Monday, May 25, 2009

Cathedral Village Arts Festival

The day dawned bright and  and sunny. We couldn't have wished for better weather. No rain, no wind, just glorious sun.
8 am was set up time so we packed up and headed down to the festival site.
My family came out to help and I cannot thank them enough. They were amazing. The tent went up and was stocked by opening time at 10. I felt like a mean dictator as I bossed them around. I had a vision for how I wanted everything set up and even though we did have to make changes (like where I wanted to table to go) it ended up alright. 
The biggest issue off the bat was that we had set up our tent  according to what we thought the mail out said. It said that the space was 10 x 14 feet and we assumed that meant that it was 10 feet wide by 14 feet long. Turns out it was the other way around. We were so lucky and the festival people were so accommodating and we were able to just move the tent back by three feet.
If we hadn't been on an ally it could have been a disaster.
Here is how it looked before the masses descended.


It was a long day and we had planned on just me and my mom hanging out.
As it turned out the kids and Dave stuck around the whole day.
From 8 am to 6 pm the kids just hung out. They were amazing! Dave took them up and down the strip a few times and they also spent some time behind our tent tailgating it in the truck.
They brought back snow cones and balloon animals, fries and hot dogs and just hung out people watching.
However their good behavior overload was made up for on Sunday when we went grocery shopping and it was the trip from hell!
I think they had just had enough already for the weekend and had nothing left.
We ended up having an alright day. According to other sellers on the street I did well. There were booths that never even broke $100, let alone enough to cover the cost of the booth space. Some made a few hundred dollars and I am sure some made way more. I came close to the 4 digits but fell short. Sold a few large paintings and quite a few prints and a handful of magnets.
I shouldn't really complain, I just set my bar really really high. 
One etsy friend of mine said that last year she made triple what she did this year despite being off the main drag and having to shut down two hours early due to insanely bad weather.
I wonder if it is the economy that held people back this year or if it was because there were just that many more booths. (over 300) Whatever it was I am counting my blessings and am glad that I did have quite a few sales. Thank you everyone!
In the next few days I hope to get my shop open again and load up all the extra prints I made.
I will let you know when it happens.
Shutting down....back to an empty space.

One thing about being stuck in the tent all day was that I missed cruising the strip. I wanted to see some of the belly dancing and graffiti work and watch the buskers. 
Not only that but I find checking out all the different art mediums and styles very inspiring so I am hoping that everyone that took pictures there adds their shots from the day to the cvaf flickr pool
So in recap it was a really good day, thank you everyone that came out..there were over 30 of you that showed up just to say hi and support me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!
And a massive thank you to family, you were amazing!!!

9 comments:

Kamis Khlopchyk said...

Sounds like a resounding success! So glad for you. We ended up just enjoying the day in the yard and never made it out, sorry I missed you but glad I got the recap here.

Your art is amazing, I am not surprised you did so well!

Unknown said...

YAY Anna, it sounds like it was a great experience and I'm SO jealous of all the people that took home some of your wonderful art!! Congrats on your success and now you can relax and have that baby soon! WHEE!

BeachMama said...

Yay! Amazing! The fact that you actually made it without a newborn in your arms is remarkable to me.

Not sure if my Sister dropped by, she has almost brought home one of your paintings (from the coffee shop) a couple of times so I told her this was her chance before the new baby came.

Now we wait for baby!

Loukia said...

Good for you - you were totally successful! I think your art work is just beautiful and I really think you have to contact a few galleries, I'm not kidding! It is slow everywhere in the art world, just so you know - one of the galleries my mom is with told her it was a slow time for them. Your work is just lovely!

mamatucci said...

It looked great,wish i couldve come. I am sure it is the economy people.Your kids are are so good to sit there that long. I couldnt even get Matteo to sit through 10 mins of Frankies dance program we had to stay in the car.

Kori said...

Sigh, there it is again. Did someone buy it?

Gayle said...

Wow, your art is so amazing. See some of it all together in the tent is very impressive! I think the economy must have an effect on sales. I know I am trying not to purchase much more than essentials right now.

Unknown said...

yay~~~ I love the sunflower picture!

lynne said...

I'm really impressed you got this exhibition together.If your covering your costs that's excellent.I'm sure your painting business is going to grow and grow.