by Diana Lambdin Meyer
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Food Festivals: A Mouth-Watering Alternative to the Craft Show Circuit
by Diana Lambdin Meyer |
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There are food festivals in all parts of the country at all times of the year -- from maple sugar festivals in Vermont in the dead of winter to chili pepper festivals in the Texas panhandle in the heat of summer. And they can be a great opportunity for craftspeople to sell beyond the traditional weekend craft shows.
Surprisingly, the purpose of a food festival is not necessarily to eat. They are usually coordinated by a chamber of commerce or other non-profit organization to promote local businesses or a geographic region. For craftspeople, food festivals provide an excellent opportunity to make an impression on local residents and to expand their client base to a larger area.
RESOURCES |
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Black Walnut Festival Finger Lakes Wine Festival Lillian Haynes Holiday Food and Gift Festival International Pinot Noir Celebration Lauderdale County Tomato Festival Lenexa Spinach Festival Massachusetts Cranberry Festival Maine Lobster Fest National Cherry Festival National Shrimp Festival Newport Seafood and Wine Festival Scottsdale Fine Art and Chocolate Fest Sea Oats Studio Seafood Festival and Arts and Craft Show Shrimp Festival Arts and Crafts Show Strawberry Festival/Apple Festival |
What sells at food festivals?
Despite the endless possibilities for creating products specific to types of food, such as wine chillers for a wine festival or berry baskets for a strawberry festival, an informal study of artisans who successfully sell at food festivals around the country indicates that even though food-related arts and crafts do not dominate the line-up, they do sell well. Only a handful of food festivals require artists to sell work coordinating with the theme.
"Some people have remarked that they expect to see more things with tomatoes on them," says Lillian Haynes of Ripley, Tenn., who creates lamps from canning jars using a tomato motif on the shade. These are very popular items with the 10,000 or so visitors to the Lauderdale County Tomato Festival each July, but one of the few products sold specific to the theme of the show.
"I think they're probably more popular with the local people who grow tomatoes," says Haynes, who grew up on a farm near Ripley and whose family was named Tomato Growers of the Year for 1999. "Most of the businesses and offices around the county have my lamps for promotional purposes."
Haynes also makes lamps with strawberry and apple themes, but she has yet to do a festival specific to those fruits. Ranging in price from $15 to $40, all of her lamps sell equally well at the 15 or so craft shows she does annually in Tennesse and Missouri.
At the National Shrimp Festival in Gulf Shores, Ala., Steve Burrows has phenomenal success with his shrimp-themed pottery, perhaps for the same reason Haynes has success in Tennessee. "I'm a local boy, and even the people who come from a distance comment on the fact that mine is a locally created product," he says.
For the past 18 years, Burrows has designed a limited number of beer mugs decorated with a shrimp and the date of the festival. At $14 each, the 150 mugs easily sell out during the four-day event. Aside from the mugs, food trays which range in price from $15 to $75 are the bread and butter of his business. Many of these have a shrimp, turtles and a beach scene incorporated into the design. In all, Burrows estimates that about 30 percent of his annual sales comes from those four days in October.
"A lot of the more successful artists tailor their work specific to the coastal atmosphere, although not necessarily a shrimp motif," says Angie Retson, director of the National Shrimp Festival.
The event draws more than 250,000 people from across North America, and after doing the show for 20 of the festival's 28 years, Burrows enjoys repeat business from customers who seek him out each year. Although the Gulf Coast region is host to several seafood festivals, the Gulf Shores event is the only one where Burrows invests his time.
"This one is old enough to have developed a solid reputation all the way around," he says. "The fine arts and crafts section draws serious buyers because of the quality of the items." The juried show includes about 75 fine artists, 100 craftspeople, 40 commercial vendors and about 40 food vendors, most of them specializing in seafood.
For a craftsperson, food festivals provide an excellent opportunity to make an impression on local residents and to expand their client base to a larger area. |
The festival is as popular with the vendors as it is for the attendees. "They really take care of the artists by offering a hospitality booth and booth sitters so you can get away from the hubbub for a few minutes," says Burrows.
A 10-foot by 15-foot "parking" space goes for $200, and those who consider closing early are not invited back, although fine artists are allowed to close at night. "The party atmosphere takes over then, and the people [who remain] are not serious art buyers," Burrows said.
That's one reason the Newport Oregon Seafood and Wine Festival is now an "adults-only" festival. "We have two colleges in the vicinity, and we found too many students sneaking in with their underage buddies," says Rebecca Morris, who coordinates the event for the Newport Chamber of Commerce. "The people who attend now are people who have money and are ready to spend it, not just drink it."
The purpose of the Newport festival, held in February for the last 23 years, is to bring tourists to the coastal area during the off-season. About 15,000 people attend, filling hotel/motel rooms as far as an hour away. Because of its promotional value for the community, all vendors must have a coastal theme. "We're pretty adamant about that, but a coastal theme may simply include a fish, a wave or a sailboat somewhere in the piece," says Morris.
While the goal of most food festivals is to draw as many visitors as possible, the International Pinot Noir Celebration, also in Oregon, limits attendance to 600 people. Tickets are sold through a lottery for $625 each. "Our goal is to keep everything quite intimate and quite high-end," says Maria Stewart. "Only Northwestern artists are allowed to show, and we are very selective."
Advertising and publicity
Advertising, therefore, is not a factor for the Pinot Noir Celebration, but it is for most other events. Approaches used by the many chambers of commerce and civic groups who coordinate these non-profit events include sending press releases and invitations to travel writers and tour bus operators, seeking corporate sponsors and trading tickets for more traditional newspaper and radio publicity.
Judi Combs coordinates five food and fine art festivals throughout the state of Arizona for Thunderbird Artists, and she relies heavily on television advertising to promote the artwork. "I create a new television commercial each year and feature as many as 15 pieces of art in the commercial," she says. "Many of my artists consider that exposure as valuable as the sales they make at the festival."
One of her more popular shows, the Scottsdale Art and Chocolate Fest, has been held on Valentine's weekend each year since 1992. The 50,000 or so "upscale" patrons have come to expect high quality in the juried event, and they buy. It is not unusual for artists to gross $20,000 to $50,000 in the weekend. "Hand-blown wine glasses for Valentine's Day, or a silver tray to serve chocolates would certainly find an audience here," she says.
Other than a growing expectation for high-quality arts and crafts, no distinct trends appear to be emerging among the many food festivals held coast to coast. However, the savvy artist, always on the alert for creating their own special niche, may find a unique market at food festivals. It just makes sense that if a wine lover travels 200 miles to taste wine, that person is likely to have more than a passing interest in wine carafes and glasses. If another family makes a cherry festival an annual outing, the opportunities for selling a dated pie plate or Christmas tree ornament are on-going.
So if you happen to live in the "turnip capital" of North America, or in Catfish County or Grit City, there just might be a new opportunity for sales. Remember, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, or at least a pitcher and glasses in which to serve it.
Diana Lambdin Meyer is a Parkville, Mo.-based freelance writer.
OCTOBER 1999:
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