Recent back to back outdoor shows for my Bleach It & Dye line of clothing has me rethinking my marketing strategy. It’s been a number of years since I set up for an outdoor art exhibit and had frankly forgotten the amount of work involved. Creating the product is the easy part – it’s the setup and teardown of your booth for a one-day shot of selling your wares that’s difficult.
Age is a major factor. Enthusiasm for such shows seems to wane the older one becomes. No amount of Advil can really make you forgot the joint pain from hauling and setting up your tent, display racks and containers of heavy denim around.
The White Street Studio Walk was fun, obviously local and successful. Tucked away in the back of Zeek Taylor’s driveway, people still managed to find me, with only one wine fatality that was thankfully white.
The Fayetteville Block Party had the numbers, the perfect weather, the right atmosphere, and expectations were high. Early afternoon was promising but slowed down as the word “Party” came into play. People became more focused on the cold beer and live music than trying jeans on in a makeshift, tiny, outdoor dressing room.
We lucked out weather wise for both shows with heavy storms on either side of us magically dissipating. With weather app in tow and plastic sheeting in place we were prepared for the worst.
In a small town, no matter how much people love and support your work, it’s easy to oversaturate your market.
So what to do next? Indoor art venues, trunk shows, wholesale, on-line, Etsy?
Hopefully more will be revealed.
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