First Friday Business and Venue Tips:
The Artist Index is a good place to start. Whether you’re looking for musicians, poets, performers, or visual artists this list will have contact information, descriptions, and photos so you can find the right fit. Other resources include:
- local music stores, many have a list of professional musicians that teach lessons
- local and regional galleries and museums
- Art in the Park in Leavenworth, Farmers Markets
- Write on the River, bookstores
- WVCC Music and Art Departments
- other participating businesses
- social media
- Artist Index
Consider these details for performers:
- How much space is needed, lighting, power hook-up, volume, payment or donation, promotion for upcoming shows or classes,
Visual artists:
- How much wall or table space is needed, hanging system for 2D Art (nail in the wall, rails, easels, display boards, etc.), surfaces for 3D Art (shelves, podiums, boxes, etc.)
Video/film makers:
- Projection screens monitor, lighting, sound, seating
Some businesses that regularly rotate art like to have an artist agreement/contract that covers them in case something happens to the Art. This can be a good place to outline your requirements for set-up, take-down, payment procedures and commissions, etc. It doesn’t need to be elaborate, here’s a sample
- You or the artist might want to provide some easy food and drink.
- Consider inviting a winery or brewery to do a tasting.
WA Liquor Permits and Licenses can be found here.
- Some people are actively marketing their events, some are not. It’s a great opportunity to cross promote each other and
- For Wenatchee First Fridays, a sandwich board or banner will be available to mark those spaces participating in the Arts Walk.
How to market your First Friday programming:
1) Engage with WDTA socials
- Use hashtags in your Instagram caption so your post will come up when people search
- those topics (#wenatcheefirstfridays #wenatcheeartist #downtownwenatchee #visitwenatchee #visitchelancounty #visitcentralwa)
- People specifically follow those hashtags and will see your post if you use them
- Tag us in your posts!
- Others will share tagged posts on their story
- Accept our request to make you a co-host on the First Friday Facebook event
- More people will see the event this way and your Facebook audience will see your participating
- Branding
- Utilize our First Friday logos included in the marketing kit to bring cohesiveness across all First Friday venues.
2) Engage with your customers outside of social media
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Utilize your email list and let your customers know you’re a venue
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Think outside the box! Hang posters, make flyers to give customers with their receipt, use a sign on the sidewalk, or give customers early in the week a coupon good only for First Friday.
Examples:
Tips for creating social media posts:
Take good pictures that represent your business! You don’t have to have intricate graphics to have good engagement on social media.
If you want to create a graphic, we recommend the free program Canva. They have tons of free templates you can use. Upload your photos, your logos, and our First Friday logos to personalize!
Captions: keep is short, sweet, and to the point. Example: “Let us be your plans this First Friday! Stop by from 6-10pm to see art by the wonderful local artist ____ while sipping cocktail specials! #DTBham #bstrongbham”
Instagram Stories
Great way to show “happening now”
- Easy to create, and easy reminder tool for potential attendees
- You can tag us!
- Can use a “Countdown” that viewers can save to be reminded later
- Example shown: Instagram post used as a story, adding a countdown and tagging a business. So easy!
Example timeline
3 weeks out: decide on programming. Hosting an artist? Musician? Having a sale? Start planning this now.
2 weeks out: Register for First Friday! Print flyers, posters, etc, that you’re using for promotion.
1 week out: Email your customer list, hang posters, start handing out fliers to customers. Post to social media announcing your programming.
3 days out: Social media post
Day of: Post to your story to remind people. Post to your story during your programming, too, showing how fun it is!
Example:
