Is live-painting worth it?

Will you get paid for bringing your art to that cool music festival?

It might sound like a good opportunity. A free ticket, exposure for your art, and the opportunity to sell your work to festival-goers. Sounds like a great place to sell your paintings right?

The short answer is no- festivals are terrible places to sell your paintings. So should you decline the invite? Not so fast- it might still be a good idea. Read on to understand why:

how to decide if you should live paint at a festival

Ask yourself:

Do you love the event? Would you still have fun even if you weren’t selling your art? If so, it could be worth it. However, if you think the event is lame and you’re only going for the chance to sell work, you should rethink.

Does the clientele of the festival match the demographic of your ideal collector? If so- it’s a great opportunity to build your audience.
Do you have the finances to support the time off from work and travel costs needed to attend this event? Never go into debt or cause yourself financial stress for the promise of “exposure” at a festival.
Do you have the means to represent yourself well at the event? Do you have business cards, signage, and a booth that does your work justice? It can be very simple, but make sure your booth does your work justice.

If you answered yes to any of things, then working at a festival could be an amazing way to build your audience, which is more important in the long run than making a sale.

So- you’re going to the festival:

You’re stoked about live painting, the event is cool, the demographic is your target audience, and you’re excited to represent your art practice with a kick-ass booth.

Awesome! This is a great opportunity for your career.

How much art income should you expect to bring in from this?

Unfortunately, the answer is very little.

Festivals are a hard place to sell art.

If you are planning to bring merchandise or originals to sell, here are some things you need to think about.

Most people already spent a lot of money to get there and they are budgeting what they spend while there.
Attendees are often traveling and don’t want to bring art back in the car or plane.
There’s so much for their attention- you’re competing with musicians, food vendors, performers drugs, and more
Most folks go to festivals to party, not shop for art. They are in a socializing and raving mindset, not a “collectors” mindset.

So why do I think festivals are a great opportunity for your career?

Festivals are amazing for building your audience, which will translate into more income in the long run.

All those people who see your art may not be in the mood to buy it now, but if you can stay connected, they would consider you in the future when they are ready to collect art. It will mean more to them if they first saw your work at an event that they have great memories of. To build this relationship, you need to make sure you are nurturing your audience correctly, which I’ll explain next.

How to grow your audience at a festival:

Step one is to establish a connection.

This is mainly achieved through either collecting someone’s email address or having them follow you on social media. Email is better than social media because it has a higher conversion rate for sales and there is no algorithm limiting who sees what you share.

Some great ways to collect emails are:

Collect emails with a giveaway and draw a winner at the end.
Collect emails with a free offering (like a sticker) or discount coupon
At the most basic level, put out a signup sheet there and see who bites.

Encourage people to connect with you on social media in the following ways:

Offer business cards or stickers with your online info
Do a giveaway for anyone that follows you or tags you during the festival
Have great signage with your handle clearly displayed

Essentially, you are inviting people to engage with you and your art without the pressure to make a big investment.

A few ways you can do this are:

Create a vibe with your booth - can they already get a feel for your style from 30 feet away, before they even look at your paintings up close?
Have a range of products at very low, entry-level prices. Stickers, greeting cards, screen print t-shirts affordable prints, etc. This allows people to become collectors without too much investment. Once someone has bought something from you, they are more likely to buy again in the future.
Do a live painting demo. People LOVE live-painting! This is the best way I’ve seen to get people into my booth to check out my work.

The next step is to nurture your new audience.

Hopefully, by the end of the festival, you will have gathered a list of people who dig what you’re doing and are interested in getting to know your art.

Email everyone who signed up for your email list and thank them. Deliver the giveaway if it’s a digital download, or let them know whether they won the drawing. Make this email amazing, because it will determine who stays or unsubscribes. (many will unsubscribe- that’s fine! They’re not your people and all of us have limited inbox space).
Create a welcome sequence that introduces this audience to your practice and products. This is a series of 3-5 emails that share your story and talks about your products.
When posting on social media about the festival, be sure to thank the folks who stopped by your booth. Chances are, some of them are new followers and they will appreciate the love from you. Invite them to engage with you by sharing their favorite memory, sharing where they put their sticker, etc.
Let them know when you are attending other festivals in the future. Especially, if you return to the same festival where you met. Offer them an incentive to come to your booth, such as a free sticker or discount. This will increase the traffic to your booth, and the likelihood of making sales. If you’ve done a good job, you’ve been nurturing your audience over time and they will be excited to see you again and possibly buy something. Now that they know you, they might even plan to bring money for a bigger purchase, or at least leave room in the van for it :)

Tips for long-term audience growth:

Track your metrics.

Use your email list software to create a tag or a segment for audience members who come from different festivals. Track how many of them stay on your list and become long-term customers.

If you find that certain festivals are not producing any long-term audience members you may want to rethink attending that event.

Remember: attending festivals should be fun and inspiring.

Have realistic expectations about your sales so that you are not disappointed at the end of the event.

And remember to get away from your booth to dance, explore and meet other artists. If the event is restorative to your creativity, it can be worth it, even if you don’t get great financial gain out of it.

Festivals should be just one of many income streams in your business.

Having multiple income streams is healthy and will mean that it's okay when you have an “off” event or even lost money sometimes. If you are relying solely on your festival art sales to support yourself, you’ll quickly feel burnout and financial stress.

If you know you need to build more sustainable income streams in your business, then you are a good match for Quantum Artist Business School.

This 10-week business development program teaches the marketing and sales skills that are essential for artists to thrive in today's scene.

Is it worth it to take your art to festivals?