Should I exhibit at a Big Fair?
If you’re a maker and you’re wondering whether or not it’s worth exhibiting at a big Fair, here’s my two pennies worth of thoughts. I’m passing on this experience, as when I did research online, I could not find anything of the like.
The short answer is: it depends. And by that I mean that it depends on the fair you’re attending and what goods you’re making.
If you’re a maker you’ll take pride in your hard work, your craft, the years it took to master the skills. You’ll remember the tears, sweat and - depending which craft you’re into - occasional blood that you put into acquiring those skills. Your products are priced to reflect this. Making things by hand takes longer than mass-producing identical looking items in a factory. Your customers are people who appreciate your work, craft and skill.
Now my business is fairly new. I have been promoting it on an almost daily basis on Instagram, I am posting on YouTube. This year I was asked to make a promo video, I was on the national radio, I had an interview published online and in a regional newspaper, I had a local radio interview and I nudged my way into wholesale by means of a small independent local shop. But despite taking every opportunity, sales were going slow.
What to do? I decided to push my timetable a bit forward and apply for the Living North Christmas Fair in York a year earlier than intended, because the magazine has a decent sized readership and was localised enough to not be too overwhelming, promising a solid exposure, both via the magazine (print, website and social media) and the four day Christmas Fair.
Last year I scoped the Fair out as a visitor. I looked at stall sizes, payment methods, price ranges, displays, visitor data (age, gender and what is bought). I decided it was worth a shot, people definitely seemed to come with the intention to spend money.
I decided to apply for a 2.5m x 1m stand to allow me to have a chair of some sort next to the table to sit on, as everyone with 2x1m stands seemed to stand right in front of their goods. (There is zero space behind the table.) The total fee for the 2.5x1m stall amounted to £614.52 (this includes VAT). On top of that, because it is INSIDE, I had to get a Public Liability Insurance covering a minimum of £2,000,000.- damage. This cost me £58.31, the second cheapest insurance I could find. I also had to rent a trestle table, as the camping table I had intended to use seemed not quite up for the task (pottery is heavy). This amounts to a total of £683.33 the Fair cost me. Remember that’s fee, insurance and table only.
For a small business like mine, this was quite the investment. I was, therefore, very careful with what things to make for the Fair. My application was accepted in May, so I devoted five months to making solely for this event. Seeing as the cost of living crisis has left a big impact on people, I was very aware about pricing. I wanted to be able to offer something affordable as well, as I didn’t want to be an exclusive shop. So I made a lot of Christmas ornaments and little mini planters which can also be used as tea light holders. They were between £5.- and £10.-. Affordable, small, handmade presents. I also brought along other, bigger things (like vases and bowls) - mainly to give customers an idea of what I do and maybe drive some traffic to my website.
I’ll be honest with you, I was disappointed. The promised footfall was not drawn in. In fact Thursday and Friday were pretty bad and I made very few sales. Saturday was a lot better and there was a steady stream of people from start to finish. Sunday was, again, quite slow. It took until Sunday after lunch until I broke even, as in covered the Fair cost. I made a very small profit. None of the stalls around me were rolling in massive sales.
About 70 people took my business card, I got 5 new followers on Instagram, zero new subscribers on YouTube, but traffic on my website doubled over the weekend.
One of the reasons for this dire result is: this was not my market. Like not in the slightest. If you’re producing baby clothes or toys or games, candles or make food or drinks of any kind this is the place to go and those sellers did well. The majority of visitors were women over 50 and they were easily tempted into buying presents for their grandchildren.
There are certainly circumstances that all contributed to the slow sales to some extent, such as the organisers turning off the Christmas music half way through the day and creating an awkward “they’re going to close the shop, quick, leave”-atmosphere, poor signage to the connecting building in which the Fair continued, a too early date for Christmas shopping and the Cost of Living Crisis. Also, I am very aware that a) not everyone likes pottery and b) my style is not to everyone’s taste. However, with a promised draw of ten thousand visitors, I had - naively so - expected to do better.
The audience at the York Fair unfortunately wasn’t mine. Artisan, ceramics, makers and craft markets clearly are the way forward, seeing as they tend to be visited by people who appreciate handmade items and are actively seeking them out and willing to pay the price for it. Also, I am aware that people might think my pots are overpriced, but if you bring forward this argument, I would counter-argue to search the internet for actual handmade pottery (and not a factory made mug with the picture of Uncle Bob’s pooch on it) and compare prices and you will find I am actually in the low bracket.
So, to conclude: if you are up for standing in one place for four days solid and are not worried about sale numbers, it is definitely worth the experience - if for nothing else but meeting awesome stallholders and networking.