,000 people. This fall I did a one day show in Great Falls, SC (see earlier blog post), which has less than 5,000 people. I sold more in one day in Great Falls than I did in four days in Florence. Now that is just sad!

No one did well, and there were some folks who sold nothing in all four days. In all a quite dismal experience. The upside is that I did have a number of people who are interested in my classes that I teach, so hopefully that will turn out well.

Since I often get asked to show pictures of the shows I do, here are photos of the various booths that were there. Sorry I have misplaced my program and can’t identify all the artists….