FEATURED SHOW REVIEW
December 2006
GEORGIA
September 7-10, Yellow Daisy Festival, Stone Mountain. Contact: Stone Mountain Park, Special Events Department, PO Box 778, Stone Mountain, GA 30086; phone 770-498-5633, fax 770-413-5059. Web site: www.stonemountainpark.com. Application fee: $40. Space fee: $500-$1,075. Space size: 10x20 to 20x20. 100% outdoors. Exhibitors: 475. Attendance: 200,000 (police estimate).
By Christine Casey
Senior Writer
E-mail: chris@smudges.com
Medium: Hand-sculpted clay character ornaments
If one has ever dreamed of perfect weather for an outdoor show, surely the 38th annual Yellow Daisy Festival weather surpassed those dreams. The weather was spectacular, and the shoppers took great advantage of it. In fact, for the first time since the Festival changed from three to four days, my husband and I did best on the first day.
Make no mistake, though — we were very busy all weekend. Although our first day was our best, each of the next two days was close enough for the difference to be negligible, and Sunday was a great day as well. When all was said and done, we had our best Yellow Daisy Festival since 2001. (I just hope I can say that about a few more shows later this year, too.)
I did not have a chance to talk to as many exhibitors as I usually do, but of the dozen or more I did visit with, each was very happy. I spoke with two exhibitors whose locations changed this year, and both said the change contributed to increased sales. They remarked that most customers thought they had never been there before. Jim and I changed our booth design, so although it was in exactly the same location, the configuration was very different. We were amazed at the number of people who asked if this was our first year. Change can be so good, yet we in this industry seem to avoid it at all costs.
I spoke with two new exhibitors who were both very pleased with their sales. A 2-D artist was so busy each time I went to her booth that I barely had a chance to speak with her. The other new exhibitor was a mixed media artisan, and his/her best day, as was true for many people, was Saturday. A clay artisan from California exhibiting here for the second time was happy, and in my opinion, if you drive (alone, except for her pet) from California to Georgia and sales make you happy, they have to be pretty good, don’t you agree?
Customers at Yellow Daisy Festival travel great distances and spend hours at the event. One customer on Saturday remarked that this was her first time at the show and she had learned one important lesson: Next year she will get a hotel and stay for at least two days. “Now I understand why so many people I know make a couple of day trips of it,” she said.
Because of our location, we often see people within an hour or two of when they enter the park, and then again as they take a shortcut through our area to return to their cars at the end of the day. It is very common for us to see women leaving at 5 or 6 in the afternoon who first came to our booth before the official opening of the Festival. (The most serious shoppers, by the way, arrive at Yellow Daisy Festival while it is still dark, at 7:30 or 8:00 a.m., and exhibitors near any of the show entrances are smart to be ready to sell that early.)
The setup always takes two days for us. Although you probably won’t need that much time, it is a good idea to remember a few things for your first YDF, and allowing a lot of time to set up should be at the top of that list. Also keep in mind that until you arrive, you will not have any idea of your space location, and although some are on flat ground, even on concrete, many are in the woods, with ruts, hills, trees and bumps to contend with. Bring blocks and shims, a rug and a broom, plenty of clamps and bungee cords, and all the patience you can muster. If you do, setup will go much better for you.
Read your paperwork and remember that when they tell you not to try to bring a trailer or motor home into the park, they DO know what they are talking about. Every year, because of our location and the fact that it takes us two full days to set up, we see someone trying to make it to his spot — although his vehicle or trailer is wider and longer than the paperwork’s warning — who gets stuck, scratches and dents his vehicle, or loses a tail light or even a bumper. Not only do organizers know what they are talking about, but the trees in Stone Mountain Park only get bigger every year. None of them shrink or stay the same size, so the pathways will never, ever, ever get any bigger than they were when your paperwork was sent to you.
On the last night of the show, each booth must be completely broken down before its owner is allowed in with a vehicle. Organizers seem to have worked the kinks out of this procedure now. There appeared to be more staff around on Sunday night than in previous years, and I had the shortest wait ever before Jim turned up the hill in our van. In fact, I had barely sat down with a Diet Coke and had not even taken out a book when he appeared. (There are some spaces that are near enough to a gate that their owners dolly their supplies to their vehicles to avoid the wait to get into the park. Others leave when the show is over and return late at night or the next day to pack up, when they can drive right into their space and go at it.)
There is a good reason Yellow Daisy Festival is voted so high in the 200 Best every year. It is an extremely well organized, wonderfully run event. The advertising and marketing are very successful, and it looks like it will be a fun day from the moment one enters the park. There are trams to take customers to the outlying parking lots, which encourages them to make several trips with their purchases, and they do.
The music is always good. Believe me, this we know, as our booth was directly behind the bandstand. (Even without the music, personalizing our art can be a challenge because of the mix of Yankees and Southerners. “Did you say ‘Tollar?’ Is it spelled like shirt collar?” a Northerner such as myself would ask. “No,” the Georgia show-goer would answer, “I said, “TAH-ler, you know, lahk ‘Tippecanoe and TAH-ler’ too.” Add loud music, and the conversation can be really comical.)
There are so many booths that it really can take more than a day to visit each one. Although there are the usual booths that some of us who have been in this for a long time find suspicious — and there are more booths that cater to country tastes than at most shows — there is without a doubt something for nearly everyone at Yellow Daisy. This seems to be what keeps customers coming back every year, with their pockets full of money, sneakers on their feet, and the back seats and trunks of their cars ready and waiting. If you did Yellow Daisy and it was not one of your top-five shows, please send me an e-mail and tell me what THOSE shows were!
Editor’s note: SA had received 31 FastAudits as of press time, when they were still trickling in. That’s a pretty healthy response and an indication that everyone usually has something to say about the top-ranked crafts show in the nation.
Sales averaged just below a seven, and 75 percent of our auditors said they would return. Of the ones who said they would not be back, most complained of too many low-end crafts and an unfair layout, which was “poor if you are not [on the] ‘A’ loop,” according to one crafter. Still, survey after survey contained high marks and comments such as the one by a textile artist: “Best show of the year for me.”
The highest totals were $16,000/$850 (wood artist), $15,000/$50 (wood artist), $11,000/$30 (polymer-clay jeweler), $10,000 (fine jeweler), $9,100/$25 (textile exhibitor), $9,000/$23 (wood artist), $8,741/$24 (decorative painter), $8,000/$40 (exhibitor of lamps and shades) and $8,000/$30 (mixed media artist). The lowest totals were $800/$10 (photographer), $770/$40 (purse maker) and $585/$35 (acrylic artist). The average auditor sales were $5,805, and if you add together the totals of the 28 auditors who divulged their take, you get $162,554. Using that figure, we can estimate the total exhibitor take of the Festival at more than $2.5 million. It’s no wonder the show is so highly ranked.
