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No matter what your hand crafted items are woodworking, jewelry, quilting, sewing, painting, pottery, or weaving, craft shows and events is an excellent venue to display your work to hundreds or even thousands of eager shoppers looking to buy handmade. It's critical for you as a vendor to recognize that all shows and public events will not bring you the same kind of sales.You need fairs and festivals that draw large crowds of buyers who recognize that handmade products are worth buying.
Huge attendance at events is good but the shoppers have to be actual buyers to make the event profitable. For example, country craft fairs draw shoppers expecting to pay between $5 and $50 for home decor nik naks. Your high priced one of a kind items won't sell because the shoppers are bargain hunters. However, juried art and craft fairs bring in customers who will pay top dollars for quality pieces.
Music festivals attract big crowds, but may not be good markets for selling high dollar work. The crowds at street festivals and music festivals are out to have a good time, hear music and drink beer. Cheap stuff tends to sell better at these.
To know if a show will be good for selling what you make, you should attend it first before putting up money for a booth -- especially if it's a local event. When you go, check out the crowd and observe what's selling at the event. Will your pieces sell to the same crowd? Are other vemdors selling similar items to yours? If so, that's a sign the crowd may be right.
Craft fair listing services like Festival Network post show reviews and rankings from other artists actually exhibiting there. This lets you see firsthand feedback. Compare events to other shows around the country. However, note that some reports may come from artisans who ended up in bad locations or very good locations so read more than one review and consider them all before committing. It's always a good idea to preview any show yourself. See related article here on types of craft fairs, expos and events.
Start your search with the craft shows listings below.