Something to do for the weekend ...

[Fair Do]

Hi All,

Having now resigned myself to the fact that the weather over the Easter weekend is likely to be a tad less than warm and sunny I began to wonder what I might be able to get up to indoors!!!

Then a thought struck me ...you don't have to look very hard on this forum to find the words "I'm thinking of organising a craft fair" ...which I think is brilliant ...the more the merrier I say!

However, the brave souls who see this through find that there is a bit more to it than setting up a few tables in a hall and waiting for the public to arrive. In this day and age the public are very demanding (and rightly so) and expect an interesting and professionally run event to go and spend their hard earned money at.

The issues that face organisers often lead to questions on this forum, some of which I have attempted to advise on (as an ex-organiser myself).

So I thought ...as I now have a website of my own maybe I could write a few articles on the basics of organising a craft fair. This could maybe then be used a a reference point for some of the more popular questions that crop up.

Does anyone else think this would be a worthwhile idea? At least it would keep me busy over Easter!!!

Please let me know what you think and I'll start putting some ideas down.

Thanks.
Fair Do

[craftdancer]

Sounds like an excellent idea to me.

I've been thinking about setting up something along crafty line - not necessarily a fair - on and off for a few years. Basically, I've been far too busy with other stuff, but you never know, I might get there one day and a reference facility like that would be very useful indeed.

Good luck if you decide to go ahead.

Linda

[somerset artist]

Get it done as soon as possible please!! :)

Since joining this forum just a few short (3) weeks ago it has spurred me into doing something that I first thought about doing a few years ago.

Namely organising art and craft fairs/exhibitions.

At the moment I have a possible fair in September and December and next week I am talking to a shopping centre manager about holding - possibly weekly - an art and craft market!

Reading about other peoples success and aspirations has given me the impetus to get 'off my butt and do something'!

Any advice from someone who has done it before is most welcome. I look foward to reading the articles and learning from them.

Andrew

:fencing:

[annnoble]

Hi,
Sounds like a fab idea to me, its always good to find out about things as much as possible.
I look forward to hearing your words of wisdom.
Ann

[Fluffy Squirrel]

This sounds like a great idea... I have recently been thinking about organising a craft event in the local area but haven't done anything about it as I wasn't sure where to start.

I personally think that an "idiots guide to organising a craft fair/event" would be really useful and would hopefully encourage more people to hold these events and share their skills :D

Good luck with a great idea!!

:playball:

[woodenlady]

May I enquire as to what experience you have in organising craft fairs being an ex-organiser. Instead of encouraging more people who have little or no experience to set up an event perhaps it might be more beneficial to disuade them!
Having visited some very bad so called craft fairs over the last few weeks, full of cards, jewellery, bought in goods etc I am dismayed that even more events are being planned.
Just filling in a form over the internet might fill the fair but what about standards and quality of work and interest for the visitors. By encouraging this type of event will only continue to bring the world of CRAFT into disrepute.
I am fed up with seeing so called craft fairs full of bad workmanship and design with stall holders complaining of lack of buyers, perhaps the work offered doesn't deserve to be bought!
Annoyed Lady

[woodtattoos]

May I enquire as to what experience you have in organising craft fairs being an ex-organiser. Instead of encouraging more people who have little or no experience to set up an event perhaps it might be more beneficial to disuade them!
Having visited some very bad so called craft fairs over the last few weeks, full of cards, jewellery, bought in goods etc I am dismayed that even more events are being planned.
Just filling in a form over the internet might fill the fair but what about standards and quality of work and interest for the visitors. By encouraging this type of event will only continue to bring the world of CRAFT into disrepute.
I am fed up with seeing so called craft fairs full of bad workmanship and design with stall holders complaining of lack of buyers, perhaps the work offered doesn't deserve to be bought!
Annoyed Lady

Dear Annoyed Lady,

I don't quite think that the creater of this thread deserves your wrath. They were offering to share the benefit of their experiences as an ex-organiser in order to assist in improving the quality of craft fairs. They said nothing about randomly filling events with sub-standard goods and I'm sure that they fully appreciate the necessity for using quality crafted goods with a varied selection available to help ensure a successful event. Every maker on this forum is dedicated to the ethos of crafting and anyone who wishes to contribute the benefit of their experience should be encouraged to put their views across. There are many people on here who decide to set up their own craft events due to the lack of such fairs in their area and I think that we can do our bit to support them and offer advice in their endeavours. Everyone has to start somewhere and just because someone is new to event organising, it doesn't mean they will be trying to cut corners or not put their heart into making it a success. I'm sure that your views can also be taken on board as you have clearly got strong opinions on what makes a good craft fair... please just don't condemn Fair Do for something that I think could be a genuinely useful resource for event organisers of all levels of experience.

Best wishes,

Si. :)

[knitnstitchsue]

Well put, Si.

I heartily agree!

[ezzyam]

Well said Si. Its lovely that there are people here who are happy to share their experience for the benefit of others. In the short time I have been with the forum I have found everyone very helpful and supportive. Thanks from me to all who are prepared to give up their time to help others.

[Peter]

Playing devil's advocate for a minute, I can see the reasoning behind Woodenlady's post - the quality of 'craft fairs' has plummeted over the last 10 - 15 years, mainly due to 'bought in' goods. Craft Fair organisers have got round this by calling the 'gift fairs' and 'art & craft fairs'. Quantity has usually resulted in deterioration of quality, ergo, more craft fairs = more tat. I stopped doing fairs years ago because it was so difficult to find an organiser with the morality to match the number of venues, in fact, without being unctious, the only craft fair organiser I have ever thought to be concerned with the welfare of the crafters is our own Apple Tree Crafts..............sorry Jules! :) Don't automatically support a poster because you think they are nice - if you read woodenlady's profile and her past posts, you would see she had some idea what she was talking about. I am in the middle here, which means I dismiss neither side, and nor should you.:)

[Ifor-Jones]

I would like to think that crafters organising craft fairs are much more likely to be aware of the problems that arise from a badly organised, badly advertised fair that does not have an attractive mix of crafters and more bought in stalls that crafters. Therefore I think it is a good thing that more people involved in crafting are trying to remedy the faults in the system that they have come across when they are exhibiting. The resource that is being offered would be very useful too.

I would also appeal to crafters to remember a little courtesy to those organising craft fairs. Having advertised on here for stall holders for a fair I am organising in the summer I find there are quite a few who have asked for details and I have asked them to let me know whether or not they are interested - no response - it only takes a few seconds to say "no thank you" and it would be very helpful. Others have shown a definite interest, said they definitely want to attend, then not returned booking forms or answered e-mails. Please be aware that someone somewhere may be waiting to hear from you!!!!

[Fair Do]

Hi,

Many thanks to all for the comments posted on this thread and indeed for the messages of support. I would like to directly address some of the issues raised by woodenlady if I may, whose comments I welcome along with any others.

I would like to offer the following in reply …

If we don't encourage new talent to shine through then eventually there will only be the big, established events to go to. Would you really like your choice of fairs to attend to be so limited? I believe there is plenty of room for new ventures to start up ...who knows which of them will be the big players of tomorrow!

I agree that there are some poorly run events, but they won’t survive for long, and in balance there are plenty of well run, well organised, well advertised and well attended craft fairs going on out there. These all started with someone 'having a go'.

And I totally agree that pure craft fairs (as distinct to Craft & Gift fairs) should not be selling bought in product. I always insisted that my stall holders could only sell what they had made. And yes, there are different levels of skill and workmanship out there, but priced accordingly I believe there is a market for most. The customer always has the right to not buy something.

It's also fair to say that crafters who are branching out into selling their products need a place to showcase their items that won't cost them the earth, and local craft fairs are the ideal place for this. There are a lot of jewellery and card crafters out there (I have seen some very high standards of workmanship in both), but it’s equally true that a lot of people want to purchase such items.

A craft fair should be a balance of many things including interesting, well presented stalls that offer a selection of products to choose from. These will range from pocket money priced items to one off pieces that have been lovingly crafted. It takes time for an organiser to get this balance right and part of the process will be to meet a lot of crafters who will eventually provide the balance required.

It must also be accepted that organisers faced with expensive overheads have to face the reality of balancing the events books ...which in real terms means fully booked tables and lots of people through the door. A loss making event will soon have to close its doors.

On a different note, I should point out that what I’m proposing here is something completely different to the 'form filling' side of my website. I intend to write a series of short articles on organising and running a craft fair. They will take the form of me simply passing on information gleaned from my own experiences. The hope being that they will help steer new organisers away from pitfalls. And yes, I will be promoting the values you mention including high standards and quality of workmanship.

Regarding my own experience. I don't pretend to be a 'big player' and there are certainly more experienced organisers on this forum. I organised a series of events in the North West over a two year period a few years ago. I'd like to think that they were run to a high standard and that I cared as much about my crafters being successful as the event itself. I can tell you that they increased in popularity both with the crafters and the public over the time they ran. Why did I give it up? ...two main reasons, the spiralling costs of putting the event on (mainly insurance), and the fact that the work was becoming ever more stressful. You may not think this gives me much experience to pass on, but I believe you only have to organise one event (properly) to realise just how much there is to consider. So what’s wrong with passing that on? That’s all I intend to do.

It’s not as easy as it looks organising a craft fair. The public (and crafters) only see the end result of often many months of work. So I say ‘hat’s off’ to people who decide to have a go …it will help to keep crafting up there in the publics minds and hopefully encourage them to consider buying hand crafted products instead of machine produced. After all, isn’t that what crafts people are all about???

Regards.
Fair Do

[Ifor-Jones]

Well done Fair Do and very carefully thought out. If your articles are as well written I look forward to reading them - more power to your elbow.

[Christine 1]

What a brilliant idea, i have just filled the form in & wish you all the best on this as apart from local in town craft fairs, it is rare that you see any advertised.

Christine

[woodtattoos]

Playing devil's advocate for a minute, I can see the reasoning behind Woodenlady's post - the quality of 'craft fairs' has plummeted over the last 10 - 15 years, mainly due to 'bought in' goods. Craft Fair organisers have got round this by calling the 'gift fairs' and 'art & craft fairs'. Quantity has usually resulted in deterioration of quality, ergo, more craft fairs = more tat. I stopped doing fairs years ago because it was so difficult to find an organiser with the morality to match the number of venues, in fact, without being unctious, the only craft fair organiser I have ever thought to be concerned with the welfare of the crafters is our own Apple Tree Crafts..............sorry Jules! :) Don't automatically support a poster because you think they are nice - if you read woodenlady's profile and her past posts, you would see she had some idea what she was talking about. I am in the middle here, which means I dismiss neither side, and nor should you.:)

Beadsage, I agree and I wasn't taking an opposite side to woodenlady if you read my post. I recognised the fact that she would be able to add a valuable input as I also looked into her previous posts. I just wanted to say that Fair Do's intentions seem honourable and that it seemed that Fair Do was trying to offer advice to prevent more badly run craft fairs, rather than make it seem easy to anyone to put together an event with no care or planning. This forum is an excellent platform for crafters and I've learnt a great deal from it. The more people willing to share their opinions and advice, the better if it improves the craft fair experience for us all.

Si.

[Fair Do]

Hi All,

Just a quick update on how things are progressing re the articles.

I have now got the bulk of the first one written. It starts at the begining and focuses on the many things that need consideration when first thinking about organising a craft fair.

I had hoped to put it on the website today, but the sun came out more than expected I'm glad to say, so I managed to get out a bit over the weekend, so it still needs a bit of work.

Anyway, it should now be ready in the next day or so ...watch this space as they say!

Hope you are all having a great Easter.:)

Regards.
Fair Do

[creativeclare]

Great stuff!

Looking forward to it!

[ilovecrafts]

am looking forward to the articles! be an interesting read I would expect, whether one wants to set up a fair, or for a stall holder to judge posible events before booking!

[Fair Do]

Hi All,

Not sure how much I can say about this openly, so rather than put the direct link here I'll just say that the first article is now available at the website in my signature. Comments welcome.

Or as my signature seems to have gone if you can't get to it PM me I'll send you the link. Be tomorrow now as I'm off to bed!

Regards.
Fair Do

[woodtattoos]

Hi All,

Not sure how much I can say about this openly, so rather than put the direct link here I'll just say that the first article is now available at the website in my signature. Comments welcome.

Or as my signature seems to have gone if you can't get to it PM me I'll send you the link. Be tomorrow now as I'm off to bed!

Regards.
Fair Do

Your signature only appears in the first post that you write on each page so it's still there... just a little higher up the page! I learnt that the hard way when I joined... ;)

Si.