Jacquie and Lori...you really have a lot of right-on ideas! I've also been doing craft fairs for about 18 years. It can be the most frustrating, waste-of-time days, not making your table money and schlepping all the stuff to your booth (doing it alone.) It takes weeks/months to sew all the items necessary to fill the space and represent yourself fully. The next day you wonder why your back and shoulders hurt. ANYWAY, I absolutely love it! I love meeting people, both buyers and fellow crafters. I agree that picking the right fairs is important, but the funny thing is that NO ONE can predict what will sell in a given show or given year. I schlep around things for a couple of years and get so fed up at looking at them and ready to give them away, when someone just loves the item! It's too funny.
After all my banter here, and to get to the point, is that I do hospital craft fairs and find them the most successful. It's a win-win situation; there are no fees to go, you simply donate 20 percent back of your sales. I'm the only one in the lobby with no competition, and the volunteer office sends out emails notifying all employees of when I'm coming. They meet me before I can get the goods set up and many come in even when it's their day off! The reputation I'm building is really rewarding. Aprons are my biggest seller (thus my name here,) but my perfectionist thought process always leads me to what else I should make because how many aprons can a person buy? Potato bags are another latest and greatest product.