Nuts & Bolts...and paint!

I've been going to street festival art shows since I was about 6 years old.  Everything about them thrills me: the art of course but also the food, the smells, the funny people, the street performers, the parks and the ability to just sit and enjoy the scene around you.  I never really gave much thought as to how the whole thing comes together....until.  Yep, I spent about 4-5 years on the organization committee of ArtWorks of Eau Gallie and got a real birds eye view of all the ins and outs of production.  (Did you know that if beer is served the city ups the ante on the number of port-a-lets that have to be rented?)

Next weekend I will be looking at a show from yet another view: inside the booth of an artist.  Whew!  Another full and unexpected education (what do you mean there is no beer??) that begins many, many weeks before the curtain actually rises on that wonderful people-filled weekend.  So let me share a few of my preparations:

Got to have a "booth" and most shows require a photo of said booth long before you have decided what to put in it or how to hang it.  This was a trial run in the back yard sans "walls."

As the tallest member of our family had to stoop to enter the tent we decided to combine required weights with a method of lifting the entire piece.  We'll let you know if it works but here I am jerry-rigging cans and cement and screws and ingenuity...

A friend of mine constructed walls out of lattice work and here is my husband rigging up sandfilled weights to attach to the walls so they don't swing and so the tent does not blow away with a gust of wind off the river.  Again, a prototype soon to be tested...

Oh yeah, art work.  Painted, framed, signed, photographed and priced (hopefully) to sell.  Now that it is protected with wrapping it must fit into the car and be hauled with everything else.  I'm sure I will look like the Clampitts pulling into town.

This festival requires a continuing demonstration to teach folks about your art and techniques.  Yeah, while I stand on my head and sing the National Anthem?  Right...I'll try.  This will be a work in progress and visitors may participate.

So what will I forget?  The credit card processer, labels, business cards, water, the paint for demo, clothes for cold, clothes for heat, a chair, comfy shoes.....that's it: the nuts and bolts of street festivals.