Bonnaroo music festivals

has anyone ever sold at bonnaroo?, dp

Yes, Actually the producer is a friend of mine and it was relatively
close to W.NC so I bit - ONE YEAR ONLY - I set up the 2ed year when
it was still a tenuous Festival. It has improved somewhat since then
but the crowds are still the same cross-section of society as the
early years. perhaaps three percent of festival goers haave money
for jewelry over $50. 00, the rest are drunk or too intoxicated to
conduct business, much less doing it quickly and I had more declined
cards than EVER before at any outdoor festival (some vendors charge
on a per system resources /connection basis so even declined cards
cost the seller money). I attended (as a musician) two years ago,
what I saw was a lot of fairly standard flea-market jewelry like
Nepali, Tibetan and Israeli “by-the-pound” bezel set silver pendants
and rings with cabochons, and pretty trite castings of skulls,
snakes, pentagrams and deities and toe rings. Ear plugs were selling
best and customised ones were selling better- in fact there was a
line at a booth that offered ear piercings. (yeah, I want to get
pierced in the dusty sweaty outdoors with equipment laying around on
an Indian print bedspread covered dusty table with no autoclave on
the premises or hand washing facility anywhere near the booth !!!).
There were a few musicial groups selling their merchandise between
sets, and otherwise some unlicensed looking rock-and-roll band
jewelry. I didn’t see a single art jewelry booth that the person
ACTUALLY created what they were selling (though some of the sellers
tried to assert that it was their work- Apparently they hadn’t
thought to look at the marks in the pieces that clearly had India,
Mexico, and/or Israel and/or. 925 export stamped inside ! The last
time I went there were a couple of wwire wrappers that had appeared
and one metalsmith selling a lot of roll printed and found objects
stuff. no price points were over $100.00 except for a few sets of
Nepali gemstone jewelry. I wouldn’t bother with the festival. If you
want something profitable, different and with relatively inexpensive
cost try New Orleans’ Jazz and Heritage Festival -you would set up
one weekend out of two and the crowd spends in the 200-500 range
readily, with a good portion of sales potential in the 80-150 range
for rings and gem set items. There is an entire art and crafts area
devoted to handmade artisan works (but its juried).

R.E. thanks for the heads up on bonnaroo, i asked because i figured
that was the case, have always wanted to the new orleans jazz and
heritage festival, have always had much better luck at jazz venues.
Wondering if you have ever done any jazz festivals other than new
orleans, like atlanta, or the atlanta acc even, or anywhere else,
possibly charlottsville? The jury is not a problem for me, but i
love music, and need an intelligent, classy crowd for this jewelry
that i make, which is elaborately designed, very carved wood and
silver, i live in north jersey, thankyou

Asheville NC has a fest called Belle Chere- its a great gig! great
money free festival well attended by the citizens from Atalanta to
Chattanooga to w. NC and about 120 miles in any direction. Varied
price points sell well as the town has a very wide socio-economic
picture from college kids to retired hippie types to wealthy folks
from highlands and points east of Asheville to a thriving and well
off medical community and all of em love festivals and any chance to
buy trendy and cutting edge adornment! Itts a perfect open air
venue- fairly cheap to set up, can be hot as hell but lasts long
enough to make it worth while. I recommend it highly- there isn’t
much real jewelry there - a few wire wrappers, and a few silversmiths
but not a lot of people passing themselves off as jewelers with
Nepali or Israeli made wares. Its an arts and crafts-y kind of place
in the center of the Southern Highlands arts and crafts schools
triangle and you should do well with price points from say 80 dollars
to about $1,200 or more if you travel with those kinds of pieces

It is easy to get cash from ATM’s around the venue and WI-Fi is de
riguer in town so processing credit cards is easy. The one drawback
is that I believe you need to get an in-advance permit from the city
to carry on temporary business and i believe the tax people come
around and charge a per day fee (but not certain if it is there or
another fest I am thinking of that shocked me when they wanted i
think it was 50 a day based on receipts that I had on hand when they
arrived- so its highly relative and subjective as opposed to a flat
fee that was unannounced in advance- felt like I was being ripped
off actually, but otherwise its a great money producing venue with
people that appreciate handmade art jewelry.

Coloured stones are big sellers particularly if NOT an oval cab bezel
set like so much else commercially available and wire wrapping just
sits there. I sold a good number of non-jewelry pieces as well. At
least three tea sets, and a few hot choccol;ate sets as well as
enameled trays and other silver service ware moved easily. I also
garnereed a lot of orders for “commitment bands” via special order
as I had a major display set up that advertised the availablility and
designing- your- own bent to which that crowd respomds well! One
year I offered a make and take but it turned out to be more trouble
than it was worth as it required hiring two additional people to help
instruct the continuum of people in various stages of project
completion throughout the day, get waivers signed before they began
a project and collect fees up front before dispensing materials or
kits (we did band rings in silver, 18 kt gold, and metal clay, as
well as pendants and cold connected techno-romantic style pieces (in
kits) and cuttlebone castings in silver- the price schedule was
posted and it was slightly ambitious but not undo-able as the people
that wanted to make things had an inkling of the art / craft as its
that kind of town !!1). I had to keep it going all the fest days
instead of cutting it off because some people that came late ( but
before the daily cut off time for starting new projects) showed up on
the following day to finish their work at unpredictable times. That
was a mistake I won’t repeat and would advise against no matter how
profitable it can be! hope this helped…oh it’s in July I believe if
not, the last week in June call the charmer or look it up on line
Belle Chere celebrates the French Broad river and the city’s
colonial connections in the middle of what once was Indian territory.