Art fairs are usually produced by a local organization, a group of individuals, or event producers. With local organization, they are schools, non-profits, or museums. With individuals, they are organizations. Finally, you have event producers. In certain regions, there are one or two event organizations producing a large number of shows in that region.
Southeast
In the Sunshine State, Howard Alan Events reign as art fair king, producing over 25 events in Florida and spreading art fairs into 7 or so other states. They can be rough, as setup often happens at 5am during the day of many of their shows. Moreover, they often can be a miss for a lot of artists, as the attendance number can be really low for many of them. However, some of the events are larger, well known, and established as the event to go when in town. The shows aims to have the booth to be more of a gallery-esque, so tables are discouraged . In a way, this makes sense, as the producer is trying to maintain a certain aesthetics to their shows. In fact, your booth should appear to match the photo. Here are some bit from their application.
- The work exhibited and the booth must match the quality and style of work as represented in the submitted digital images.
- The goal is to make your tent look like a “mini” art gallery.
- Show Set-up: Saturday Morning 5 AM
Another large art fair producer in Florida is Paragon Festivals, producing a dozen or so shows in a year. Most of the shows take place during the winter time.
East
In the East, Rose Squared run a number of shows in multiple states. Their Rittenhouse event in Philidelphia is well known and ranks up there as being one of the top show in the nation.
West
With over 39 million people, California is the largest state, about the same as Canada, and there are two well established art fair producers: California Artists and Pacific Fine Arts Festivals. Both run events mainly in northern California in towns throughout the Bay Area.
In 1971, California Artists started its fairs and now has over 16 events. The application is antiquated requiring paper submission, photo printouts, stamped envelopes, and checks. Mountainview Wine Art and Wine Festival is the jewel in their crown with over 150,000 attendee.
In 1973, Pacific Fine Arts Festivals started producing shows, and now has about 10 shows throughout California. They are known to run shows well and many are competitive to get in. A lot of great fine artists are found in their events. The Half Moon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival is well attended, attracting more than 200,000 individuals, a sea of people indeed! Sea what I did there?