Creative Bazaars, Or Why Make Free Stuff?
I miss tabling/boothing in an event. College exhibition days were always fun, getting to see what everyone was making and talking to people perusing what you made.
However, the creative events I could find nowadays are geared towards commercial activities (mostly selling merchandises or fanworks), with costly table pricings which makes no sense if you're actually making freewares and freebies.
I am looking for a space to just show your stuff, talk about creative process with people, exchange tips, hang out ... But these exhibition type events tend to be very fine art-y, with high barrier to submit and also... Unsuitable for the things I make and like to see?
Why not just sell them, then? Recoup the table price. I have been asked time and again why on earth I would give my time and effort away for free stuff.
There are many angles to look at this question, but first and foremost I pity people who can't fathom that you can work for the sake of it, for the sheer joy of it, and it's called having a hobby.
Second, I like to make whatever I just happen to feel like, which doesn't really bode well with commercial value. Even to recoup a table in an event requires you to plan your offerings, and I know that because I used to handle vendors and help man the booths.
Third, I grew up with awesome stuff people made for fun. All those Neocities shrines? The cool freewares in 2000s FTPs? I would like to give the world something too.
Last, I don't like doing customer support, and it is a responsibility you must assume even if your wares are cheaper than a soda pop. At least with art prints and books you may forgive a typo or a misprint, but for software I bet you'll be pissed if it raises an error. Debugging something you made a decade ago is not fun, but you can't back out if you have gotten someone to buy it. Once money has exchanged hands, the expectations are sealed. It's easy to underestimate how time-consuming this can be.
I may have exaggerated things, but really. I just like to make things and be happy with them, then move on and make more things. If something breaks, I may or may not fix it. Or maybe it's a lesson learned for next time. So it's really so much easier to keep them free. It's selfish and I intend to keep it that way.
I wonder if there's a good space (physically) for something like this. Pizza Pranks of Indiepocalypse mentioned a sort of creative Farmer's Market in his local area, but we're oceans apart and I don't think I know something similar round these parts. My gut feeling is telling me that I should start one if I really want one...
A rehash of my college club, for adults?