So I guess my first London con with LFCC didn’t quite go as well as hoped. I think it’s important to show both sides of our little arty business in this era of social media perfection. Sure, sometimes things go AMAZING! And other times… not so great.
We arranged parking near the venue which was good as it was only a 15 minute walk to carry stock. We brought everything we had, as having no frame of reference for a London con, I was very excited! Got into the building and were greeted by a rather abrupt security guard who wouldn’t let us use the lift for our trolley, as we weren’t obviously disabled. So poor Michael had to end up struggling with this enormous trolley down the stairs, as I can’t carry too much weight with my scoliosis. So, not a great start.
Got in and found our friends at Dice and Destiny. It was so lovely to see them and have a little catch up. Sadly they weren’t able to run their games this time as they normally would as LFCC said they didn’t have enough space.
Managed to find the wristband stand fairly easily and were told we’d be upstairs on the balcony. This was a change of plan as we’d been told on the previous floor plan that we’d be downstairs. I was a little apprehensive as I’d heard foot traffic wasn’t good upstairs from previous artists, but I remained positive that this year could be different.
Upstairs I met my stall neighbours – Padlilly Art (specialising in awesome kitties) and Those Bubble People. Both were absolutely fantastic. Please do check out their work. They made me feel so welcome and instantly at ease, and we had some great chats throughout the weekend. Set up went successfully and we headed back to the hotel for the night.
Woke up early on the Saturday morning as I was so excited! Made a sale of my Loth Cat print in the first 5 minutes and I was over the moon. And then we waited. Downstairs was heaving! People were having to push past each other to get down the aisles. Me and my stall neighbours couldn’t wait for them to make their way upstairs. And then… they didn’t. We had a small trickle of people, even a small stream at one point and then nothing. Literally nobody walked past us upstairs in the last 2 hours. I was so bored! At least I had some art to work on and some great neighbours to chat to. Also, it was cold. I’d been warned LFCC could be like a greenhouse so I’d dressed light which wasn’t ideal. I’d even brought a fan which was never used. Went home feeling pretty defeated.
Went into the Sunday with renewed determination – it was going to be a better day. Chatted to the artists on the ground floor who had done a lot better, which was very positive, If I try this one again, I could pay more and be assured a ground floor table, but it would be frustrating if I paid triple the price to find they put the artists downstairs next year. Somehow Sunday was even worse than the Saturday. Michael had some lovely comments on his Bob the Frog shirt, which was amazing, but when he explained where it was from, people didn’t even realise there was an artist alley or even an upstairs! The signing was very poor, usually just a massive sign saying STAIRS. But stairs to what??
I had someone come to my table and talk about JK Rowling randomly and then just walk away. I had a woman who said my work reminded me of an artist that did terrible pet portraits. Ouch. But the worst thing was the cold. I don’t know if it was cooler because they were fewer people, or they’d turned the air con up but it was FREEZING. I was there with my cardigan on, a shawl kindly lent from Padlily and Michaels blazer covering my legs with a steady stream of tea. I was so desperate for a blanket and at one point so miserable that I cried. Thankfully after a while I did warm up and I was able to finish my design and start another one. An interesting thing was that although there were fewer people, they were more spread out, so at least I had some people stop by towards the end of the day rather than being completely dead.
At some points, it made me sad and doubt my art and what I’m doing. But no artist I talked to had done particularly well so I realised it wasn’t just me. All the artists looked cold, bored and sad. To be fair a lot of the attendees did too. At LFCC there were very few activities included in your entry ticket. So apart from a few bits on the stage they had to pay to do everything else, even to have photos taken with backdrops.
All in all we made our table fee back and the cost of electric in the car but we made a loss. London hotels are expensive.
I realise this mostly sounds doom and gloom but there were definitely highlights. I vended at my first ever London con – that’s a big accomplishment, and hopefully the start of many more. I met some wonderful people, some of which have become friends and I’m excited to do future cons with. Some lovely people came to my table and said nice things. A lot of people recognised Hypo-disc which made me happy. Robot wars for the win!
In future, all things considered I would do LFCC again. However, if I did the summer one, I’d risk a traders table or ask to see if they could let me know in advance if artists were upstairs or downstairs, although this time the plan was changed. I believe Spring and Winter always have artists tables downstairs as its a smaller con so it might be worth giving one of them a go. I’d also bring clothes for both hot and cold conditions!
If I was to give LFCC any feedback it would be:
Please signpost the upstairs or even better move signings up there. People deliberately come for signings but not many come deliberately for artists alley so we need the foot traffic.
So much less air con.
Have more activities for people to do included in their ticket. Some board or role playing games could be a great addition as well as some free backdrops.
Have you been an artist or an attendee of LFCC this year? I’d love to know what you thought.