Trade Show Exhibit Display Booths

How do I set up an art show or craft fair booth on a tight budget?

I'm a junior in high school and would like to try selling my photography at local art shows, craft fairs, and festivals. I've found some websites that talk about how to set up a booth, but they all reccomend getting a canopy ($700+), wall panels ($400) and display racks, none of which I can afford. I've been to some shows, and a lot of the photographers use plastic storage boxes for the smaller, matted pics you'd flip through, and they just put em on a table. I can probly find enough of those around the house to use, and would probly be able to talk my pastor into letting me borrow a table from church, but I also need to be able to hang the framed pictures. I can't really afford much, I'd like to make a profit, or at least come out even. What do I do?

Public Comments

1. How about trying to sell online first? A friend of mine joined an on-line craft mall at: www.craftoriginalsgalore.com and it is only $25/month an dthey do all the advertising for you and even give you a free web site. My friend loves it and is doing well.
2. Depending on your subject matter and style...I would go straight "industrial" look...borrow two sturdy aluminum or something ladders, and use cable wire between them and hang the pics in mid-air. Go to goodwill and find a huge neutral color bed sheet or fabric piece and use it as a backdrop. Walk through the lumber & garden departments at home depot and take a look at fencing stuff, rebar... You could also go get a whole bunch of free boxes from a liquor store, duct tape them together to form a kind of modular display, cover them with the bed sheet(s). Whatever you do, have fun with it.
3. you could try setting up a table at a walmart or even one of your local gas stations with a display to get your stuff off and out in the world