Worried about the "small" shows

I know that some people will disagree with me on this one, but to be fair much of what I am going to say here is perception anyway. To me this is the hierarchy of many arts & crafts shows / festivals what have you.

Small: these are local events. Typically they are put on my churches, community boroughs, historical societies and other local places and they tend to draw from a local community and demographic for their customer base. These tend to me inexpensive and draw anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand people.

Medium: often these have started as community events but have a long history, are run by a professional promoter rather than by community volunteers, or are multi-day events. This to me is something like Mayfair, the events at Peddler's Village, and even Chestnut Hill Home and Garden Show. I expect 5000-20000 people to attend. They usually pull from a larger geographic circle due to the fact they have an adverting budget. Often they even get in buses of people through travel agency trips.

Large: These are long events, multi-day or multi-weekend. They are professionally run, have a jury process, deadlines for applications, rules about your set up, and maybe even a dress code. These can bring in up to 100,000 people or more, typically have a large cross section of demographics attending, and are the kinds of events that people make plans on attending, maybe even taking days off or a mini-vacation. Musikfest, Kutztown Folk Festival and Chriskindlmarket fall into this category for me.

Professional: To me the these are true "art" shows. Very exclusive and very expensive to participate in. These are shows put on my the American Craft Council, the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show, the Smithsonian Craft Show, just to name a few. Honestly, in my opinion most artisans you see at your local or even regional events are not at the level to be accepted into these types of shows, because if they are, few go back to the lower levels. This is a whole different animal than anything I know anything about.

So why am I on this soap box this week? Because I am afraid of the demise of the small show. I have been seeing a trend in the past year and that is an increase in the cost of these shows. I have one that jumped 30% between last year and this year, a few others by 20%. Here are my worries:

1) Higher costs keep out smaller crafters. Right now there is a great number of people producing wonderful high quality crafts, just on a small scale. The Etsy revolution has so many people making things after the kids go to bed, or on the rainy weekends, or after a hard day at the steady income job. They are exquisite craftspeople who often can't afford a huge display, an expensive tent, or even the time to put into long show hours or multi-day events. They either can't (or won't) take a chance on a higher priced show.

2) Higher costs drive out seasoned crafters. I have a very specific formula to figure out how "good" a show is and ones that fall into the "bad" category are switched out for something new the next year. This formula includes the show price. So a show that was "good" in 2013 at $35 would not be "good" at the $50 they are charging for 2014. Do I give it one more year or do I drop it and try something new? That is a hard decision to make. I am grateful I have the extra $15 to pay and give the show a chance in 2014, but some do not have that luxury and will go on to the next available show that weekend.

3) We talk. There is a huge social network of artisans and we talk amongst ourselves a lot. We share bad shows in a heart beat, and share good shows with people we like and respect. It is tougher to spread the word amongst us for a good show than it is for a bad one. I have seen great shows die in just 2 or 3 years due to simple changes: a new location, a new production staff, an increased entrance fee. That "good" show I referenced above, as of yesterday when I received the application (with the price hike) I would have passed it on to other people to try out, now I will but have to also say that for the current price, if I make the same income this year, I wouldn't do it again in 2015.

4) They are the "gateway". I am concerned about medium and large shows too but they are not the typical "gateway" into the industry. More often than not, people start with the small local shows to get their feet wet, figure out their display, build a customer base, and learn the ropes. Making these shows less accessible through higher fees may just have an industry wide impact over the next 5 to 10 years.

I just hope this is just a trend I see for a year or two and then things stabilize. It would be sad to let go of so much of my show schedule if things keep changing.