I know this review is done nearly three weeks after the show but sometimes things get hectic and busy...but better late than never.
My wife and I did the Rockport Art Festival during the July 4th weekend in Rockport, Texas ... located about 30 miles north of Corpus Christi , Texas on the Gulf Coast.
Rockport is a very nice town and it draws a good crowd for the show since it is held on the 4th of July weekend. There is a fantastic fireworks show and the crowds show up early to park their vehicles and tailgate for a good time and to have a good view of the fireworks.
The Art Festival provides their own tent system that has four different sections for artists. These are about 16 ft. wide and really long. We set up out space under half of the tent and the other half is a covered walkway. Artists also have the option to set up their own tent on the opposite of the walkway for an additional fee. We chose this option because the extra space right across the walkway provided to be valuable for us.
Setup was easy on Friday and we were able to drive right up to our space and unload.
The staff is well organized and friendly and they made it a point to keep everyone supplied with cold water...which is most welcome during a hot and windy weekend.
The crowds come early on Saturday and we could see them lined up outside the starting gate before opening. There is a small admission fee but people gladly spent it.
Our sales were good early on and the crowds tapered off a bit after about 2pm.
The festival has a very large air conditioned tent that has food inside in addition to some entertainment. I found it a most welcome break to go catch a bit of A/C to cool off.
We even had air conditioned portalet trucks that were clean and had sinks to wash your hands...a nice little improvement over the standard outhouse used at most shows.
Sunday was a much slower day and most artists mentioned that that is the normal for this show.
This was our second year doing this show and the only negative is that being on the 4th of July weekend means that the normally affordable hotels are scalping their room rates.