Alright, I attended FandomFest, in
Louisville, KY over this past weekend. I’ve
been to this show a few other times in previous years, but this was my first
time setting up a table at the show to sell my work. I reserved the table way back in January, so
I’ve been looking forward to attending it all year. It’s usually a great show
with a lot of traffic and a lot of great talent and celebrities attending. However, as luck would have it, this year was
going to be a little different.
The Convention Center in downtown
Louisville is where the show is normally held.
But since the building is currently being extensively remodeled, the
show was moving out to the Fair and Expo Center which is outside of town, but a
much larger venue. Sign me up,
right? Well, about two weeks before the
show, I received my vendor information packet. About four days later, I finally opened it to find out that the show
was now going to be held even further out of town at the old Macy’s building
connected to the Jefferson Mall. At this point, I was a
little disappointed about the venue, but I was still looking forward to the show. Even with all the turmoil stirring on social media about the shows move and canceling guests (look it up if you're curious), I wanted to make the best of it.
I arrived on Thursday for early setup to kind of feel the place out. The building was as bad as one
could imagine a run-down Macy’s store would be.
The floors needed a vacuum run over them, the bathrooms were less than adequate to be honest, and on the day of
setup the air conditioning wasn’t even on.
They’d put all of us creators, artists and writers on the second floor of the
store. I was in the "Misses" department. It’s a good thing there was an escalator,
otherwise I don’t know how many guests would have made it up to see us.
On Friday the show was off to a slow start, but
people came through the doors and before long the place was crawling with
plenty of fandom seeking patrons. Was it
the crowd size we expected? That’s hard
to say, but fans were everywhere, and many were at my table buying books. It was a great time just meeting the fans and telling them about what I was working on. Freedom Fighter was a big hit with the comic
book fans, but my best seller all weekend was my children’s book, The Dinosaur
Farm. A lot of parents and grandparents
found the idea for the book amusing and picked it up for their little ones. A couple kids sat right there on the floor and started reading it while I spoke with their parents. I ended up coming out okay on sales by the end of the
show on Sunday. Nothing to write home
about, but it covered the cost of my table and I had a little left over (most of which I spent at the show on goodies!)
I asked a lot of the patrons what they thought of the venue; some didn't care for it, but most didn't seem to mind. One commented that since most of the Macy's shelving and counters were still in the store and in use for the show, it flet like one giant "Nerd Store." I guess it kind of was.
I met a lot of great talent at the
show, and made a ton of connections too.
I only hoped that they ended up doing as well as I did. Unfortunately, after speaking with several,
some took a loss. A couple drove in from
Florida, and two artists I met drove in from Texas to do this show, so they all had
travel and lodging costs to figure in. I
knew as well as they all did that these shows can go either way when it comes
to making money. But I really feel like
FandomFest dropped the ball on this one.
They had advertised all year long that the show would be at the Fair and
Expo center, but at the last second they told us that they couldn’t come to
terms with the contract for that venue.
Shouldn’t that contract have been finalized months ago? I don’t know what really happened, and they’re
being kind of vague with the explanations.
Would the turnout have been better at the other venue? Did the change of venue have anything to do
with all the celebrities backing out? Would
I have sold more books sitting on the first floor of the show? Probably a bunch of questions we won’t get
clear answers to. All I know is what I
saw: A lot of great talented creators making a tough situation work for them
and doing their best to enjoy themselves and entertain the fans at the same
time. Well done to all the creators and
celebrities that did attend! It was a
pleasure meeting and connecting with you, and I hope that we cross paths again
and in better circumstances.
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