the best thing to do is get out there
and do an art festival there are a ton
of fun once you kind of get over those
pre-festival jitters and they're a great
way to start growing yourself as an
artist as a brand and as a business
aloha i'm wellese and i'm here to give
your 10 tips for your first art festival
art festival is going to be a little
intimidating the first time but it is
for everyone so it's kind of just a rite
of passage i can't even tell you how
many art festivals art fairs and all
that sort of thing i've done throughout
my career but i wouldn't be where i am
today without that there's such a good
way to get out there show your work get
some honest critique and criticism about
it learn how to do sales learn how to
stand up in front of your art tip number
one you need to know the rules of the
art festival you've already got into it
you've already applied for it you know
that's a whole nother video right there
but for this one you've already gotten
an art festival and you're not sure what
to do next the best thing to do is start
with the rules does it provide a tent do
you have to bring your own does the tent
have to be a certain color i've often
times experienced that how big is the
space you have is it ten by ten is it
eight by eight do you are you required
to have a table cloth on your table are
you required to have a table that sort
of thing so know all the rules about
the setup of your booth that way from
there you can start building on what
type of booth you want to do within the
parameter of the art festival all right
tip number two is don't overdo it simple
can be better all right this is you know
you can come up with a super complicated
booth for your first booth or second
booth or third booth but
at the end of the day you just need some
art hanging up on the walls you need to
have a table out there with some prints
on it for people to get you know that's
the basic form i've made a mistake in
the past of in the past of doing
booths that i've completely custom make
and you know they're crazy they needed
to fit in a van they need to do all this
stuff i spent tons of time doing it
and by the time i got it out there it
didn't even look that great and i would
have been better off going with pro
walls or like the
the standard custom build of uh art
booth don't spend more time on your
booth than you are making art it's so
important to have a lot of artwork in
there that i you know if you spend
more hours during the two weeks leading
up to it making the booth then you do on
kind of the other tips i have then might
not go so well even if you think you
have a great booth for your first one
you're always going to learn something
about your booth how to do it better
next year how to do this and that so
don't waste too much time on that in the
beginning it's going to kind of unfold
as you go the best thing to do is just
get out there and get into a booth so i
kind of said this in tip one but you
basically need your art on the walls if
you have paintings and prints in racks
okay it's so simple that way and if you
over complicate your print racks or over
complicate the way you have the walls
set up it's just gonna get harder and
more difficult to do and you're gonna
run into more problems don't spend a lot
of money on your booth for those first
few festivals i was lucky where i did a
couple night markets where i basically
just showed up with a couple crates of
art from there i was able to go oh okay
i can spend a little more time on my
booth and stuff like that but just get
out there and do it first before you
spend a lot of money on your booth tip
number three
so you want to have a ton of art this is
so important you can basically i would
focus on originals and prints of the
originals if you're starting out you
might just have originals and that's
totally okay i did only originals for
years before i started getting into
prints so focus on making a ton of art
having a ton of variety in there variety
in your style but
you know
you kind of want to this is your
critique so you want to show kind of
everything you have and see what people
like and don't like oftentimes you'll
find a piece that you don't like other
people really love it so it's going to
really help steer you into what you need
to be making at these festivals to have
fun making your work as well as selling
it and making a living if you're doing
prints you want to make sure you have
plenty of prints you know if you already
know what's a better seller and whatnot
have a couple of them you don't want to
sell out of everything the first 10
minutes of one print and then you have a
bunch of other ones so
think about if you've had experience in
the past of what's working what you
think is going to sell the most have a
couple more of those than you know
maybe something you're kind of unsure
about make sure pieces are ready
finished to sell so this is so important
you need to be able to take the piece
off the wall and hand it to the
collector you don't need to do anything
else it's really going to mess you up
you're going to have to look for a pen
or all this stuff so make sure pieces
are ready to sell
for me i like to focus on artwork more
than merchandise so this is another
thing to think about with your time
management is how much time do you want
to spend dealing with merchandise where
do i put the hats where do i put the
t-shirts all that stuff is great but at
the end of the day your big chunk of
money is from selling original artwork
at these festivals or prints of it tip
number four is know your price points
this is really important for sales
if you're at a market and
it's a night market it's free to enter
you know there's not a
maybe there's only a handful of artists
there it might not be that big of art
buying clientele that are showing up so
people are going to be a little more
reluctant to spend more money those big
art festivals that are just art
festivals you're going to find that
people will spend quite a bit more money
or are there to shop so something to
consider you don't want to bring out a
500 original if you're doing a farmer's
market on saturday morning it's great to
display and show but your chances of
selling those higher end pieces are a
lot lower what i've learned about price
points is you kind of have like a 20
price range a 50 price range around 100.
then it jumps up to like 200 250 you get
into the like under 500 mark and then
it's around the 800 to 1000. at art
festivals it's a little harder to sell
or i'm sorry
at art festivals it's a little easier to
hi sell those higher end pieces
but
the price points really get variable as
you go up past a thousand three thousand
five thousand ten thousand but since
this is probably your first start
festival focus on those
twenty to fifty dollar price range right
there you're gonna get a lot more people
buying your stuff if your originals if
you can do it you know if your originals
are in that 250 price range you'd be
surprised you'd sell quite a little 250
to say that
750 topped out for the biggest ones so
price points are really great to learn
and if you don't know them go to these
festivals and start learning what's
selling
also
don't overprice your stuff for the
festival you want to have consistent
prices throughout on your website you
will want to always be saying the same
prices no matter where you are so it's a
lot easier to start out low and raise
your prices but if you start out really
high with your prices
and then
no one's buying them so you have to
lower your prices that's going to really
look bad on you as an artist and it's
not going to make the people who bought
your art very happy either that it's
going down in value
so i always think it's better to start
out really low and sell out of
everything and work your prices up that
way then start your prices high
and not sell anything and
not really know where to go with your
art because no one's buying it so you
think is it my art bad or is it just the
price there's too many variables so if
you start off low you can always raise
your prices
tip number five
know your numbers how many people are
coming to the festival how much art you
have how many prints you have what your
target goal is for making money breaking
even making more than that and you gotta
really work the numbers backwards if
there's x amount of people at the
festival only so many of them are gonna
stop by your booth from there how many
people are actually going to be
interested and like your work and then
how many people those are gonna buy it
you know so how many people those that
are buying it how many pieces do you
need to have for them to be able to pick
and choose find their piece that they
like as well as how much will that make
so you don't want to underprice your
stuff so much that
you have to sell everything in your
booth to break even
but you also want to sell your stuff at
a price high enough where you can sell a
large majority of the stuff in your
booth to a larger
audience keep track of how much time
you've spent on your booth making your
art getting ready for the festival all
that stuff because it really helps at
the end of it when you have some numbers
to go back against and go okay it costs
this much this much this much and see
how much you actually made i used to get
in the habit of
thinking i made a ton of money at the
art festival but in reality it cost me a
lot to make my art for one but also the
time and energy i put into so it really
helped me kind of grow my
business sense of what i need to be
doing in order to make this a profitable
profitable adventure so tip number six
make yourself comfortable bring a chair
often these are eight 10 twelve hour
days that you're having not to mention
the week before you had stressing about
the art festival so bring a chair if you
have two people bring two chairs figure
out your snacks your water how you're
gonna eat throughout the thing you know
oftentimes when you get hungry it's
going to be a little bit around
lunchtime past lunch time
the line for the food trucks or
whatever's there are going to be long so
unless you've established a little
relationship with that food truck prior
to the festival you're going to have to
wait in line and be away from your booth
missing sales so pack some snacks be
ready for it it's a it's a campout day
you're camping in your booth have
everything that you need for i'd always
have a couple beers in the cooler
make it super comfortable make it so you
enjoy it if you have a friend there
that's amazing they're going to help
give you moral support as well as
someone to hang out with through the day
so you're not just there on your own if
you're there on your own it's really
good idea to make friends with the
people next to you in your booths
because you're going to have to go to
the bathroom and you can say hey buddy
can you watch my booth for a few minutes
while i go to the bathroom
if you made friends with them it's going
to be yeah no problem so make sure
you're polite to the people around your
booth and you're just all smiles just
all stoked and you're happy to be there
that will really help you out when say
you need a hand grabbing something or
watching your booth while you go to the
bathroom tip number seven
sales have a card reader ready one of
those squarespace cards you have to do
that if you're going to be using that
make sure your cell phone battery is
fully charged and you're not watching
videos in between customers
keep that battery for your card reader
if you don't have a card reader
your maximum price should be 300 because
that's the most an atm will let someone
take out and if you don't have a card
reader and they have to go get cash
bye-bye they're not coming back sorry
but have a card reader ready this is
going to be what makes you money go
figure that out youtube it whatever have
a card reader to take their money also
have change ready you'll lose sales if
people don't if they have to they can't
get changed for 100 if people walk away
from that sale chances are they're gonna
not come back hopefully they do and it
does happen where they come back of
course but
you'll find in the beginning that when
they walk away they disappear
have your prices ready you don't want to
be fumbling around with prices figuring
out you don't want the collector to
think you're coming up with these prices
off the top of their head it's great to
have a little sign saying prints are
forty dollars
originals you know maybe a little red
sticker or a little sticker next red
often means it's sold but a little
sticker next to it with the price great
way to have people come in
see the price points see if they can
afford it if it's worth it to them to
buy your artwork this is going to really
help you in the beginning when you're
kind of nervous already to break that
little barrier of that first step of
sale if they see it and they know the
price they can start asking further
about it another thing that's so
important that i really didn't get into
later with my art career was the email
list if someone buys your artwork
and they like it they like you
they're they're becoming a fan
it's really easy to get an email number
from them and you don't necessarily have
to do anything with it but having that
little database of people who bought
your art in the past that like your work
it really goes a long way and if your
social media disappears or your website
goes down you have all these people to
reach out there's a saying that you'll
make a hundred thousand for every
thousand emails you collect good emails
of course people that are actually
interested in your booth and this is
totally true from my experience you will
make a hundred thousand if you have a
thousand emails of people who've liked
your artwork and have bought your
artwork so
when i heard that statistic first it got
me really excited to start doing it and
immediately i saw the result so i really
recommend having an email list even if
it's jotting down on a piece of paper
whatever get their email it's good to
have in your back pocket just in case
you need to use it
let's see the eighth step this is learn
now
look at other artists and what they are
doing
oftentimes you're one of the few people
that are new to doing art festival
everyone else has been there for years
maybe even a decade or so so it's really
important to check out their booths how
they're doing it how they're setting up
how their prints are made how many
people are going to their booth
you know be a little spy check
everything out because it's so it's so
easy to get hyper focused on what you're
doing and not see what everyone else is
doing and everyone if it's your first
art festival everyone else there is
probably more experience than you so
it's a really good time to learn
and make connections and meet other
artists figure out what they're doing
ask questions afterwards if your booth
is slow and there's no one coming by
because you're on the back corner of the
area take a moment to walk around ask
questions ooh what's working what's not
did you think today was busy you know
get all the get as much data as you can
from your each festival
every time you talk to a collector that
comes into your booth you're
when you're starting out you're really
learning how to talk about your art how
to make a sale how to
understand people and what they're
looking for so as you're going through
and talking with people figure out
what's working and what's not
what type of
talk and story you have that kind of
hangs you up for me i often go down
rabbit holes of stories and my wife was
like you don't you go on these rabbit
holes every time you talk to someone
about
blah blah blah and the way you do this
and that and you know you really got to
keep it pretty short and simple in the
beginning the more and more you realize
they're into it the more and more you
can dive deeper and deeper but i'd
always just dive off in the deep end of
these my new details that no one cares
about they're just asking
about this and that you know so that's
something really important continue to
work on your spiel and get better at it
as you go throughout the day or the
weekend i used to make a list of all the
questions i got asked during the art
festival and so i could get better at
knowing what would be coming if it's
it's usually the same five ten questions
so
kind of figure out those in good answers
that are
short and sweet you know not just i've
been doing it one year two years
whatever it is
you know get your answers and you know
you can have a short version a long
version but kind of understand what's
coming at you in the art booth who what
why when where and how are generally
what they're going to be asking you so
have a good idea before you start
to have those questions answered write
it out it'll make a big difference
throughout the f art throughout the fart
festivals throughout the art festivals i
would be taking notes constantly in my
phone
just little stuff that come to mind what
i see all this stuff because
you're right there you're in the thick
of it and it's a lot harder to remember
those things a year later i would save
that note and when the next art festival
comes up i would go through all those
notes and see where i can make
improvements at the end of the art
festival often the next day or that
night i usually could never sleep that
night i'd be so wound up and excited but
i would start making lists of everything
at the festival just basically write out
like a debrief of what happened there if
you go through that stuff really fresh
in your mind
you're gonna and writing it down
you're gonna be able to use that later
on it's really easy to get
to forget all that stuff but that first
day second day or the day after the
festival take a half an hour and write
everything you can everything that came
to your mind during that festival and
it's really going to help you out a lot
also remembering clients names
collectors names that sort of thing
if a few people bought originals write
their names down along with their email
address but make sure you know those
people and you start
collecting the names of your collectors
as well not just the email so when they
come back the following year or they
you know they reach out in six months
for a commission piece or something like
that you're able to address them by name
and start being better at
connecting with your collectors this is
so important and if you just kind of
write everyone off after the sale you're
gonna really
have a hard time getting return
collectors
so time management is very important
with your art festival waking up early
being ready having everything ready to
go because there's always going to be
murphy's law whatever you don't think is
going to happen is going to happen make
sure you have enough time to do that and
deal with it if you have a complicated
setup you should be there before the
doors open to set up and you need to be
really hustling if
you can't get your booth ready in the
hour two hours ahead of time i used to
have really complicated booth setups
where we'd build an entire wall paint it
white
it was we made our own art gallery
on the grass for the art the holly of
art festival i'd be there the night
before working in the dark with a
headlamp building the wall painting the
wall getting it right that way in the
morning time when you had the one hour
where you could drive up to it up to
your booth i was just having to deal
with unloading the art and setting up
because my booth took so long so take
that into consideration if you only have
two hours to set up your booth
don't over complicate it make sure
you're ready to go do everything you can
ahead of time before doing art festival
because being late means you're stressed
being stressed means you're
you're you're going to be in your head
and it's going to be hard to shake that
all day so
you want it easy smooth going everything
on time fill your gas tank ahead of time
be ready
another thing with time is not spending
too much time with one person oftentimes
i'd have friends come to the art booth
and i was so happy to see them that they
came by that i would spend 30 minutes
with them talking
and they didn't buy anything and there's
other people in the booth that i kind of
wasn't paying attention to
so make sure that when people come to
the booth
everyone you acknowledge and you talk to
if someone's
taking a long time with you which is
totally okay
it's okay to be like oh just one second
let me ring this person up or let me
answer this person's question they're
okay to wait they're obviously
interested and they'll they can handle
two minutes while you ring up another
person it even looks great because
you're that busy that you have to
multitask also another thing with time
is in that first
you know when you're setting up your
booth you're kind of rushed to get in
there and you have a lot to do don't
over focus on the minute details of your
booth you'll be changing that throughout
the day you know it's not until you do a
bunch of art festivals that you know
exactly where everything goes and you
set up and boom it's perfect when you're
starting out you're like oh do i put my
prints on this side do i put my prints
on this side son where's the sun gonna
be i'm cooking on this side so i need to
move my booth a little bit this way
that's totally okay make the changes as
you go when it's a little slow move the
table left move to the right whatever
you have to do but just don't be afraid
to make those little changes to your
booth throughout the art festival tip
number 10 is have fun
art festivals are a blast you get to
meet so many other artists see so many
so much art meet so many collectors
learn so much they're such a fun time
you're going to see these you're going
to see all the other artists year after
year you're doing this so start making
friendships and
you know create that community that can
support you as being an artist it's so
much fun leading up to an art festival
there's often a little bit of anxiety i
know i would have it you know hard to
sleep the night before and stuff but
it's all part of it and no nothing bad's
really gonna happen the worst case
scenario is your booth completely
disappears with all your art well that's
not that big of a deal you'll just make
some more right so have fun
lower your expectations and you're gonna
have a lot better time you'll probably
be surprised of how well you do don't go
in there thinking you're gonna sell
everything and it's gonna be the most
perfect amazing experience and nothing's
gonna go wrong something's gonna go
wrong it it's not gonna be perfect but
just being out there with a bunch of
other artists is is fun in itself so
just appreciate what you're doing and
how much fun it is so it's art festival
season right now summertime when i'm
recording this so start looking into it
now because often times there's quite a
delay between application and the actual
art festival
so it's really good to put that stuff in
your calendars and make sure you stay up
on top of it every time all right i hope
you enjoyed this video get out there do
an art festival they're so much fun and
if you have any questions about any of
this stuff please leave them below in
the comments i answer everything so
get out there have fun like subscribe do
all that fun stuff and
see you at your art festival aloha stay
inspired
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