And kids . . . this is why you should stay in school: The Octagon Art Festival 09
The sales
The Octagon Art Festival is put on by the Octagon Arts Center in Ames, Iowa. It’s held outdoors on their rather scenic and historic main street. For the low-down on the perks and problems of this event, check out last years post on the Octagon Art Fair.
Firstly, the sales (for me) were really good. But several of my painter friends were not as happy. Ames is kinda made for me (though I have had an occasional bad show there) with the USDA Veterinary Labs located there as well as a Equine Veterinary College (Ummmm hummmm) Sales-wise it was a good way to end the outdoor season.
And then there was the weather
Since this event is so late in the year the weather is almost always questionable. Aaaannnddd despite their being 0% chance for rain and temps in the low 80’s (sounds a little like paradise doesn’t it) we once again wound up feeling grateful that this was our last outdoor event of the season.
Actually the day started off lovely. Calm, warm and sunny. But about 2pm that began to change. (cue ominous music- theme from jaws should work.)
Also a big thanks to everybody who stopped by and said “hi” and helped me with my Weirding-Out-Because-Someone-Who-Reads-My-Blog-Is-Standing-In-Front-Of-Me recovery. (or did I decide it was therapy?)
Holy Crap-oly!
The winds whipped up to 35 mph and by dusk were blowing harder still.
Remember when I said rain was not the enemy . . . wind is. It really is. All my grumbling about packing up wet and carting out product in a downpour is nothing compared to the anxiety I feel watching my tent sway in gale force winds. I imagine Omaha has not helped me with this phobia, But still, when you hear crashing noises (followed by a group gasp) coming from down the street you begin to feel a little nervous. All the artists get anxious and frankly then the crowds get anxious. Then they stop buying and pretty much leave.
Several tents did come down in ruins. Mostly EZ-Up styles I think. I do plan on doing a post on tents sometime here because honestly EZ-Up types work fine except in the hands of novices, who of course are usually the ones using them.
We did manage to make it until close (5pm) and get packed up with no damage which required some skill on our part and a lot luck. One of my friends was not so lucky. His neighbor untied the weights from his (the neighbor’s) tent and apparently wasn’t holding on to it (idiot) because it flipped up and onto Carroll’s tent, causing it to topple.
My neighbor had his family come to help him with tear down. He had one person clinging to each leg of the tent as he was running among them bringing the tent to the ground. As he was doing this he said “And kids, this is why you need to stay in school and study hard. So you don’t ever have to do this for a living.”
Art fairs are a huge amount of fun and profit can be made but they are also risky. My best suggestion is to have insurance. Not that having it will alleviate any tension you feel during bad weather situations, but at least your covered if the worst happens.
Note: Holy Crap-oly is my new favorite “public friendly” curse word. I used it many (many) times on Sunday. I try very hard not to swear in public, (not even the public friendly kind) but in times of duress I fall back to my roots. And since I was raised by parents who swore like drunken pirates, Holy Crap-oly is downright wholesome.
Updated: Hey Olga, I wanted to get down to you. How did it go? Did you manage to get out okay? Feel free to email if you don’t want to go public.
Tags: artfairs
You’re kidding. I thought the EZ-Up ones were actually, you know, easy and user friendly. I’ve been considering one for a very long time because with my disabilities, anything that would make it easier to set up would make it a lot more likely that I could at all. But maybe that’s not such a good idea after all…
Please do tell me in more detail what it is about the EZ-Up that makes it disastrous in the hands of beginners.
Hey Robert, I’ll try to get the post done by the end of next week. The gallery has as usual taken most of my free time. EZ-Ups are marketed heavily to beginners because they are cheap and they are easier to set up. Unfortunately they aren’t as sturdy as some other varieties so they collapse when too much weight is applied incorrectly.
I am on my way to competing a Trimline set up. I do look forward to you post, do not know how you get 500 lbs. or there abouts of weights onto any tent. I know you had a small conversation about it once, but any comment on the insurance (what kind to get) would be most beneficial.
Why on earth would someone remove weights from a tent that is not theirs? I am not in favor of are sue happy culture, but that seems like a suable offence for resultant damages to me.
The information I have read prior to this on wind and tents says do not hold on them if it is windy and do not stay inside them if it is storming, I would love to here your comments on this as an experieced art fair participant. also.
I am glad you came out unscathed — experience counts!
Angela, It wasn’t actually storming, just unbelievably windy. You may remember I warned against hanging on to tents also because of the woman who broke her arm in Omaha. But when taking them down you pretty much have to hang on.
In my friends case his neighbor removed the weights to his own tent (I will look to see how I wrote what I did) without holding on. So it was the neighbors tent that flipped up and onto Carroll’s tent. Technically if this happens the neighbor is legally responsible to pay for the damages. Carroll is just an easy going guy (he’s done art fairs for many decades.) When I asked him he said “What you gonna do.” I think he understands these things happen. However a similar thing happened that day with a potters tent (lost around $900 in pots) and their neighbor paid for the damages they’d caused.
So I’ll talk about tents and weights.
Boy, I sure did spell well in that comment. Must have been typing way too fast and not rereading the comment before posting. I look forward to your blog post on this.
I forgot about the insurance question. I’ll email you who we use.
Hello, my friend! Octagon sales were down, but still worth coming. Didn’t help to be across misic stage entertaiment (strange amateur modern dances, very depressive funeral style brass band, sexy belly dancers, and finally very cool energetic rock group, loud anyway) Only musicians I love to hear at the fair “Patchouli” flamenco people from Midwest, they give very good energy, but we weren’t that lucky this year : )
After I read your post, I understood how lucky we were to start tear down 15 min before the official end. We were tearing down reaaaaly fast! 20 min later my husband had hard time to walk against the gushing wind to pay gas at BP, and I know that a lot of artists at the time weren’t done packing yet!
Olga I am so Glad to hear you got packed up okay. By the time we were done you were gone (as were most artists) Man was that crazy or what?
Being too near the music is always a pain. Mostly because you have to shout to talk to people. We had a guy turning wood bowls on a lathe behind us (in front of gallery 319) same problem. I spent the whole day shouting.