Art Show Supplies

Hi Iris,
I guess the first question is... indoors our outdoors? Indoor shows you don't need a tent.

I'm thinking nobody responded to this because there are so many ways you can set up a booth & display your stuff. To start, it would probably be best for you to do a couple of "low rent" shows where tents are not required, and the registration fee isn't very big. Also, there are shows where you can rent tents from the show, and sometimes they will even set up your rental tent for you.

Go to a few art fairs, as a "tourist" not a vendor, and see what other people do that you like / can afford / would look good with your work.

You can do away with getting credit card processing set up, and getting a tent, until you know you like doing these shows. Tents are expensive, a pain to set up and tear down, & they're heavy & hard to get to/from your car. Don't use them until this starts to be a regular gig for you.

You need:
A folding chair so you have a place to sit down if your feet get tired.
Something sturdy with wheels that you can use to transport your stuff to/from your car.
Sturdy bins for your art, and a way to cover the bins (dry cleaning bags can work), so your stuff doesn't fall out/get damaged/ get rained on going to/from your car.
Don't bring a purse, there's usually no secure place to store it.
Do bring drivers' license, your own credit or debit card, and a health insurance card -- keep those & your car keys in your pocket.
Sunscreen / bug repellent / sunglasses / comfortable shoes / clothes appropriate to the weather -- check the weather report for the day before.
A cash apron. Dollar bills for change. A binder clip to hold your bills together, so they don't get all over the place when you pull money out of your cash apron. Price your stuff in even dollar increments to *include* sales tax so you don't have to deal with coins.
A way to cover your art if it starts to rain. A way to securely fasten your art if it gets windy,
Food - a bag of nuts & water bottle, or simlar, in case you don't get a lunch break.
Don't drink too much water or caffeine at the beginning of the day -- it can be hard to find someone to cover your booth if you need a bathroom break.
Make friends with your neighbor booths, so you can trade watching each others' booths if you need to use the bathroom. Don't get involved with selling other vendors' stuff for them, or letting other vendors sell stuff for you, just watch the booth to make sure nobody comes along & steals stuff... vendors can be short money & inventory can be missing at the end of the day... you don't want your paws in their money, or their paws in your money.
A pocket calculator with working batteries.
Pens / pencils that work.
Business cards.
Receipt book (available at office supply stores), you keep one sheet as your sales record, the duplicate sheet is the customer's receipt.
Price tags or price signs, prices need to be clearly marked. Many people won't buy something if they can't tell how much it is.
At least one folding table with a big table cloth. Even if all you're selling is wall art, you can hide under it all your empty bins / wheel thing / everything else you brought that doesn't look so good if it's just left out in a booth. It's also nice to have a flat surface you can use to write receipts.

The day before:
Read all the instructions the people from the show gave you. Memorize the name of the point of contact who runs the show. Figure out where to park & get there early so if there isn't enough parking you don't end up hauling your stuff a super-long distance to/from your car.
Figure out how sales tax is handled. You *do* have to pay sales tax in most jurisdictions --
Make sure all your stuff is priced.
Do a dry-run of setting up your booth, so if something is broken or there's a trick to using it, you can deal with it at home, you're not dealing with it during set-up at the show.

That's my 2 cents worth... don't know if it was what you were looking for, but...

xanax holds up better than wine.
Good luck and have fun!

Cheryl has lots of good information. Some stuff I will add.


If you can afford it, don't (repeat don't) go with EZ-up style tents. They are lightweight, pool water on the roof, and will leak like a sieve. If it get windy they may collapse (they are also called, affectionately, EZ-downs). Go with something like a trimline (www.flourish.com; give them my name); though they cost a lot more, take longer to set up, they are heavy, are not prone to collapse in stormy weather (bar a tornado), and are waterproof. I have been in severe thunderstorms and stayed perfectly dry.

Consider a bum bag (fanny pack) for storing money - it's always on you.

I personally, add on the sales tax (but rounded to the nearest 5c for cash sales). People expect to pay sales tax, and most people pay with either credit card or check, so it's no real problem.

If you take credit card go with square or paypal (I use square) - for this you will need a smart phone or tablet (don't need a calculator now). If you don't want to pay for data - square now will store cc info on the phone and process it later (if you don't have a signal), but you are responsible for all bad cards (I used it once and had no problem). You can also do it over wifi if you have a signal. Before I got my iphone I used my android phone as a hotspot for my iPad.

Be careful when including sales tax in your item price. Legalities vary by state, but in Texas it works like this --

(from the State sales tax info page)

4. Am I required to separately state the sales tax amount to my customers?

Yes. You must separately state the sales tax amount on your invoice or receipt unless you provide a written statement to the customer that the sales price includes sales tax. The "tax included" statement must be displayed where people would normally be advised of the terms of the sale (e.g., brochures, invoices, contracts, signage). If you use a written statement that sales tax is included in the sales price, you have collected sales tax and must report the collected tax by backing it out of the total amount received.

For example, you sell T-shirts. You are located in Austin and are required to collect 8.25% tax on your sales. You charge a customer $50 for a T-shirt and your invoice contained a written statement that the price included sales tax. Your sales price for that T-shirt was $46.19, and you collected $3.81 in tax.

Years ago, a representative of the State who was 'spot checking' a show I participated in, stopped by my table to explain it to me. Luckily, he waived any penalties; he also ended up "teaching" most of the vendors in the room how we were ignorantly breaking State law.

A valuable lesson from a State employee who truly just wanted to help us run our businesses correctly.


EDIT TO ADD -- Many shows also require that you visibly exhibit proof of your State Sales Tax number -- that's something else State reps will cruise a show looking for. Your state may vary.

You can still easily end up with even dollar amounts, and show sales tax separately.

First, though, find out what all applicable tax rates are for the jurisdiction where the show is. Sometimes it matters which town / county / other kind of jurisdiction you're in -- we have this public transportation area sales tax in some parts of the Denver area, I still haven't figured out exactly where that does/does not apply. However, any reputable show coordinator will be able to provide you with the tax rates, as well as any oddball stuff about the local taxes... there's always oddball stuff.

If you're at a church or school or something that's run by a volunteer parent, and they don't know the tax rate, the pharmacy or other retail store *in the same jurisdiction* should be able to provide you with it. Retail stores collect sales tax all day long, every day, the percentage of tax should be on every receipt they print.

How you back in:

Price: $2.86
Tax: $0.14
Total Price: $3.00

viola, no coins needed for making change!

Or you can decide doing the math is too much of a pain, and bring change, coins can be kept in a *strong* plastic ziplock bag -- use freezer bag, not sandwich bag. If you're not that good at calculating tax quickly, you can figure it out ahead of time (maybe using a simple excel spreadsheet), and bring a cheat sheet showing price + tax for the prices that apply to your work.

Thank you so much great information. I do have the square and the PayPal triangle. I will look into those stronger tends. One major show here gets major rainstorms almost every year .