Festival Canopy

Allan Rahbek · 03-23-2006, 06:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lacey Lewis

Once I put the sides on, it was like I had a sail boat as opposed to a tent. Any way to reduce this effect?

Hi Lacey,
one way to reduce the wind effect is to place the opening away from the wind side,( at the lee side, I am not sure if this is the right word)

Alternatively, make an opening to let the wind through. Only the paintings will leave then, maybe.

Allan

Lacey Lewis · 03-23-2006, 07:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Allan Rahbek

Hi Lacey,
one way to reduce the wind effect is to place the opening away from the wind side,( at the lee side, I am not sure if this is the right word)

Actually, the walls were on the side where the wind was coming from. I think that the stakes in the ground were just not enough... I will have to try lots and lots of weight next time.

Quote:

Alternatively, make an opening to let the wind through. Only the paintings will leave then, maybe.

Allan

ACK!

Heidi Maiers · 03-23-2006, 07:04 PM

Hi Lacey,
Bummer and I can sure relate. Had the same thing happen at my very first show. It was a 9 day show and the last night, the winds came through at over 50 miles per hour and destroyed the place. I had a 5 gallon bucket filled with rocks tied from the ceiling center rod, plus weights on all four corners. None held. Only lost about 4 pieces though, but when I saw it, we just packed up and left, as did most of the other artists.
Doing outdoor shows is a risk. It takes a little more time to set up and put away, but if you can put your work in waterproof containers overnight, that will cut down on damages. If you can sew, cut some "windows" near the top of the canvas on 3 sides and sew in some mesh screen to help let the wind blow through, similar to what Alan suggests.

Chris Saper · 03-23-2006, 08:43 PM

Hi Lacey,

The grid walls have no weight to them so they will definitely behave like sails. My tent experience is pretty limited but 100% has been in horrible winds.

I have Armstong carpeted walls which are a lot heavier than grid. Also much more difficult to handle on your own.

I made weights for each corner of the tent, out of 4 foot lenghts of 4-5" PVC piping from Home Depot. Buy one PVC cap for the bottom of each 4 ft length. . Buy long augers with sturdy handles to set into the tubes. Cap the bottoms, mix up cement and fill the tubes with augers in place. Let the cement set.

Attach the handles of the tubes to the tent corners with ratchet straps and bungee cords.

In one VERY windy situation my tent neighbors bungee corded my tent to theirs to add to the weight . If it is really windy, you might be better with the walls up. But is it's that bad, I'm with Heidi, head for the hills. Tent shows are REALLY hard.

Tomorrow I will pull out my weights and take a picture to add to this post.

Lacey Lewis · 03-23-2006, 09:23 PM

Enzie, Allan, Heidi, Chris, thank you all so much for all of the help and input (and keep it coming by all means!) I am starting to feel a bit better. My focus right now is just getting the whole thing set up to take pics BEFORE Saturday night. Then I can after that is done, I can think about if I just need to replace the tent, or what else creative I can do because I really need to get my work and myself out in the public. I'm determined!

The plan for now is this: I will get some nuts and bolts to put through the holes where the joints snapped, I'll brush off the dirt and such that ended up on the canvas part, and I will tie the tent down to some cinder blocks that I found I had right in my own yard. Then hopefully I can at least get a booth shot out of it! Winds for Saturday aren't expected to go above 5 mph, so my fingers are crossed.

Chris, actually I think my gridwall might be heavier than what you are thinking of. I bought some heavy-duty ones that are 2' x 6', and 3 panels come in a box. Each box weighs 40 lbs! I have a total of 14 2' x 6' panels, and 2 2' x 4' panels. I hope they don't budge!

Heidi, I remember reading on this forum about your experience. I am glad that this happened in my yard instead of at a show! Luckily the shows I am looking at are short, local shows with the longest being 2 1/2 days.

When I was a child, I used to do all of this stuff with my dad. He sold merch at carnivals, and I remember standing in his large, sturdy tent while we watched the kind of tents I have fly away.

Lacey Lewis · 03-27-2006, 11:24 AM

Update: I managed to get the tent set up to take pics, but I will need to buy a new tent for the actual fairs, the 1st of which is May 7th. For this picture, I put new nuts and bolts throuhg the joints, and since the sides were so bent up I tied some twine to the joints from the inside, strung it out through the side wall, and tied it to a fence. The side appears straight in the pic, and I don't think that you'd see the string unless I pointed it out.

Luckily the bright sun also blew out the dirt, grass, and rust stains on the cover!

I am looking at some of what they have at Dick Blick, so if anyone has any reccomandations about tents available there please let me know.

Also, Chris, how much would you say each of your home-made weights weighs?

Enzie Shahmiri · 03-28-2006, 12:14 PM

Hi Lacey,

The tent looks just fine and there are no signs of the trauma sustained.

I am sure you have no problem getting accepted with this preliminary set up. I wish you the best of luck and hope that the show will bring you many new commissions.

Lacey Lewis · 03-28-2006, 12:30 PM

Thanks Enzie! I am rather impressed with how well the picture turned out, considering the condition that the tent is really in.

Now I wish I would have taken a picture when it was caught in the clothesline, bending and twisting, just for fun. I could've joked about submitting that photo!

Enzie Shahmiri · 07-02-2006, 05:05 PM

All I can say is hang in there. First show, no sales and no commissions. Later on I set up my easel and painted, which made people curious enough to stop and look. I did not generate any portrait commissions either, but I sold several small decorative paintings, tons of postcards of my work and added many names via the guest book to my mailing list. I did see other paintings sell though, and that made me wonder if maybe my prices were too high for the venue.

This year, besides displaying samples of portraits, I am going to offer prints mostly 8"x10"of some work along with the postcards and small pet portraits in oil . Don't forget to print brochures! I will be at two outdoor art shows and one street fair in September and figured if the paintings are affordable enough for browsers, it might lead to future portrait commissions that are priced higher.

I am looking at this as purely advertising, it is less costly than advertising in the paper and I get out of my studio and can gage how my work is accepted by the general public.

Should you stumble across the magic solution of how to generate sales at art shows, please share.