It's art fair and festival season in Wisconsin!
Living in the Midwest, we patiently wait all winter long for warm summer days and firefly filled nights. Art fairs and festivals are a rite of summer here in Wisconsin, we have our share of tiny craft fairs along with huge art and music festivals throughout the state. Over the years I've done my share of teeny tiny craft fairs held in school gymnasiums and church basements, working my way up the art fair ladder to some significant events that I had only dreamed of when I first started on my creative journey. My very first craft fair was held in a community center gym, I was 8 months pregnant, yes, 8 months preggers and hauling around art fair booth display pieces. I believe that many sales that day were sympathy transactions as people thought I may go into labor at any moment. The work that goes into creating product and selling it at events like these, appears to be somewhat of a magical, artistic, fantastical process to the outside world. It's as if a white tent mysteriously appears in the enchanted forest, it's filled with beautifully displayed artwork, the weather is sublime and the customers are like angelic woodland creatures, reminiscent of a scene out of a Disney movie. I say this with dripping sarcasm, as in reality, it's a version of hell that I never could have imagined and would continue to subject myself to for the next 22 years. This is where the love/hate thing comes in.
It's always an honor to get accepted into an art fair. Yes, as artists we have to submit applications to art fairs. This application process usually takes place months before the actual event, normally over the winter. Did I mention that I live in Wisconsin, where you're snowed in 5 months of the year and one of those months I just renamed Mud. This is also the time of year where a condition I refer to as "art fair amnesia" starts to settle in. The only thing I can compare this level of memory loss to is child birth. For some unforsaken reason, in the middle of frozen February my brain somehow erases the events of an art fair the summer before that kicked my ass so bad I vowed "NEVER AGAIN" to return. Severe storms rolled in so quickly we barely had time to react. I dropped the side walls and held onto one of the legs of my tent while the wind and rain whipped around me like a cyclone and the sky grew darker and darker. Water rushing down the street gutters, up and over my ankles like a new river had just been born. Over the loud speaker an announcement was made that the fair was cancelled and that another line of storms was heading our way. I was one of the lucky few that still had a tent standing once the storm subsided. I was able to get everything into my truck and on the road before the next line of storms hit. And that following February when I got the application for that same fair, my heart and eyes lit up and the words "NEVER AGAIN" were somehow removed from my memory, and "art fair amnesia" claimed yet another victim.
This weekend is the return of Madison's Art Fair on the Square, featuring renowned artists from across the country. Just a few blocks away is Art Fair off the Square which features just local, Wisconsin artists. These separate art fairs are two of the biggest events of the summer in the Madison area. I've been lucky to have been chosen to show my jewelry artwork at Art Fair off the Square a few times and since having moved to Door County, truly miss being part of it. Logistically speaking, I'm trying to make good choices with where I now live and how far I have to travel for an event. A lesser known symptom of "art fair amnesia" is "looks good on paper". This is the phenomenon of not remembering how many hours of hell I had to drive through to get to an event. "Dublin, Ohio is in the Midwest, that's not far from Wisconsin". That's my brain tricking me into doing something that I know only "looks good on paper" and in reality will be some level of hell I've yet to experience. Do you know what you have to drive through to get from Wisconsin to Ohio? CHICAGO.
Milwaukee is home to Summerfest, known as the world's largest music festival. The Lake Michigan shoreline is not only the host for Summerfest, but for Milwaukee Irish Fest as well. The ethnic festivals held on the Summerfest grounds are some of the best in the country and Milwaukee Irish Fest is the largest Irish music and cultural festival in the world. I've been a patron of Irish Fest for years, making the annual pilgrimage from Madison to Milwaukee with my sons and extended Doyle family year after year. It had always been a dream of mine to sell my handmade jewelry at Irish Fest, it was the pinnacle of festivals with the largest crowds and thoughts of selling there danced around in my head for years. In 2015 my dream came true and I was accepted into the fest as an artist! The array of Irish music, art, culture, food, and drink are always something I look forward to during this fest. In 2020, Milwaukee Irish Fest came to a halt, along with everything else in this world, when the pandemic hit. This year marks the return of the fest and I'm so happy and proud to be part of it again. Milwaukee Irish Fest will be the first event I'm taking part in since the pandemic and I feel like 22 years have been erased and I'm heading into my first art fair again. Damn you, "art fair amnesia".