Has anyone ever heard of this happening at any other shows? My wife and I have been doing the "circuit" for about seven years, and have done some wonderful shows, and, well not so wonderful. We were unfortunate to be in Columbus, Ohio last weekend and it was like a barbeque! To top things off, this was billed as "the largest art fair in Columbus," but we were lucky to have 1500 attend. As time drew near for packing, a few artists pulled their trucks with trailers into the show and "blocked" the driveways to the tent rows! They were allowed to load their trailers while we took down our tents, then had to WAIT until an hour later to bring in our vehicles Apparently this "is how we do things," as we were told..
A shouting match ensued among quite a few artists, then one had his cell phone smacked out of his hand when he asked for their bosses' phone number. A few were then told that they were "jeopardizing" their career with future shows by complaining. I have NEVER heard of this type of behavior at ANY show. We were in a flood at one of the shows, with four feet of water in the tents, and everyone pitched in to clean everybody's artwork and tents to put the show on in one day! That's the community we have become, but I was disgusted by this. It should not be tolerated by anyone. We all work hard, and should not have to endure this treatment at the end of a very long day. Needless to say, we will NEVER do one of those shows again! Beware.........

Make sure you do a fair and honest audit of the show in the magazine. And be sure to mention the incident.

We do a number of shows with many exhibitors who have trailers (including us) and nobody is allowed to block any other exhibitor from setting up or leaving. It's just not done. The trailer owners were rude and inconsiderate. All promoters should have an area designated for trailer parking. And many will situate the booths near where all the trailers can be together.

You also say the show was "billed" as the largest in Columbus. By who? The promoter? You just learned another lesson. Never believe what a promoter says in the attempt to get spaces sold. Their job is to sell real estate. Read reviews, audits and talk to fellow exhibitors who you can trust to give you straight information.

In regards to your reply, it is difficult to get a fair and honest assessment of some of these shows. We have found that some of these shows WILL NOT allow negative feedback about their show! I posted a reply to an artist asking how the show went, and I was "deleted" from the forum. Only positive feedback is allowed......I guess if one doesn't hear it, it didn't happen......
In reference to the artists that blocked the loading, they were TOLD by the promoter to do this. Apparently, they travel the shows and are given front rows-20x20 booths, and are given preferential treatment for "policing" the show. Many of the artists that are familiar with the promoter call them the "Nazi's". One of them is the one that smacked the phone out of the artist's hand.
What's terrible about this whole incident, is that the artists are told that if they speak poorly of the show, no matter WHAT transpires, they will be kicked out of remaining shows with NO refund of booth fees. So you see, they are in a no-win situation. The economy is difficult enough without having to deal with blackmail.
There were even patrons that noticed that "things were not right in Denmark". What is happening to the art world??
"

I believe this forum will allow any feedback. So, what was the show and who was the promoter?

Wow...what a terrible experience. Obviously you were at the Columbus-Worthington Show so no surprises you were treated so poorly. I have done that show in the past. I am soooooo glad I wasn't there with only 1500 attendees. That promoter is having a tough time filling their shows so there has been little to no advertising this year. If you check past messages you will find the same story for their earlier summer shows. They are overpriced and they treat people awful. It seems they have met their fate. Many artists will not touch one of their shows. I hope you at least made your expenses this weekend as I am sure many did not. So sorry for you.

As for your message being discarded because you said something negative concerning a promoter.....that is a shame. I assumed that was the whole point to this forum....HONESTY in order to help one another. In this economy it is so helpful to get the honest story about a show. Good luck with the rest of the summer.

Yes, it was the Worthington, Columbus show by Howard Alan Events. It was our first show with them, and our last show with them. According to many other artists though, we were lucky... We only have done ONE show with them. Many have booked their ENTIRE year with them. Apparently, in your contract it stipulates that no one may have negative feedback about the show. If one does, they stand to lose ALL monies paid for remainder of shows and are kicked out of them. It happened to an artist we talked to.
It was obvious at the show. Many were upset at the show, but when Helena, (the show director) came around, many stopped talking and put their heads down. When questioned about the blockade, she said "take it up with Howard". That's about the time the shouting ensued, and she screamed "I'm not talking to you anymore"! She then called over the artist/police and told them to "make sure no one gets in". We had our tent down and ready to load at 5:20, and she told us to wait until 6:00 to bring our vehicle in. We had an appointment with a potential client, so I pulled on to the street and walked everything. Not fun after baking in the sun all day! Needless to say, we were finished before the other artists, and pulled away having them sitting and waiting......
These promoters forget that without the artists, there would be no show....We all work very hard, and travel all year for these shows. We appreciate the promoters that think of the basics, such as WATER, FACILITIES, BOOTH SITTERS FOR BATH BREAKS, AND FOOD. We PAID to be there, we traveled distances for the show, we sleep in our vehicles and freshen up in a bathroom, all for the patrons. Please help us look most presentable. Don't treat us like dogs....

Wait a minute. You signed a contract agreeing you cannot say anything negative about the show? If I saw that in any contract, the first place that agreement wiould go is the circular file under my desk.

Anyhoo, since they don't know who you are here, fire away! That's the type of promoter exhibitors should be warned about. Especially that clause in the contract.

I've signed up for a few Howard Alan shows, my first time with them, and this post is quite unsettling.

I noticed that the Sunshine Artist listing says 45,000 in attendance for this show; was the actual attendance really only 1500???

Has anyone else had experience with their shows?

All replies welcomed!

Which shows did you sign up for? They do have some good shows in the winter in Florida and have rules you must abide by....that being said, be careful and stay far away from ACE shows unless of course you have a buy sell product or are reping a dip mix......There has been a lot of negative reviews for all their summer art shows lately. I think the economy is hurting everyone and they charge the big fees and then at certain shows let the artists sit and die with no absolutely no advertising. Be careful. Their "favorite artists" know which shows they are gonna advertise for and which ones they are not and to stay away from. Nice huh, for the rest of us? I did one of their shows a couple years ago in Michigan. I got there and it was in a declining mall parking lot. There was no advertising and they put absolutely no signage even out on the road so virtually nobody knew we were there. I sat for two days with maybe 100 people walking by. It was disgraceful to charge artists for such a thing.

I have never seen a clause like that in their contract but then again I never looked. I did meet an artist who helped a food bank and ran a couple of craft shows with the proceeds going to that charity. When HA found out they were told they would no longer be allowed to participate in HA shows. I don't know if they got a refund for the shows they had signed up for. Come on it was for CHARITY!

Anyway, big trouble with them in this economy....Be very careful.

I've been accepted to the Delray Beach Thanksgiving show, the Boca Fest in January, and the Downtown Venice Art Classic in March.

Any reviews or other comments would be much appreciated!

Del Ray is iffey....some people do ok. However, Boca Fest and Venice are good shows....You should do fine.....Good Luck!

Gecko, no posts have been deleted from this discussion. I don't know what post you're referring to. Please do not accuse Sunshine Artist of deleting posts to protect certain promoters. The only posts that are ever deleted from this forum are ones that are overtly abusive or libelous, or violate the rules of the "Advertise Your Supplies" category. Regarding this particular topic, however, I would request that everyone respect the opinions of all posters and stick to the facts.

"...MANAGEMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO DISQUALIFY ANY EXHIBITOR CAUSING ANY PROBLEMS TO FELLOW EXHIBITORS OR MANAGEMENT..."

That is a direct quote from the application, complete with caps. So the promoter can interpret this any way he wants. "Any problems" is a pretty broad brush.And that's why a previous post said exhibitors lowered their heads when management walked by.

Sometimes exhibitors have legitimate complaints. And if you cannot voice concerns.... ?

These shows had better be gangbusters to put up with that attitude.

I think the contract or show info also states that no vehicles will be allowed into the show area until a certain time. Exhibitors with spaces at entrances are asked to block entrances in order to enforce this rule.

We did two Howard Alan/ACE shows about four years ago...our first...and our last. The first show was St. Pete. Set-up was before the sun came up and Helene showed up with NO light to use in giving out space numbers. She had to bend down and use a small light in a flowerbed. She carried on personal conversations as artists were waiting to get their space number and start their set-up. As people were setting up, she was walking around talking to them which prevented them from completing set-up and moving their cars. To those of use that she wasn't friendly with or didn't know, she was pressuring us to move our trucks/trailers. In addition, we complained about buy-sell of a particular booth during the show. Her response to us was that we could tell her to leave, but she (Helene) wouldn't. I found her to be extremely unprofessional. The second show was Siesta Key. The morning of the show it poured rain. No one with Howard Alan/ACE was on site during the entire weekend. They gave a participating artist free booth rental for running the show. When we went to check in we had to wait in the pouring rain while she secured her tent and unload boxes before she would give us our space number. The show was FULL of buy sell.

Two of the Howard Alan/ACE shows was enough for us....never again!