Exhibitor Info
Arrival & set-up
Arrival time for exhibitors is 9am, giving you all an hour to set up your tables. This is the case for both days. We shall be there to greet you and show you to your table when you arrive. If you are showing all weekend then you will be able to safely leave everything on-site overnight. The full site get's full locked down for the night.
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Please bring a business card or I.D. so we can sign you in on arrival.
Saturday Exhibitors
Setting up
09:00 – 10:00
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Packing down
18:00 – 19:00
Sunday Exhibitors
Setting up
09:00 – 10:00
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Packing down
18:00 – 19:00
Full Weekend Exhibitors
Setting up
Saturday 09:00 – 10:00
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Packing down
Sunday 18:00 – 19:00
Friends and helpers
Anyone who is not officially exhibiting (this includes friends and helpers) will be asked to buy a ticket for the event if they are intending to stay after set-up ends at 10am. This is so we have a track on numbers for capacity and simply for general fairness!
Tables & displaying your wares
Please note that these rates may change to reflect the hire cost of our venues.
The table is your winning ticket. Please plan ahead how you will be using the space. It makes a huge difference.
We recommend bringing along a table-cloth to cover the table. It looks nicer & brings character to your space. Some people will be placed by the walls but this is chosen at random and very limited. We will be encouraging visitors on arrival to the event to stop by and look at every table.
With this in mind please bring anything like scissors, tape, blu-tac, small boxes, etc to help display what you've produced. We will have a ltd supply on the weekend of string and tape.
As a suggestion it's sometimes worth having a 'dry run' at home laying out your space before the weekend. Can sometimes help alleviate the mania at the start of the day!
If you have business cards, bring them. If not, make sure you have your socials displayed somewhere. Folk often experience a lot of follow up and this helps massively.
Info for first time exhibitors
We always love to see first time exhibitors apply! Everyone starts somewhere so don’t be put off by seeing more experienced artists stalling at our events. We are always looking to diversify and especially welcome illustrators from underrepresented communities.
What do we look for?
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A unique voice - Sticking with your own style is tricky! But belief in your work makes you stand out from the crowd (more than the number of followers you have).
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A variety of styles - We try and make BIF as interesting as possible for our audience, which means catering for a wide variety of tastes as much as we can.
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New faces - We're blessed to have a regular audience at our events and we want to be a fair that allows for new and upcoming artists to introduce < themselves to the world! As the illustration world (rightly) diversifies itself, we also need to highlight marginalised voices and give them a space at the table (in this case literally!)
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Products - Being able to make a boring old table look amazing really counts and draws people in. It's a skill and takes a bit of practice/ snooping at other seller's stalls. Even if you're the best artist in the world - if you don't have products to sell you probably wont find yourself getting selected.
Do I need insurance?
Having public liability insurance protects you and everyone around you if an accident happens. This can be from your work getting damaged at a fair or if part of your table trips up a customer, the list goes on. We always suggest that you make a risk assessment for your stand - it might seem a bit much, but it can just make you slightly more aware of your surrounding and how to reduce problems. There is a great artist insurance that is £40 a year called 'A-N Artist Insurance' which you can find out more about here.
Do I need a card machine?
Visitors to the fair generally bring cash because they know not all exhibitors will have a card machine. However, you are more likely to sell your work if it is made really easy for people to buy it. So having a card machine is recommended.