Finding Local Craft Shows and Festivals

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There are probably a lot more craft shows and festivals around you than you think! If you struggle to find good shows and events to sell your jewelry at then you’re not alone!

Any experienced bead jewelry artist will tell you it’s fun making the jewelry, but when it comes time to finding a decent Craft Show for selling and displaying her items, it’s another story. Whether I missed the community notice or never received the flyer, I can’t tell you how many craft shows and festivals I’ve “missed” out on or only found out too about way too late to get my stuff together in time.

To help all you bead jewelers out there find shows to sell your jewelry, I’ve done some searching around online and found this quick list of craft fair directories:

Fairs and Festivals.net – This is probably the “premier” craft show and festival online directory and if you’re serious about making money with your jewelry at craft shows, then the small yearly fee is well worth it. Their database is automatically generated with the events and arts sections from hundreds of newspapers and other information sources across the country, so it is usually pretty comprehensive.

Festival Network Online – This is one of the largest online databases of craft shows anywhere! It has over 15,000 events and shows, but there is a membership fee. I’m not sure exactly how the membership works, but I was able to do some preliminary searching. This would definitely be a worthwhile investment if I were going to think about selling jewelry at craft shows full time.

The Crafts Fair Online Directory – Still looks pretty new, I was able to find a few shows in my area that are real possibilities. The design of this site is a little difficult to navigate in my opinion. When you go to the front page you have to scroll down until you see the “Craft Events and Shows” link.

Craftlister.com - You need to sign up for a free account, but then this search directory allows you to type your zip code and radius in miles that you’re willing to travel. It looks at that radius and returns everything close by! Though I think the site is a little hard to navigate around, this will likely be one of the first places I go to look around for craft shows when I went to sell my jewelry!

In addition to these directories, which cover all of the United States (and some the whole world) there are a lot of state-specific directories for craft shows and events. I’ve also found that local community papers (often found for free in independent convenience stores) are great sources for show and festival information. Good luck!

I’ll see you at the next craft show!