Thank you to everyone who traveled to Yankton Riverboat Days to see us! It is always so fun to see you all! I means a lot that several of you took the time out of your weekend to drive from several hours away (some 2 days in a row) to come to the festival. Supporting art festivals and the Artists there by purchasing their art at the actual festival is so important if you want to continue to have these amazing events to attend. I know that weekends in the summer are busy and packed with adventures and projects, so thank you again for taking the time to come to the event!
I absolutely love attending them myself and meeting new people and reconnecting with people that are not always able to get to Sioux Falls to come to the shop! Seeing my fellow artist friends and finding new amazing artists is so important to my sense of "community" with the arts. Every artist that you'll meet has a story and a "why" of how they got involved in their current artistic medium. I love hearing this part. To see new ideas and how each artist evolves from year to year is truly astonishing and sometimes mind blowing. I am also a sucker for a good corndog and other "fair" foods! :)
A huge part of a business taking part in an Arts Festival is creating brand awareness and educating new people about your business and building a relationship of trust with them, I have always understood that. Hearing someone say: "oh a paw print, so can you do a paw print from my dog? My dog is so big, it would be huge!" And then following it up with talking about the process of taking the print and making it smaller is so fun for me! I get to see the wonder and excitement in people's eyes at the possibilities of a pet print keychain, or using their Mother's handwriting or children's fingerprints on a keepsake. Watching their minds think of the endless possibilities is so fun! I will never grow tired of explaining all that we can do and the process behind these pieces, how the handstamped items and created one letter at a time, or the way that crystals are selected and sourced. I know some people need time to think of just what they want and find the things they need to create these keepsakes. We are always happy to assist you with ideas of what you could create and give you suggestions based off of what you'd like to incorporate into a design.
We also bring a huge selection of items that are ready to take home with you immediately! We know it's fun to go home with that little something that caught your eye. With the addition of our crystal collection, earrings, rings and expanded minimalist lines of jewelry, we almost have more options that we have room to display them all in our 10x10 booth area! We pride ourselves on creating some really fun specials and sale items at a huge discount that are super adaptable for any occasion and person.
What also happens at our festivals is that many people say: "I'll find you online or stop the next time I get to Sioux Falls." And many people do this and we are so grateful! I have already had several people reach out that we first talked to in Yankton this last weekend! That being said, it is a huge undertaking and expense to attend these festivals as an artist. I counted that I was in the park this last weekend for over 27 hours over 3 days and we had about 35 hours of prep work beforehand and unpacking when we returned. The physical (I think I only sat down for about an hour total) and emotional efforts (did we remember to pack that one thing? Will it rain? etc) are very real as well. We had a slow start to our weekend but ended up having one of the best Sundays we have ever had at a festival, so we were happy to end on a high note! So thank you for attending and making purchases with us, and other artists and food vendors! This is truly how we make our living and buy school supplies, shoes and food for our families.
I am so grateful that we have these arts festivals as opportunities to connect with new and existing clients and friends, it is so fun! Please keep supporting the artists that you love at festivals, online and at their shops when heading into the upcoming holiday season. This is really our most important time of year for our businesses. We put money back into our communities and into other artists and small businesses that we love too.
Our next festival is the Sidewalk Arts Festival in Downtown Sioux Falls on Sat. Sept. 10th from 9-5pm. We are already working on our Sale Design for that festival- stay tuned for that reveal in a week or so! We chose a BRAND NEW shape to incorporate into it and we are so excited to share it with you.
I want to take a moment to thank my husband Dan, and my kids Lilly and Graham for their help in packing and working at my festivals with me over the years! Luckily I just have to pay them in Gyros, Tacos, Snow Cones, SDSU Ice Cream and Wild Bill Soda! My current and previous team members have all experienced how much work goes into these festivals and I couldn't do this without their help! It definitely takes "teamwork to make the dream work!"
