Omaha Summer Art Festival is the Most. . .
I am back from another artfair. This time we were in Omaha Nebraska doing the Omaha Summer Arts Festival. (OSAF) The photos are from Sunday afternoon when the crowds had thinned a bit. This event is always the epitome of everything to do with artfairs.
This event is the most grueling of all the events we do, in that it is 3 days long. It has long hours (Fri & Sat) it is 11-8 and Sun it is 11-5.
Now I realize that doesn’t sound too bad, but when you take into consideration that you want to be open for the early shoppers which usually arrive around 9:30. (this is a throwback from when the event was 10-9) It usually means you arrive on site by 6:30-7. Also you often don’t actually get off site many times until 10 pm. You do that for 3 days in a row while maintaining a reasonable amount of social grace (like not shouting “Buy something or get the hell out!” at the customers just hanging out in your booth well after closing.) Your butt will be dragging.
This event is also known for having the worst weather. I have been doing the OSAF for about 10 years now and most times we get a storm on at least one of the days. (This year was no exception, perhaps only in its intensity.) It is usually windy and not uncommon to have temps around or above 100 degrees. That kind of heat on pavement is brutal.
On the plus side though, it is also the biggest money maker for me every year (with the exception of this year.) Why else would we keep going back.
Also they have great artist amenities like a large workforce of volunteers to booth sit and bring you bottled water. The boy scouts offer any help you need and keep the many trash cans empty. They provide an air conditioned artist lounge open all the hours of the event, well stocked with fruit and donuts and drinks. They provide 2 free hot breakfasts (which are catered) and one free lunch. Nobody treats artist as well as these guys. Oh and I forget to mention free massages for the artists for the duration of the event. Seriously.
They actually care about what artists want. During their breakfasts they hold open meetings asking for input. They send around board members to each artist’s booth to ask questions about how it is going and what they can do to make things better. And not only do they ask, they listen and they take action to make it happen. Again I have yet to find any other art event that does all of these things.
They offer nice award money. At most art events you are not even sure if a judge has been to your tent. They tend to hide and view your work from afar. OSAF actually have the judges introduce themselves to you, give you a little slip of paper stating their name, and make them actually talk to you.
And lastly they have an excellent emergeny plan in place. And yes we got to see it in action this past weekend. I will write about what did happen at OSAF 08 in my next post.
All of these good things make up for a loyal artist following, myself included. It is the most difficult event we do every year, and there are many other quality events happening on that weekend in the 5 state area. But it is the excellent staff and volunteers that keep us coming back.
Tags: artfairs
Very interesting! Wish they were all like that for you. I hope you still made a decent amount even if not what you expected. Looking forward to hearing about what happened that put the emergency plan into effect. Glad you are back home safe and hope you have gotten some rest.
Our state arts council has a nice list of art fairs on it’s site, I couldn’t believe the booth fees at some of the better ones — they should be nice!
I have not gone to them in recent years like I used to — country life has slowly made me more of a hermit — will have to work on that. I used to admire and envy everyone in them when I did go — your behind the scenes commentary really puts it into perspective. Besides driving long distances (though there are many fairs in the state, so who knows) I think I would really be afraid of those rain storms — cannot imagine how one recovers from any kind of water or wind disaster — and even with some precautions, seems sort of like a luck thing whether an eventer gets through it in one piece. My hat is off to you.
Angela
Hello Angela! We made enough to still make it worth the trip. I have the upcoming weekend off but then have several back to back events which means of course working hard to replace lost stock.
Most years we may only get rained out of one or two but recently it has gotten more common. In fact in the first 5 years or so we never had any trouble with getting rained out. This was good because we could learn how to do an event properly (like how much weight and how to stake down a tent) before we ran into trouble. Nothing worries me more than a newbie neighbors who uses inadequate methods to weight down a tent.
I would think that artfair list is quite handy. I have no real idea about elsewhere but around the 5 state area here a good event booth fee generally runs between $200-$400. Omaha was $325 not including the jury fee.