Sunday, July 18, 2010

Rave Review of the Salem Art Festival

I had heard this was a great show, the Salem Arts Festival (one of the top 10 art festivals in the country) - it was certainly a pleasure to experience for myself and my business.
  • good neighbors (aka amazing artwork and interesting new artists I got to know)
  • amazing site (Bush Park is full of old beautiful oak trees, sunshine and shade in a beautiful big green park) and great weather (it was a mild/warm 80degrees all weekend)
  • good munchies (Kettle Chips sponsored the show and provided artists with endless little bags of chips - wha?! - there was also fresh fruit, iced tea (hot tea, lemonade and coffee as well), trail mix, pastries... oh my)
  • they made us breakfast! picture this: in the morning at the artist hospitality booth there was a string quartet playing exclusively for our breakfast... there was a line of husbands making omlettes to order and a group of ladies making pancakes with fresh local berries. It was insanely nice. Both Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday the fresh berries had been made into a fruit compote for our pancakes. And picnic tables to have our breakfast on while greeting friends.
  • good business (aka financially lucrative)
  • lots of water (they gave us water bottles and had volunteers come by and refill them every day)
Every art show should treat the artists this well! It made things much less stressful and way more fun. I had a lot to smile about all weekend.

3 comments:

Diane Gilleland said...

How awesome is that? I always wish shows had these kinds of amenities for vendors - it's really hard work, doing a show!

Way back in the day when I co-organized a show here in PDX, we made "survival kits" for our vendors, with things like bottled water, tissues, pens and note paper, mints, lip balm, etc. People loved it!

And I totally want to visit the Salem Art Festival now.

aimee said...

YAY! I'm glad the weekend was a success all around. And mmmmm, chips! :D

Leah said...

I forgot to include one of the best parts of this weekend: GOOD HELP!

Thanks Aimee and Poe! You guys rocked out and it was super fun to get to hang and have you help me sell your work. We all have new prints from Justin Hillgrove to remind us of the fun weekend :)