even a bad day at shelby hamfest is better than a great day at almost any other hamfest
Jeff you missed my second line....or at least it's intended inference....
yes, i was shocked by the empty upper cattle barn and the empty lower animal stall dealer buildings......also the lack of use of the overflow flea market field, which used to be huge ! i wished from the start that they had stayed at Dallas too.....and at first I blamed this years turnout on the move...but then i got to thinking and realized that that isn't necessarily true....it's terribly hard to judge the flea market turnout size at the two venues in comparison with each other....Dallas is far more spread out and Shelby tight....it's hard to get a grasp on the numbers that had been at Dallas the last 5 years.....i think it is very possible that what we saw this year at Shelby was what we couldn't calculate in natural attrition at Dallas over the last five years---not blamed on the Dallas location (except for the indoor vendor space that was lacking at Dallas), merely the general decline in hamfest attendance. It was hard to visually tally at Dallas and to figure out how it comapred to a regular Shelby turnout.....I thought the walk around crowd was down at Shelby this year, but that may have been a misperception on my part...hard to say....the SARC claims ticket sales were larger than in past years---i don't know, i have to trust them.....but very few organizations admit down numbers....and they want to be in Shelby come hell or high water ! i have my doubts.....i just don't know...only they do.....but i know what my gut and eyes told me....
yes, it wasn't shelby of old.....i've been going 40 years now. long before it was ever at the Fairgrounds and before it was a big event.....but no hamfests have remained where they once were in attendance or vendors.....i'll stand by my personal feeling that a 'bad' day at shelby hamfest is still better than a 'great' day anywhere else !
was i disappointed in vendors and flea market compared to OLD Shelby ? yes, of course....did I have a great time and enjoy myself ? you betcha ! and I'm a 6 hour drive away........i greatly prefer Dallas.....but thats not gonna happen baring another disaster....
but i'd never be so naive as to compare 2007 to 2013 expecting similar numbers....i think the Dallas location camoflagued the downward trend that was evidently occuring---at no fault of the location (except for less indoor space).....i can see no reason to say that the cause of the shocking empty spaces we saw this year had just happened in the last twelve months !
i hope it turns around....but we hams are to blame for not teaching the hamfest tradition to the up and coming generations....if fear they are gonna die when we of this generation are gone.......As Pogo used to say, We Have Met the Enemy And He Is US !
SK
