Original from 09.25.10... Demand for Artists Market tables went completely through the roof this year. Last year there were 20 artists. This year we had 20 artists expressing an interest in a table by the middle of July, over two months ago. By 11 AM on Friday Sept 24th, that number had increased to 57. Barely 12 hours later there were a dozen more, once word got out that tables were finally available.

As of this writing (about 3 AM on Saturday Sept. 25th), 19 Full Tables and 2 Half Tables have been sold in the first 5.5 hours, and sales were halted at 20 Full Table equivalents. Of these, ONLY THREE are not already fully paid for through PayPal and may be released Sunday afternoon when the 48 hour grace period ends.

Before we continue there is something that everyone must understand about the Pasadena Hilton. Its hallways and lobby are narrow compared to the LAX Hilton, and can't support nearly as many people lounging or hanging out. For months now the PMX Staff has been fine-tuning this year's layout to utilize any leftover meeting room space as additional lounge areas so that the narrow public areas do not leave our attendees with nowhere to relax. Which brings us to the delays in opening Artists Market.

The original plan for Artists Market was to scatter tables around the wider hallways and lobby of the hotel, and to limit each artist to a single half space (of a 6' table) so that we would not have to turn away so many artists. However, it was soon realized that this would not work for a variety of reasons. After much analysis and compromise, the San Gabriel room was given to Artists Market with the proviso that it would share the room with some part time functions. Under this scheme Artists Market would be able to support 20 Full Tables and perhaps 25 or 30 depending on other usage of the room which was then still being decided.

First priority for the base 20 tables was given to artists who had already asked to be notified when tables were available AND had already pre-registered (and paid) for their PMX badge in anticipation of getting a table, and also to a limited number of artists who had expressed a keen interest in a table repeatedly throughout the year. This resulted in 27 people being notified. Second priority would have been given to everyone else who asked to be notified by inviting them to reserve tables starting Monday morning, with general availability following soon thereafter. What originally seemed like a good idea to avoid criticism that we were not giving the loyal pre-reg people enough time ended up backfiring because they all responded so quickly and snapped up so many Full tables that they even locked some of their own out.

As things stand right now, we have at least 5 tables remaining to sell, and we are trying different table layouts to hopefully add at least 5 more. We will also open discussions with other departments to see if it is possible to move anything in the shared section to another location and free up space for still more tables in San Gabriel. We are also considering a number of different methods for allocating these tables and will probably use more than one. Anything we do at this point will be called unfair by somebody, so we are going to focus on something achievable, that being solutions which are the least unfair that we can manage.

The PMX Artists Market Staff wishes to apologize for any inconvenience this situation has caused or will eventually cause our Artists and anyone else who is affected. Effective immediately, the no-refunds policy for Artists Market Table fees is waived until further notice. To accommodate as many Artists as possible in the limited space available, we are considering altering the Artists Market policy and we will fully understand if some Artists feel that these changes are unacceptable and no longer wish to participate in the PMX 2010 Artists Market.

In particular, the generous limitation of two chairs and persons per half-table is incompatible with tightening the layout to get more back-to-back table islands into the room. We are considering lowering this limit in the case of island tables to 1 chair and person per half-table. Tables with their back to a wall would still fall under the original limits. In the event that there are not enough wall tables to accommodate every artist who wants the old limits, those artists are free to release their table and receive a refund.

Some of what we're considering requires input from other departments at PMX, so it may take a few days to evaluate everything. We will also give at least a few days' public warning of any new deadlines, so it will be safe to check back here once a day for updates. In the meantime, concerned artists and attendees are welcome to send us your comments and suggestions via the Artists Market Contact Form.