Thanks for your July Editor’s Journal reminder to all crafters that we need to do our homework before signing up for a show. Lately, however, I’ve noticed that crafters don’t just have to ask questions, they have to wrestle to get answers. It has turned into an exercise in investigative journalism.
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editor@craftsreport.com.For example, I signed up for a show listed in Sunshine Artist as one of the best 2000 outdoor shows in the United States. I phoned the promoter … and confirmed the 300,000 attendance figure. I asked for the source, and discovered it was a police estimate, not the gate. The show was free, and no one counted the exact number of people. … I did not ask, “How long is the show?” None of the material indicated this was a week-long show, with events on two weekends. I asked about attendee demographics and was assured it was a culturally interested, college-educated town. I did not ask, “What makes you say that?” It turns out that most attendees were from an area that has three colleges, but graduation had taken place, drastically reducing the area’s population.
The promoter refused to answer some questions. I was told they were “off-limits” as they “asked for proprietary information.” They would not give me names of [previous exhibitors], the percentage of [returning exhibitors], or tell me if the jurors were crafters who participate in shows.
I failed to ask for a schedule of events, or I would have noticed that crafters were considered crowd entertainment. I did not ask what music would be played; the speed-metal music drove off [potential] clients. I did not ask what percentage of the promoters were volunteers, or how many times they had worked on the show. The entire staff of volunteers had taken over in the last two months. I found this out when I questioned the name tags that said, “Don’t yell at me, I’m a volunteer.”
I also did not ask if the promoter had visited the recommended hotels. I [assumed] the well-known, name hotels would be fine; but [the one I stayed in was] an independent franchise, and [was] dirty, run-down, and noisy.
The show was a financial disaster, and although my question list has gotten longer, the issue still remains that most promoters won’t answer my questions and won’t return phone calls. I’ve put the questions in letters listing my Web site, so the promoter can see I am a crafter. It doesn’t help. I don’t know if these promoters think I am a competitor, or just don’t have the answers and get angry at my questions, but it is harder for crafters to screen shows than ever before.
Quinn McDonald
Bead Seeds-Imaginative Beadweaving
Alexandria, Virginia