Prices for so many things have gone up. No one gets rich holding a live show - at best, a show will pay its expenses and we’re really impressed if a show can raise a modest amount of money for a charity.
Halls are getting more expensive both in raw and total cost. Showholders take a risk that they will sink significant amounts of money in on top of the many hours of work.
When I am budgeting a show, I’m looking at total estimated cost, which includes travel, hotel, rental car, and transport which well dwarf the entry fees on even the most local show I attend. (Gas alone is more than my entry fee to the nearest show to me.) At times, I also consider if there’s a possibility for sales (or judging perks) to offset those costs.
Do you consider the total cost when you’re planning? Will you attend a more expensive show if for example a more expensive hall makes your other travel expenses more affordable?
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I’ll spend more if there are more perks like a raffle, nice prizes, full tables, etc. I really can’t see spending more than $85 for a weekend, though. It would depend heavily on the show and who was running it and the number and types of divisions. Right now I won’t even consider an OFP only show.
Although I love bringing out my OFP, to me prizes in that division end up feeling fairly random, since my collection is mostly nice examples of relatively common pieces. (Even the low number pieces, it’s likely there’s going to be more than one of them at any particular show in my area.) The lighting of the hall, what other people bring, all that mean that while I have several live show champion OF plastic models, it’s rare for any of them to be consistent big winners. The fun is in unpacking them, admiring them, playing with them, and maybe getting a few ribbons while doing the same among friends.
By contrast, among my customs and resins, (as well as my performance entries), and even the china, I have several consistent winners, so if winning is important to me, I focus on them.
But to me a show is about the people and interactions most of all. When I’m thinking about a show experience, the first thing I’m thinking about is that it is an outing with friends. I don’t want to pay $50 to go to an event where I don’t think I’ll get to talk to anyone or have fun, but I’ll pay $1000 all in to go to an event where I will learn new things, socialize with multiple amazing people, especially people I don’t usually get to see in person, and have an incredible memorable time.
When I think about it that way I don’t care so much what percentage of that goes to the show fees and what percentage goes to the hotel and rental car people.
Very much your last point. My local hobby friends and I kept going to this one show with often questionable judging, etc., because we all were going to be there. So it became a kind of a horsey, girls’ weekend not, overly close to any of us. 😆
Knowing your friends will gather there is maybe the ultimate! And that’s where having a location that’s got at least some elements of a sweet spot, convenient to get to, pleasant meal options, nice surroundings, all of that helps make it a place friends gather.
South Coast Classic held several events at the Los Angeles Arboretum back in the day. That was such a lovely place to gather, personally convenient for me because I lived nearby, but also the light and surroundings meant I always had the best day there, even took some outside photographs in between classes.
Things I factor into the expense is the overall quality of the show. Judges, prizes, possible turnout. For a small show I might look into doing a one day entry of $50-65 depending upon how the classlist is split, but for a destination show I could go as high as $100 (although I would wince at it!).
I do factor in travel expenses. I like places I can fly to more or less directly. And I like to see areas that have available food and lodging. I know that sounds obvious but I’ve been at a lot of small shows in even smaller towns. :)
I live in the relative middle of no where when it comes to the model horse hobby (Montana). I have to drive many hours to get to any show: the closest show I’ve done was just two hours away and the farthest was ten to eleven hours away (when I lived in way eastern Montana and the show was way western Montana). As it is, the majority of shows I’ve done are a five to seven hour drive.
SO, all of that to say, that I greatly prefer if a show is only around $50, as I will have at least two or three tanks of gas, plus two nights in a hotel, and multiple meals out. However, many of the shows have started moving up to $60-75. I get it, halls aren’t cheap. However, hotels DEFINITELY are no longer cheap, so even if there are shows in my “general vicinity” (ha, ha) I might not be able to swing all of them. Which also makes me sad, as I WANT to support any show in this area, in hopes that people will keep hosting them!
I don’t mind prices being a bit higher, as long as the classlist is decently sized. For a smaller intimate show, particularly if at someone’s home or very cozy venue (think like less than 15 people attending including show staff) I might be curious if the price was high (what factors led to this? Awards, judges, etc?) But certainly, as a host myself, I’m familiar enough with the difficulties that I am more favorable towards costs than people who may not be familiar with what goes into hosting.
Travel is definitely important too, most shows I’ve attended in the last few years have been within reasonable distance to either go home in the evening or stay with a relative. The catch for me is, usually if a show is worth driving far enough to stay over, and especially if it’s a two day show; I need to take a minimum of a half-day off work, up to 2 full days, and that can be difficult to plan far enough ahead for. (This is why I’ve never attended the Syracuse NY-area Pumpkins & Ponies, despite being a well-renowned show in my region and it offering desirable divisions for me.)
I would say that a class list is really the largest driver for me in terms of interest (as long as a show is within my typical travel range including an overnight stay). I’m not going to push myself too hard for a standard class list that I’ve been to many times over the years and most likely, will show up in one of the more local options anyway. Personally what excites me the most lately include:
- OFP collectibility based shows that are well split out and include a wide variety of levels (from common to rare and different brands isolated, etc.)
- OFP Mini shows that either have a deeper classlist/further split to be ok with double judging, or have separate collectibility that doesn’t just feel tacked on. But, I’d also appreciate a Mini Breed based show if it was more extensive than what we usually see or offered additional split categories by brand, scale etc.
- Any show offering OFP that presents new or unusual ways of organizing classes (Color-based independent of collectibility, double-judged but Collectibility is the primary category instead of secondary, splitting Breyers up by decade of mold release to encourage “not old but not new” molds/models to have an opportunity, schooling shows [instructing by doing with a small group], anything innovative!) I don’t dislike showing artisan or breakables but I have fewer of those categories in my collection, so I really only enter those if I’m traveling for a show with OFP as my main focus, I’m judging something, or the show is hyper-local to me (within an hour’s drive).
I think it’s really interesting to have classlists that change, and it’s something a showholder can do to freshen up a show that might otherwise feel ‘routine’ for zero cost.
When shows start to feel routine, I think some entrants take them for granted… it will be just like the last show, there will always be another.
Not every show has to offer every class or every division, and giving people a reason to bring out horses they don’t usually bring can be a way to increase engagement. I love the idea of offering era divisions for OF Plastic or really any division; customs and resins benefit from them too. Most of us have pieces in our collections that are either not competitive or are too much trouble to bring, but a class just for them changes the calculation.
And sharing the old pieces can be really fun! That oldest custom you have in your collection, or a horse that won everything back when it was new, and suddenly you can bring him out for everyone to see again. I loved bringing out my very first custom, a running mare repainted bay appaloosa in Testor’s enamels, to the Jennifer Show, with her story.
I love seeing people have fun with performance classlists too! Candyland Live with its Everything Pink class, that’s just delightful. It’s fun to come up with an entry and so fun to see what other people will do.