How do I find out about Christmas bazars or craft shows?

Question

I make alot of crafts and would like to be a seller at a craft show or at a Christmas bazar. How do I go about becoming a seller at one of these?

Answer 1

read your local newspaper every day. When local groups announce a craft fair, they will send a notice to be printed in the newspaper to let people know they should call to rent a  table.

If you're determined, you can get a jump on it by going to your newspaper's website and running a search on "crafters wanted" or "craft fair". Look back to last year and see what fairs were going on. Then call those people to see if they will be having their fair again this year.

.

Answer 2

Hello,

I've been participating in Holiday Craft Fairs for over 20 years and am very happy to have a "following" of customers who look for me every year.

I stay away from the huge street fairs/events that will often have sellers who re-sale rather than have handmade crafts and yes, normally request you to have a tax payer ID number.

Look into your Park and Recreation or local organizations that sponsor them, it's usually an application process and if it's popular, it's on a first come/first served basis.    You will "buy a table" of which you would use for the duration of the event (6 or 8 feet.)  Start out with one and add more in future years...

My tip to you:  Once you find out which one(s) you want to participate in, shop/walk it for the first year and go at several different times, talk to the vendors who have similar items to you or look like they would be willing to share their thoughts on the fair.  You don't need to tell them you want to participate, ask them questions like:  Has it been busier this year than last?  Which day (if a several day event) do you have better traffic/sales, etc... Get a feel of the other vendors (especially if you'd have "competiton") and you can also get a feel for the shoppers and quality of the items being sold throughout the fair.  Talking to the shoppers can also give you an indication -- look for those that look like they've shopped there for a few years!

Note:  I did school Holiday Fairs for years, but only as an accomodation during my kids school years as these had the lowest sales of all the fairs I've done.

Hope this helps and please do not hesitate to e-mail me if I can be of continued assistance...

Liz

Answer 3

Apply for your tax number, then go to the Chamber of commerce near you and see what they have on tap for fairs, faires, festivals and bazaars.

Also there are a number of listings on the search engines for sites that give you the fairs, faires, festivals and bazaars dates and contact persons.

Here in NM we have a website out of Santa Fe that does that for us. We must update our own festivals annually or they get dropped.

The reason I say to apply for a tax number is most of those festivals and things require you to file your number with them on your application, but to file your taxes personally. It is a big mess, but when you have the Fed tax ID, your state tax ID then it is easy to get the necessary county or city tax ID.