Hypothetical Question...

[Apple Tree Crafts]

Ok, if you were looking at exhibiting your craft, lets say, in a huge marquee, on the manicured lawn of a castle (a big one) where celebrites had recently married......

.....how much would you be prepared to pay per day, bearing in mind huge visitor numbers, glamourous venue etc etc?

Ssshhh....can't say anymore;)

Jules

[Katianne]

Ooooh!!! No idea Jules but will be keeping an eye out for more posts about this. Sounds interesting!!!

[incywincy]

Ok, if you were looking at exhibiting your craft, lets say, in a huge marquee, on the manicured lawn of a castle (a big one) where celebrites had recently married......

.....how much would you be prepared to pay per day, bearing in mind huge visitor numbers, glamourous venue etc etc?

Ssshhh....can't say anymore;)

Jules
! no idea? rough guess at 100-150 a day!:confused:

[Apple Tree Crafts]

...what would YOU want to pay, not what would you expect to be charged?

I'm waiting on someone getting back to me, with their charges, and any input from you guys to help me judge a fair price would be greatly appreciated.

Jules

[incywincy]

...what would YOU want to pay, not what would you expect to be charged?

I'm waiting on someone getting back to me, with their charges, and any input from you guys to help me judge a fair price would be greatly appreciated.

Jules
£30-40 ? But haven't done fairs, only looked at doing them!! so am not sure about costs!! :sm:

[Bea]

Ok here's guessing per table. Craft fairs are say between £10 and £80, wedding fairs prob between £100 and £200, bead fairs between £60 to £100, big fairs like at the NEC/Gmex prob around £200, so my guess for your castle is well between £100 and £200.

[Mary]

Also, remember to take into account how many days the craft fair is for. A charge of £150 say may seem a lot, but if the fair is for 3 days, then that is only £50 per day.
Most of my experience is in the Yorkshire area, but to say prices of around £40-£60 per day are average, would probably not be too far from the truth.
Hope that helps a bit ;)

[Apple Tree Crafts]

What I'm asking is how much, all of you, as crafters would be prepared to pay?

What would be too much, even for a prestigious place like a castle?

Would you think that paying too little, say £30, for a stall at a castle craft fair would mean it wasn't very good? Would you be suspicious?

What price would you feel was a fair price to pay?

I'd like to know what you think, I'm not paying to have a stall, I'm the one being offered the venue....but I need to do this with all of your input so I can get it right.

Jules

[liz15a]

i think it all depends on the advertising and number of visitors expected - not the venue, however glamorous it is. If its not advertised well then it makes no difference whether its in a castle or a tiny village hall.

One of my best fairs is in a local church hall and its only £15 per table, but its gets a great turnout every year and I always come home with plenty of money (probably spoke too soon now!).

I would be prepared to pay more money if I knew it was going to get a good turnout - in the thousands. I think £30-40 per day per table is a fair rate, more than that is getting expensive unless the fair is established and known to do well.

[Katianne]

I am doing a 'fin day'event at Bowood House on 2nd Sept. They are having a craft marquee and a table there is £35, which I thought sounded very reasonable. The evnt has run previously and attracted 10,000 plus visitors. I understand that big venues mean higher priced tables, but as I am just starting off, am reluctant to pay a lot of money for a stall as it would take me forever to get that back through sales. So £30 - 40 would attract me, and I wouldn't worry about the event not being any good (esp. as you are organising it Jules and I know it will be very well advertised). But then again I have no idea how much these places are to hire and how much you need to cover this cost?

[candles by lisa]

Hi Jules,

I think it depends also what is going to be on the grounds with you. Will it just be yourselves doing the craft fair or will there be other entertainment?

The reason I say this is I was tempted last year by the Bearsden and Milngavie Highland Games, it has a huge turn out of roughly 60000 and as you may know is very wll advertised. It cost me £50 for one day for the table. However as it was a highland games there were numerous tents, covering loads of different things (the beer tent of course was the most popular) and tons of outside carnival type attractions (as well as the actual games themselves). However it cost £10 for a family of 4 to get in, then if you take it the kids want fed and watered and to play on the rides there isn't a log of spare cash for craft. I ended up making a grand total of £55 that day.

On a positive note though if it would just we Appletree Crafts you would be onto a winner!!! Wish I could come to that one!!

Hope this helps Jules.

All the best.

Lisa:)

[EMEvans]

I've never done a craft fair but and because i only make handmade cards i would need to sell an awful lot to get back the stall fee. But in saying that if the crafts i made were more lucrative i would be willing to pay between £40-50. Are you going to have different size stalls? Although i have no experience in this are you going to charge more for 'prime spots' e.g stalls near the entrance etc, as if i was after a good position i would be willing to pay that bit more.

[Apple Tree Crafts]

.....keep the input coming.

The people who run the events at this castle have approached us to do a craft fair. I need to know what everyone thinks, so I can negociate a fair deal.

I'm not fond of locations who overestimate their importance. What's important are the crafts being seen (and bought) by the public, and more importantly, crafters being able to attend without breaking the bank.

I know the cost reflects the location, but in somewhere like Taunton, this is different - 19,000 people are already there! At a stately home, you have to get the people through the gates first...

Anyway, it's all hush hush just now, but I'll keep you all posted!

Jules

[BeyondBeads]

Hi Jules,

Sounds lovely!

As a small business I generally can't afford to pay more then £30 for a table if I'm to stand any chance of recovering costs (let alone making a profit!). You also have to bear in mind crafters travel costs if you are picking an 'out of the way' location.

I would be willing to pay up to about £50 for the right venue though.

The trouble with these lovely venues is that small crafters who are just starting out are priced out of the market. There's no way someone like me could pay between £100 - £200 for a table at a one day event. I'd probably make a loss.

Laura :D

[kipper workshops]

I'm still working up to my first carft fair so for me it would be an unknown risk doing ANY fair. For that reason I would have to set a max of £40-£50 a day for a table.

I have the details for the Cheshire show, which is of course massive, over 20,000 visitors i think. It has loads of other events etc... but a table there costs £180 for two days.

I don't think this unreasonable for such a big high profile event. Cheshire show is massively advertised and promoted, must be one of the biggest shows during the summer up here.

I think that I would be more confident paying more for a larger show, even with many other attractions vying for punters pennies, that is well advertised and will have guaranteed numbers of people passing my stall.

Just my twopenneth!
Steve

[indri]

£200... if the venue is posh enough. I'd expect you could be charged more. I wouldn't have a clue really whatsoever! :)

[Peter]

It doesn't really matter where it is - it could be Earls Court, but if people have come to see the horses, you 'aint going to make anything! I've done Duncombe Park and Carlton Towers, and although hundreds of well heeled people went through, we did OK - just OK. The customer can wear a morning suit, or jeans, the wallet's the same! :)

Oh, forgot - £100 for a 6x2 table, but I would expect to lose out!

[Apple Tree Crafts]

I had hoped that the events manager would get back to me today, but no worries, there's always tomorrow!

Keep the feedback coming, it's all useful. Thank you to everyone who's contributed.

I'm going to try to get stalls for about £65, but I've no idea at this stage what's what. It's all up for discussion & negociation.

Jules

[icecreamgirl]

..... was 20.00 for a 6x2 table it was at an evening event in a posh hotel in the centre of town which ran from 7.30 till 9pm. The cost for the public to get in was 4.50 which i did think was expensive but it didn't seem to put people off, i reckon there was about 40 stalls there but it wasn't all craft stuff, quite a few local shops were there.
One thing they did have there which is quite a good idea was local hairdressers cutting models hair, i suppose they paid for a stall just to advertise themselves locally, good idea really i mean it is a 'craft' isn't it? and something a bit different, if you are looking for it!!
So to have a stall all day at a posh venue i would pay max 60.00 a day i think. But to be quite honest if i was paying that much i would go as a customer first - to suss it out!!

[Bea]

Jules

Your table cost must also be based on how much the venue is charging you. However, my personal opinion is that a first craft fair in a new venue is difficult. Is this castle already a popular visitors place? If it is empty at the weekend, I mean not open to the public, I'd tread carefully.
I did a fair in a stately home 2 years ago and the turn out wasn't great...
The fair in Stockport last year was also a disappointment, great venue, tons of advertising and hardly no-one turned up - the area where the venue was located was dead at the weekend!

Just my thoughts...;)

Bea

[Apple Tree Crafts]

There are certainly a lot of attractions going on at the weekends at this castle. But I have no idea whether or not they are popular. I have asked for visitor numbers, as a guide to popularity.

There are a lot of things I want to discuss, my main concern is getting a fair price for crafters. This will be a new event for us, but I know there have been craft events at this venue, and there's one in May. I'd like to go along to see their May event, but we have an event the same day.

Another thing is, that the public pay to get in to the Castle. So if they'e going to charge crafters a small fortune, as well as charging the public to get in, then I won't be impressed. I think visitor numbers will have risen sharply recently, as a celebrity wedding has been held there.

Oh well, maybe we'll know more later today.

Jules

[Fran]

.....keep the input coming.

The people who run the events at this castle have approached us to do a craft fair. I need to know what everyone thinks, so I can negociate a fair deal.

I'm not fond of locations who overestimate their importance. What's important are the crafts being seen (and bought) by the public, and more importantly, crafters being able to attend without breaking the bank.

I know the cost reflects the location, but in somewhere like Taunton, this is different - 19,000 people are already there! At a stately home, you have to get the people through the gates first...

Anyway, it's all hush hush just now, but I'll keep you all posted!

Jules



I have done a couple of events at an up market castle venue and whilst we were promised that the castle door numbers were very high, in our case the fact was that the marquee we were in was placed in a very ackward site, a bit away from the flow of traffic and the result was that very few came into the marquee in relation to the numbers going into the castle it's self.

so, what I'm say is that the position of marquee in relation to flow of castle traffic will be very important.

I paid £60 per day with electrics at this event (space size 10' x 10') and came away disappointed.

Fran

[Apple Tree Crafts]

....I've made notes of all the points on the thread, and quite a few besides. I think the location of the marquee is key though.

Still waiting for the events manager to get back to me. Bet she phones tomorrow when I'm out all day....;)

Jules