- Craft Fair: The Crafty Fox Market
- Reviewer: Bethan Buss from Folksy shop Boodle
- Dates: October 5 & 6 2013
- Venue: The Dogstar, Brixton
- Cost of stall: £47
- Entrance: free
- Crowd: young, enthusiastic
- Footfall: very busy
- Organisation: great
- Sales: good
My Boodle stall at the Crafty Fox Market
I had a stall at the Crafty Fox Market in London last Saturday. The venue was a pub called The Dogstar in Brixton. The venue was perfect – it was spacious and set over three floors. I was on the first floor with the tea and yummy cake! My stand cost £47, which included a small table (80cm x 80cm) and room for a clothing rail. There was no entrance fee for visitors, which helped get the crowd in.
There were a lot of great sellers there. I instantly recognised Jimbobart who illustrates animals on to ceramics. Another great ceramic artist Alice Shields was there too, along with screen printer Charlotte Farmer, and the best needle felting I have seen by Chloe North. There were so many talented sellers there… the standard was very high. It was nice to see both women and men selling their wares too – sometimes craft fairs can be dominated by female sellers.
Some of the stalls at Crafty Fox (clockwise from the left):
And Smile, Chloe North and Yvonne Ellen
The customers were mostly fairly young and enthusiastic about hand made, which made for a lovely buzzing atmosphere. The fact that there was a bar downstairs and tea and cake upstairs meant customers could relax in the venue itself. There was also a screen-printing workshop upstairs run by Mr Wingate, which was a great interactive event for the customers. The footfall was very good. I think it was probably one of the busiest markets I’ve been to.
It was a very well organised event. The promotion and following Crafty Fox has is impressive. We had all the information we needed, along with promotional material before the event. Tables and chairs were provided and ready when sellers arrived, which was especially useful for people travelling a long way, and the organisers greeted us when we got there, and made sure we had a good day at the end of the event too.
My sales were good – higher than I would have had in a local (Bristol) market for this time of year, but after taking into account travel expenses it was probably about the same. I think the Christmas Crafty Fox will be very positive in terms of sales and promotion. My Badger Cards sold particularly well – there are a lot of badger lovers out there! I would definitely apply for this market again. It seems guaranteed to have good footfall, it’s a great networking event and it’s important to have some exposure in London.
