UK Craft Fairs

Craft Fairs

Uk craft fairs can be great events to participate in either as a visitor, exhibitor or even as an organiser. This site looks as various aspects of Craft Fairs and other related events in order to help you get the most out of them.

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Organising A Craft Fair

To be honest we wouldn't dream of telling anyone how to organise a craft fair. It's not something we have done or something we are likely to do. Couldn't take the stress. However as exhibitors at Craft Fairs of different types for over 25 years we do feel we could give some pointers from an exhibitors point of view.

There are the extremes of organisers. There is the one which organises everything with military precision, every i is dotted and every t is crossed. On the other hand there is the overly friendly organiser who just want you to be happy! The "good" organiser is somewhere in between the two. We you arrive is nice to be immediately pointed towards your stand area which, hopefully has been clearly marked out, so you can get on and set up. Equally it is nice to be met by the organiser or their representative, so they can check that everything is OK and you have what you need / ordered.

So what is the organisers job?

The organiser needs to remember they have two types of customer. The general public AND the stall holders. To often the organisers forget that the stall holders are their paying customers: Two Examples:

• Large Exhibition (Craft Materials Show) at the SECC. During pack down exhibitor has several hundred pounds worth of items taken from their stand area.... NO ORGANISER THERE, they've all gone home.
• Craft Fair at a Stately Home. Toilets are locked at 5pm when public leave even though many of the stall holders are going to be there for another hour or so packing down.

In the end what the exhibitor needs from the organisers is for them to bring in lots of the "right type" of people but if there are two organisers with similar footfall and price, the exhibitor is obviously going to pick the one which looks after their exhibitors the best. If you are arriving at a venue at 8am on a cold winter morning its nice for there to be Tea/Coffee facilities, even if you have to pay for it!

We realise that orgainising a Craft Fair or exhibition is a very stressful job but it can be the little things at these events which can make the difference Clean toilets, nice coffee, welcoming smile (oh and good weather if you can organise it!).