Best Arts & Crafts Festivals. My wife and I enjoy visiting
large weekend arts and crafts festivals where high quality (expensive)
artists have booths selling their wares with entertainment and a
festival atmosphere in attractive locations anywhere in the US and
Canada. (Cottonwood in Richardson, TX would be an example.) We can
visit six or so a year and want to know what the best (largest and
highest quality in the most scenic locations) art fairs and festivals
are.

Hi! Thanks for the question.

Since such festival list could be very subjective, I will try to
provide here different lists so that you could from them on where you
would want to visit.

Our initial links provide reviews of different Arts and Crafts
Festivals in the US.

“2002 - 200 Best Shows” from Sunshine Artist Magazine (only top 5 for
each category are listed)
http://www.sunshineartist.com/magazine/200best02top5.htm 

“2001 – 200 Best Shows”
http://www.sunshineartist.com/magazine/200best01top5.htm 

““2000 – 200 Best Shows”
http://www.sunshineartist.com/magazine/200best00top5.htm 

“Reviews of arts and crafts festival and shows”
http://www.showwestmag.com/reviews.htm#California 

“CRAFT SHOW REVIEWS and PHOTO JOURNALS”
http://www.panhandlecraftmall.com/reviews.html 

The following links meanwhile provide lists of different craft
festivals.

Sample listings for arts and crafts shows and festivals
http://www.showwestmag.com/listings.htm 

Craft Shows in the United States
http://artsandcrafts.about.com/library/showrate/blstate.htm

Craft Shows in Canada
http://artsandcrafts.about.com/library/showrate/blprovince.htm 

Search terms used: 
arts crafts reviews database

I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.

Thanks for visiting us at Google Answers.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

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Request for Answer Clarification by dickgrote-ga on 21 Oct 2002 16:21 PDT

Greetings!

The links you sent were a good start in finding arts and crafts shows
to visit. But I was hoping more for an informed, experienced,
intelligent, "subjective" answer. I tried to be as specific as I
possibly could be about what we were looking for. With the links
you've provided, I can probably figure it out myself, but I actually
was hoping for an expert in this field to say, "Don't miss X, Y, and Z
and skip A, B, and C. Here's why . . ."

Can you help?

Dick Grote

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Clarification of Answer by easterangel-ga on 21 Oct 2002 17:46 PDT

Hi I'm back. 

One of the websites I mentioned Sunshine artist provides expert
articles on how to make use of craft shows. By visiting other
websites, I found that they refer to this website as an authority on
arts and crafts show reviews. After digging some more, I found the
following articles provide insights about arts and crafts festivals in
different states. The critic's target audience is for the exhibitors
but future visitors will also get a good idea of what's in store for
them from these valuable insights.

"So What Makes a Great-Selling Event?"
http://www.sunshineartist.com/magazine/200best02intro.htm

Another article called "Selected Show Listings" also provide
criticisms of shows. Please take note that the crticisms are on the
sidebar.
http://www.sunshineartist.com/shows/ed_choice_shows.htm#one 

The About.com links I gave you provides comments and reviews of
crafters on some shows. Just click on the link per state.

Craft Shows in the United States 
http://artsandcrafts.about.com/library/showrate/blstate.htm 
 
Craft Shows in Canada 
http://artsandcrafts.about.com/library/showrate/blprovince.htm  

I hope that this helps. Thanks again for being a part of Google
Answers.

Regards,
Easterangel-ga

I find http://festivalnet.com to be the a great source.  Some of the
details they include are how many vendors, what type, whether or not
is juried, and also details like types of entertainment and number of
attendees.