Festival Review: 2024's Deep Ellum Art Fair
Log: Apr, 12, 2024 Location: Under 30, at the confluence of two wind channels
It takes years developing the tolerance needed to endure an art festival and its durability certainly came to rise during Deep Ellum’s 2024 Arts Fair. Aside from the climate, this review contains a handful of elements that made the show good, bad, fair, or indifferent, while the aim focuses on the art show itself for of all people, my fellow artists.
Set-up unfolded easily. Arriving in east Dallas’ Deep Ellum on Thursday, a day before the show, we found check-in reasonable, booth assignment quickly, and Pete, the owner of St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin, allowed us adequate space to land our rig while we set the tent. There’s no guarantee that he’ll do this every time, but this act turns out to be one side of the event that shows you restaurant owners cooperation in making this fair happen.
Friday arrived and with some touch-up work among the high winds, the booth stood and swayed readily for 11: 00 a.m.’s pomp and circumstance. Parking for this venue needs some established bounds as after a diligent search, we found a city lot under highway 30, away from the homeless camps, within a quarter mile with reasonable day rates.
The art fair opened and local radio station KNON, the Voice of the People, began testing their amplification system. Lots of, “Check, one-two, check one-two,” alongside the heart-stopping kick drum tests for the first hour before the musical acts hit the stage. Little did we know that with the receipt of a corner booth allowed us full access to one of the fair’s loudest stages. I believe The Who would have been impressed.
We welcomed Friday’s audience and as it turned out, an altogether different audience from the Saturday and Sunday crowd. These were the locals that live in the neighborhood. “Where you from?” we’d ask. “Right over there,” they’d point. Come to find out that this is their playground, their back yard, and they came sampling flavors. No serious buyers, Friday night waned into a neighborhood sip-and-stroll.
Can I get away with that?
Generally speaking, when art patrons visit the booth, they oftentimes like to hear about the motivation, the inspiration, the approach into making an art piece. They enjoy the dialogue and that in turn allows them conversation when their acquaintances ask about a piece. When KNON’s sound engineer turns it up to eleven, yes Nigel, you’re not the only one, the volume kills all booth dialogue and we’re reduced to mouth gestures and finger pointing. Once the sun dashed behind the high rises, there was no point staying open.
Overnight winds increased and upon returning to booth #96, drainage from the high rise collected in the back of our tent. The organizers assured us of overnight security but upon arrival, we found our tent unzipped, nothing missing, but it turned out they had bigger problems. Apparently one of their cables connecting the generated power throughout the art fair got up sometime in the night and ran off.
Saturday’s traffic turned out completely different than Friday’s with guests arriving from all over the metroplex, all over the country, all over the world. They came in for a solar eclipse and this fair turned out to be something to do until Monday afternoon. Serious patrons came, we finally turned the corner late Saturday afternoon, and just about sundown, again, there was no reason staying open. The music’s volume stayed at such a high level it started to reshape the lampposts.
As an artist you return to these shows Sunday mornings’ believing this will be the day when things turn around, the time you spent investing in this show turn fruitful, fresh creamy doughnuts suspend wafting mid-air, the coffee fairy left a 18 ounce cup of your favorite, Santa’s elves take spring break and give you a hand, and your sophomore intern has your appointment calendar booked throughout the day.
But the reality is… the restaurant next door had a small-scale explosion in the men’s room and the only plumber they could find on a Sunday morning sat hosing down a urinal without the sense to divert the garden hose runoff, sending all the water down the alley and onto the back side of the street. We were fortunate, all things up on blocks. But several adjacent art vendors started tossing damaged pieces straight into the trash. After having enough glass broken over the years, you learn to take a broom to the shows and that’s how I spent my Sunday morning; diverting water away from the tents. Fortunately the continued high winds and beaming sunlight dried things quickly, so there’s a silver lining after all. Isn’t that sweet.
Sunday’s traffic arrived beneath a brilliant sun while guests pushed the limits of attire and expression. The flab to clothing ratio strolled by drastically out of proportion. As my wife expressed, “I’ve seen more body parts than I ever care to see.” Let’s put it this way; the guy that just got his liposuction license, would have run out of business cards. People picked, some folks bought, but all-in-all it came down to this: the Deep Ellum Arts Fair turned out to be one big sensory overload.
Doesn’t anybody anymore play a cello?
Between the throng of people inside a confined space, the volume and odd mix of music, the amount of visual art at-hand, collectively turns out to be all too much for the body’s senses to absorb ultimately diluting the entire art experience. And a point to consider, tax day is a little more than a week away. It’s been circulated among art shows that patrons wait until after the 15th, that way they know how much money they have to spend, before buying any art. Deep Ellum turned out to be a music festival with us artists-types as the side-show attraction footing the bill. They’re talking about adding 30-plus booths into next years show, with perhaps anther stage.
Attendance proved favorable, with a passel of guests waiting out the weekend for one grand celestial event. But many of the patrons that stopped and looked had no means to get big artwork back to their destinations. Let’s be reasonable. Shipping costs clobber us. While the attendance turned out to be great, the sales to traffic ratio missed as much as the tee-shirt to belly ratio. So if it’s possible, we’ll have to arrange for another full solar eclipse - same time next year.
Another adventure in the life of a traveling artist.
St. Pete’s Dancing Marlin
It’s been a while since I’ve been to Deep Ellum…I need a road trip