Festival Review!
- Sarah Jackson
- Jun 7, 2024
- 3 min read
"wow, it feels like forever that i have written a blog. to be honest, i have been stressing about my upcoming art events. how much art do i need? what do i need to have a succesful booth? how much will all this cost? i am super excited but i am as much nervous as i am excited."
-first paragraph of my blog draft written on May 15
From the time I registered to be a maker/artist at the Downtown Columbia Mini Maker Faire to the Faire itself, I felt frozen. I was so nervous about making sure everything was presented perfectly, that I lost any energy and push to create or prepare. To be honest, I prepped everything starting about a week before the festival.
Now that it is over - though I still have my local flea market coming up this Sunday - I can sit back and reflect on how it all went.
The photo above makes me so happy to look at. It represents drive, ambition, risk-taking, and I just love looking at the art display. Before I realized what was being provided to me (a tent, one table, and two chairs), I was so stressed about setting up a tent and lugging everything to my booth which was not super close to the unload-zone. Luckily I had my best friend James with me to help unload, transport, and set up my booth. He is the best! I could not have done it all without him. Also, thank you to my local grocery store for letting me borrow one of their little shopping carts to transport everything. After all that stress and anxiety, the whole day ended up PERFECT!
Pictured to the left is a photo of what my art display looked like at the beginning of the day and it got rearranged a couple times. To start, on the bottom left, I moved the bucket to the table and the small painting to the stack of paintings on the ground on the right.
I originally wanted there to be no blank space, but you'll see on the next photo that luckily we needed more space for the young artists who came to color their own pieces.
In addition to displaying my own art, I brought art supplies and paper (special thank you to my neighbor Janet for donating her supplies for me to use) for anyone who wanted to take a break and create their own art. I originally had some of my own art and palattes on the table for inspiration, however, there was not enough room for all the young artists who wanted to color. Seeing the young artists get in their creative zone and hearing them tell me about their work was so beautiful and inspiring. Two young artists made me drawings. One little girl told me as she was drawing that she wanted to be an artist when she grows up. I said to her "Why wait?! You can be an artist now!"
Now, let's talk about what I will do differently next time:
Prepare further in advance - not the week or night before.
Make sure I know exactly what the festival is providing me so I don't waste time and energy bringing items I don't need (tent and table and chair)
Price my artwork!! You never know when someone will want to make a purchase and you don't have a set price in mind or labeled on the work
Honestly, nothing really went wrong! Even with the last minute planning and stress and anxiety up to the event, it went so smooth.
This day taught me I can do anything I put my mind to and gave me true validation I actually make art that is pleasing to the eye. I hope to do more festivals in the future - only if they provide the tent. Tents stress me out.
-Sarah
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