It would be good to have some feedback on craft fair table rates.
Some that are offered to me, seem very expensive. I suppose it all depends what you sell , the footfall and of course location and if it is an ‘event’.
I had a friend who paid £60 per day, ( I think), for two days to sell her ceramic mosaics in outer London, last summer, and was positioned so poorly by the organiser that she had hardly any sales and barely covered her costs. This, after a promise of thousands of people footfall !
I am interested what the range of table rates is across the country, and the median. I expect London, and the cities, will invariably attract higher rates, but have an open mind.
The way I look at it, is that it’s the equivalent of how many products of a certain value you need to sell initially, to cover all the table costs, the insurances, fuel, etc, before you start earning a return.
Hi Ronald . I’m probably the other extreme to London. i’ve half a dozen at various rural venues in East Lancs & the cost has been £15 - £20 a stall
Table rates here in Lincolnshire range from about £10 for small local fairs to £25-£30 for larger events. I suspect the more expensive ones are probably better advertised and have higher footfall although that doesn’t always equate to better sales. I have often done better in the village hall than a big event in the city centre! I often struggle to make much profit at the more expensive events except at Christmas when I generally do OK so am cutting right back on the number of fairs I am doing through the year this year. I am taking a punt this year at Christmas though and have booked in at three large fairs at £40-£45 each to see if it makes any difference.
Table rates here in Cambridge are £10 - 35 (plus donation as a raffle prize) with the turn out expected to be about 1000 (but that is very dependant on the weather). One of the best in the area is the Mill Road Winter fair which is £25 for a pitch (supply own gazebo) and the foot fall is normally 15000. Some fairs that I thought would be good due to their reputation turned out terrible and some where I didn’t have high hopes turned out really well. I have ended up having words with organisers of some of the smaller events about stall position and lack of footfall and they normally seem receptive to the feedback - they want to be able to attract a good selection of stalls and its easier for them if stall holders want to come back as they have to put less effort into finding them. I’ve also had organisers apologising to me for poor turn out after I’ve had a really good day - sometimes being the gem in a sea of rubbish is a distinct advantage. We do have town and county fairs here with stall fees well over £100 for the weekend but I’ve never tried them.
I do a stall at a large company which has no stall fee but a 10% of takings to local charity policy which might seem a lot to some but I think is very reasonable as it is dependant on how much I sell unlike the craft fairs. (The company pays well and the large stall is in the lobby between the offices and the canteen/ coffee bar so lots of people walk past and get tempted, already booked in for 2 stalls in the run up to christmas)
The most expensive event I do is our local open studios scheme in July - it costs £120 to participate but that covers as many or as few weekends in July as you want to do. 40000 guides get distributed each year and there is plenty of other advertising. Because people choose to come to my studio the footfall to sales rate is much better than the other fairs and I easily make back the costs (normally on the first day).
I live near York and most of the regular ones seem to be £40+ per day, I tend to do smaller ones that are often for local charities and have spent £10 at the most (often £5 plus a raffle prize) I’ve also done a couple that take a % of profits which is good because it puts pressure on them to get good footfall so that you & they make a reasonable amount.
I think it very much depends on the type of venue to be honest. Some that I have done at school fetes, church halls, charity events have been £15-£20 for the day. Anther one in a shopping centre in a beautiful well-to-do town was £60 for the day. A well known Kent castle is charging £100 for the day, bookable for a 4-day stint so total of £400.
I have paid up to £60 a day in the past but avoid those sort of fairs now. The most I pay now is £40. I’ve just bagged myself a monthly one for £7.50 a 6ft table so decided to pay for 2 so I can spread out.
This is an interesting thread-I have seen lots of craft fairs advertised but I have never actually held a table at one and it is hard to judge what is a reasonable price with so little experience. Thanks to everyone for giving me something to go on!
Love Sam x
A member of one of the facebook groups I’m in, saw an advert for one at Kew recently and they wanted £950 per day (+ VAT) as well as an extra £60 for carrier bags and ‘private viewing’ (haven’t a clue what that means at a craft fair) and someone else in the same group commented that a lot of specialist fairs (wedding fairs etc.) are even more than that!
Our local fair is £5 per table. I cant quite credit some of the prices quoted £950 at Kew - wow
Usual table cost in Berks is £20-£25. I recently started to sell at a vintage fair which takes 30% of takings. I have to have taken £70 before handing over £21 to organisers.
Hope the ground to put the table on was gold-plated for £950 !
Slightly out of my league.
Ron
30% is steep in my opinion. I would expect 30% at perhaps Chelsea flower show or similar high profile events, certainly not the average craft fair. Ouch !
Ron
@Rkaimages It was a vintage clothing/accessories fair which I try to sell bits n bobs and some of my jewellery/bridal headbands at.
I see your point, 30% does sound alot but Id rather pay £21 after taking £70, rather than pay £20 and only take £1 in sales(which has happened to me in the past).
Unfortunately I’m busy on that weekend so won’t be able to attend 
but yes I would hope for a luxury selling experience (with at least free tea & cake all day 
)
I have done two fairs with these people and both times I have paid £23 for a space for my own 6ft table, but there has been the option to go smaller or hire a table etc. However, they also did one in a shopping centre and I know that was a lot more.
25 years ago I was paying £45 for Uxbridge shopping centre Wednesday craft fair and the same to Bartholomew fairs in Greater London.
I understand your logic. Hope you put your prices up a bit to compensate for the percentage. From my experiences, have had no sales at all ( once) , but other times when there was a considerable selling spree, and on a day where the weather outside was very changeable, and others did badly.
Even the organiser was surprised I did so well, as was I. No rhyme or reason for this, a lot of it is pure luck.
I was paying £65 per day plus £10 per day heating charges last year to a well known events organiser. Footfall was really high sometimes over 10,000 for a weekend but that didn’t always mean good sales, not just for me but other stall holders. This year the same organiser has added an additional £10 per day charge for electric, for some this is just to charge a card reader and phone.
I’ve just been contacted by someone running a “Home and Lifestyle Exhibition” for which stall prices “start at only £100”. Their website has no further details, or evidence of previous events. A search only comes up with their stallfinder listing, no other adverts or “what’s on” entries. This has all the hallmarks of an immense waste of money. If I have time I’ll go along as a visitor and see if I’m right.