JUNE 1
CONGRATULATIONS! You have been selected to participate in the 15th Annual Affordable Arts Festival on August 30. We had the most applications ever again this year!
PLEASE SEE THE PAYMENT PROCESS BELOW.
Please note that you will need to accept and pay for your booth fees by June 17. (After that date if you haven't paid for your booth, it will go to an artist on our waitlist.) If you are not able to accept the invite, please let us know ASAP so we can let someone on the waitlist know.
Payments for single booths, double booths, sharing and corners can be made with CHECKS, through ZAPP or Venmo. If using Venmo please put ‘AAF’ in the comment areas.
Venmo account - @Jim-DeLutes (last 4 digits of phone number is 1964)
Refunds:
If you pay with Venmo or checks directly with me, there will be a 100% refund. If you pay through ZAPP the refund will be minus the ZAPP fees.
You don’t have to do anything with ZAPP, just send me the checks or pay through Venmo, and I will change your status on ZAPP.
If paying with checks, please send Separatechecks (or pay with Venmo) for the following amounts: Booth – $350 check Double Booth – Two $350 checks (in case we don’t have availability for a double) Corner - $125 Booth Sharing - $95 (plus the normal booth fee)
(If send separate checks, I will only cash the checks for the items that I’m able to get for you)
Remember, the booths are 15X15
Send checks to: AAF PO Box 1743 Berthoud, CO 80513
Try not to wait until the last day to mail checks since they take a few days to get to my small town Post Office!
Please contact me with any questions – jdphotos7@gmail.com
Sincerely,
Jim DeLutes
Director Affordable Arts Festival
PS – Just to let you know that over the last 14 years we have contributed almost $360,000 to the Arapahoe Community College Foundation for scholarships!
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JUNE 30
All of the artists are now posted online. Please go to the artist page and make sure your listing is correct:
https://affordableartsfestival.com/2026-artists
You will find your booth number at the bottom of this email. If you have a 'C' in the booth number, it means that you have a corner booth.
We have one Hotel deal for you. You can find it at this link: https://affordableartsfestival.com/hotels
Here is the info about both State and Littleton Sales taxes:
https://affordableartsfestival.com/taxes
Make sure to file for the State license immediately since they are not very quick.
TENT RENTALS – Because of conflicting events for the weekend of the Affordable Arts Festival, we have only 4 units available for artists. Please let me know ASAP if you need a tent. The fee is $250 for the tent, sidewalls and weights. We will set up and tear down the tent for you.
All emails are on a hidden page on the website. This way you can easily find out what info has gone out already. To get to the page, Go to the bottom of any webpage and you'll find the letter E. Click on that to go to the 'hidden' pages.
Let me know if you have any questions,
Jim DeLutes
Affordable Arts Festival
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JULY 9
There’s a lot of important info in this email. Please take the time to read it.
The 2026 artists are now posted online –
https://affordableartsfestival.com/2026-artists
Please check and make sure your listing is correct.
TAXES - Sales tax rate in Littleton is 8.75%. You can download the forms for both the State of CO and the City of Littleton at this link: https://affordableartsfestival.com/taxes
You will find phone numbers there also. Please make sure you file for your state license right away since they can take several weeks to get your license to you. Please send me your State license number ASAP. (I don’t need your Littleton license). If you gave me your number last year, you do not need to send it again.
HOTELS: I have secured deals at the Staybridge Hotel. You can find the info to reserve rooms at this link: https://affordableartsfestival.com/hotels
If you want to search online for hotels, the address of the festival is:
5900 S. Santa Fe Drive, Littleton, CO 80120.
RV PARKING: Once again, there will be an area on campus to park and stay in your RV. Just know that you need to stay in the RV and can’t sit or cook outside. If you park on campus overnight on Saturday, you will need to move first thing Sunday morning to make room for patron parking. I will have more info as to where to park off-campus.
BEST DEALS – VERY IMPORTANT! To help promote you and the show, I ask that you send me an image of your best deal ASAP. Tell me the size, what the price was, and what it is now. These will be posted on the website to help people find the artists that they want to go to first to get the deals. Click here to see our 2025 best deals: - https://affordableartsfestival.com/best-art-deals
WIFI AT THE FESTIVAL: The WIFI on the campus is not great. I know there have been glitches in the past so be ready to do your CC transactions offline and upload them later. You do not want to try to learn how to do that with 10 customers waiting to buy something so learn how to do that now!
TICKET SALES: Tickets are now available for patrons. The link to buy tickets is - https://aaf.wellattended.com/events/affordable-arts-festival?pane=tickets Please send the link to your patrons. Admission is $12 (kids 12 and under are free).
TIPS AND OTHER INFO (special info for newbies) :
I hear from artists who have a lot of their work already priced below $150 and wonder how they can create a few deals for customers. If you can put a set together of your lower-priced pieces that may equal say $150 and then discount it to $100. You don't have to have your booth full of deals, just enough to get the attention of the early buyers. Tell the later buyers what they missed and that will ensure they will come early next year! Feel free to contact me if you have questions or ideas.
For those who are new to the show, this festival is a bit different than other shows that you do and there are unique rules that you need to pay attention to.
A few of them are listed here:
1. No separate pricing of pictures and frames allowed (you can’t tell a customer that a framed piece is $150 for the image and another $150 for the frame that it is in). Also, sales tax can be added to the $150 price so the total would be $163.13
2. All pieces should be individually priced. The reason for this suggestion is when the show gets busy and your booth is filled with customers, they need to be able to easily see how much something costs. This is not mandatory but it really will help you and your sales. If the piece is one that you have marked down, you are allowed to put a price sticker on stating ‘Was $_____ Now $_____’ But, having large 'Bargains', 'Rummage Sale', etc. signs are not allowed. The show is a high-quality show even if it has low prices.
3. Absolutely NO SALES are to be made to other artists, artists’ helpers, volunteers, or staff members prior to 9AM on Sunday. The buying public (who paid admission) needs to have a fair chance at purchasing the best deals before they are all gone. This rule is important and if I find that you have sold before the gates opened you will not be invited back.
4) EVERYTHING IN YOUR BOOTH MUST BE FOR SALE AND CANNOT BE OVER $150!
5) Be ready to ‘Bag & Tag’ the pieces that are sold. Customers do not want to carry what they buy so that they can move quickly to the next artist. You have the 5 feet behind your tent to store these pieces. Make sure you tag them with a label that doesn’t fall off easily or you will have issues. When it gets busy it’s possible you will have 20-30 (or more) pieces stored there. One question that keeps coming up is the 10x15 booth space. I don’t expect anyone to have a 10x15 canopy and you will just put the 10x10 canopy in the space; however, it works best for you. Most times that will be to put it to one side of the space and have an open area of 5 feet (you also have 5 feet of storage behind your booth). This may be used for your area to complete sales and display more items, etc. If you have any questions about this, please feel free to contact me.
There will be more info as we get closer to the show but these are the important rules you need for now.
Again, I ask all of you on Facebook to please ‘Like’ the AAF page if you haven’t already - https://www.facebook.com/AffordableArtsFestival and share posts.
Set up info will be sent closer to the show but so you can schedule, there is set up available on Saturday from 9AM to 6PM and then Sunday morning from 5AM to 9AM.
Questions? If you have any questions, especially if this is your first time doing the show, please email me – jdphotos7@gmail.com
Jim DeLutes
Director - Affordable Arts Festival
Don’t forget that all of the emails that I send can be found on this page link:
https://affordableartsfestival.com/e
You can also get there by scrolling down any page in the website and you will find the letter E (for emails) and click on it.
JULY 20
IMPORTANT - I will begin adding the best deals to the website in the next day or so. If you haven't sent yours in yet, please do so. Include an image, category, size, original price and discount price. Our clients love that page and they research it a lot. PLEASE get your piece into me now! Only one piece per artist.
Soon I will be sending an email out to our list of 14,000+ patrons, so make sure your best deal is on the site.
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Attached is a promo piece for you to use online or email to your clients. Since with ZAPP, I can only attach one at a time, I will be sending a second piece in the next email. One promo is humorous. You can pick whichever one you want (or both!).
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TAX LICENSES:
Many of you have already sent me the license number for your Colorado Special events sales tax license. Please note that if you are needing to renew it, you can still send me the past account number since that doesn’t change on renewal. Please have the numbers sent to me ASAP. Make sure you get your Littleton tax license but you do not need to send that to me. Here is the link for all of this info - https://affordableartsfestival.com/taxes
ATTENTION: For the first time ever, you can now get the Littleton Tax License on their website. Please do not wait until the last minute. They are getting tougher in enforcing that you have your license.
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Set-up info and other items will be covered closer to the show. So you can schedule your time, Set-up is Saturday the 29th from 7 am – 6 pm or Sunday the 30th from 5 am until 8 am.
If you rented a tent, we will have them up as soon as possible but it could take until noon. You can come earlier to see if yours is up already. We have a small, but hard-working crew so be patient as they get the tents up.
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HOTEL:
There are still rooms available at the Staybridge Suites. Go to this link to reserve your room - https://affordableartsfestival.com/hotels
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11AM DEALS: We are doing the 11am deals again this year. I hope you are planning on participating. It seemed to work very well over the last 5 years. The purpose of the 11AM deals is to keep the early patrons from leaving too quickly. For those new to the show, we ask that you set aside one (or more) of your better deals and bring it out at 11AM. We will ask you when you check in if you have a deal (or deals) and we will give you a small but bright green flag for your booth. You can have the flag up the whole morning or put it up at 11. We will blow the air horn at 11 to let you know to put out your deals and let the patrons know that the 11am deals are open. It has been quite successful and it gives the patrons who showed up late a chance to get a great deal. Any questions please let me know.
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Currently, I have booked 5 TV interviews and am working on more. I try to get at least 8 interviews. There are a lot of other promotions this year that we haven’t done in the past.
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Any questions, please let me know.
Jim DeLutes
Affordable Arts Festival
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PS - Remember, if you need any info from previous emails that I have sent, just go to this link to see them all - https://affordableartsfestival.com/emails
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JULY 27
HOTEL:
There are still rooms available at the Staybridge Suites. The deadline for reservations is Friday, August 21st. Go to this link to reserve your room: https://affordableartsfestival.com/hotels
TICKET SALES:
Ticket sales are going well. Please help by getting the info out to your patrons. Here is the ticket purchase link to share with them: https://affordableartsfestival.com/tickets
TAX LICENSES:
(I have attached a PDF with all of the State info in it.)
Many of you have already sent me the license number for your Colorado Special Events sales tax license. Please note that if you need to renew it, you can still send me the past account number since that doesn’t change on renewal. Please have the numbers sent to me ASAP. Make sure you get your Littleton tax license, but you do not need to send that to me. Here is the link for all of this info: https://affordableartsfestival.com/taxes
BEST DEALS:
We have over 50 artists on the Best Deals page, which is now online. We had over 100 last year, so please send me the image, how much it was originally, and what the AAF price will be. Include the size also.
If you haven’t sent your photo in yet, please email your Best Deal to me ASAP so I can get the website updated. Only one item per artist. Thanks.
11 AM DEALS – We are doing the 11 AM deals again this year. I hope you are planning on participating. It seemed to work very well over the last 5 years. The purpose of the 11 AM deals is to keep the early patrons from leaving too quickly. For those new to the show, we ask that you set aside one (or more) of your better deals and bring it out at 11 AM. We have some artists who just give a discount to patrons who buy from 11-11:30. Be creative with it. We will ask you when you check in if you have a deal (or deals), and we will give you a small but bright green flag for your booth and a sticker for your booth sign.. You can have the flag up the whole morning or put it up at 11. We will blow the air horn at 11 to let you know to put out your deals and let the patrons know that the 11 am deals are open. If you have questions, please contact me.
IMPORTANT INFO ABOUT PARKING:
There will be some artist parking on the East side of the show on the paved area. Please park in an orderly fashion so we can get as many artists in as possible.
Since patrons sometimes have a hard time finding parking spaces, we have acquired several parking lots across the street at Hudson Gardens. There is a large dirt lot that will be for artists. LAST YEAR MANY OF YOU PARKED IN THE PAVED PARKING AREA. Please leave the paved lots for the patrons. Use the dirt lot only. The show is a great success and I need you to help the show by helping the patrons find parking spots. Frustrated patrons will not return in the future.
For those staying in their RVs, you will still be able to park on campus in LOT I overnight Saturday but must move to Hudson Gardens by 7 am on Sunday. OTHER THAN THE PAVED AREA ON THE EAST SIDE (SEE ABOVE) DO NOT park any vehicle on campus during the show. We lost a lot of clients FOUR years ago because they could not find parking. I have secured Hudson Gardens to help but I need you to park in the dirt lot. This is an issue that we have to solve. Also, if you have any health issues that make it difficult to walk the two blocks from the Hudson Gardens’ parking lot, please see me on Saturday and I’ll find you a closer spot.
Less than 5 weeks to go...
Jim DeLutes
Director
Affordable Arts Festival