On Thursday I had my first event to attempt to finance my freelance art career. Most Austinites are familiar with the monthly one day festival held on South Congress called First Thursday. In case you haven’t been or heard of First Thursday, it is one of the coolest little arts and crafts festival that happens downtown, next to the Pecan Street Festival that occurs twice a year. First Thursday is unsurprisingly held on the First Thursday of every month. Same bat time, same bat location. Unlike the Pecan Street Festival however, First Thursday is small, quaint, and the streets do not get blocked off for the event. Booths and Stands are hosted in the side streets and parking lots along South Congress, and the crowds are much smaller. Finding parking is a biotch, but what’s new…its downtown.
As far as the atmosphere goes, there is always live music near Guero’s, not to mention the random sideshows put on by local musicians on the street corners. Normal setup time for First Thursday is around 4 to 5pm and it lasts until the crowds die down around 11:30pm. It’s been so hot lately that most of the people don’t start coming out of the woodwork until around 7 when it cools off…which I highly recommend. Once it cools down though, the streets get packed so be prepared for the crowd.
There is plenty of food down there so don’t feel the need to pack a picnic. Homeslice Pizza just a block away has some phenomenal pizza and unique thirst quenchers. Guero’s is an Austin classic Mexican restaurant with decent food and a decent environment for the price. Plus you can walk outside and check out the live music in their outdoor section. There’s also Perla’s seafood, Hopdoddy burgers, Vespaio (Italian), Fran’s Hamburgers (Decent portions, lame burgers…on a side note her ex-husband’s place Dan’s Hamburgers is locally accepted as being much better), and Zen Japanese (fast food, japan style) to name just a few.
My booth was a block north of Homeslice Pizza at the corner of Gibson and South Congress. I didn’t get there until around 5:30 because of the crazy amount of traffic at that time. I live off Far West and Mopac, literally less than 8 miles from downtown, and it took me an hour to drive that 8 miles. I know now to leave a lot earlier.
Crappy traffic and 105 degree heat aside, First Thursday allowed me to connect to people both local and not so local. It was great for networking, and great for my confidence. So many people liked the displays that I had, and asked about my process and prices. I printed and handed out 100 flyers with samples of my art on one side, and my signature, phone number, and website on the other side. Passing them out was a sinch. Even my son got a joy out of showing off my art. Thanks to the support of my boys, this went extremely well.
Here's a video of my booth. I had a table and Nicole Avey had a table for her photography. Currently she is studying abroad in Paris so David was selling her photos for her, but I encourage everyone to check her stuff out toward the end of the video...and then go directly to her website www.natebakephoto.com and see what else she's about. This is my first attempt at making a video with my new camera so don't judge! I had to play with my new toy ok? Enjoy!
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