York PA fester

[N3DRB The Derb]

 I understand this fest has gone downhill for some years since they moved it out of the fairgrounds. Assuming good wx, is it still worth going to?

planning on going since me and Glo will already be halfway to there on Friday celebrating our 3rd anniversary. 

just wondering what to expect.

[WB2YGF]

I understand this fest has gone downhill for some years since they moved it out of the fairgrounds. Assuming good wx, is it still worth going to?

planning on going since me and Glo will already be halfway to there on Friday celebrating our 3rd anniversary. 

just wondering what to expect.

I went last year.  It's pretty small, but I picked up some stuff that made it worthwhile anyway. 

Besides, it just so happens that the York MCBA Chinchilla Show is on the same day as the hamfest every year, so while Barb is attending her show, I can escape to the fester.    The chin show is only 1.3 miles away (Union Fire & Hose Company #1 of Dover, 30 E. Canal St).

Congrats on the third anniversary

[N3TQW]

The York Fest has been hanging on for 53yrs. Yes, its not like what it used to be when it was at the York Fair Grounds. The down fall was, the management of the fair grounds saw in previous years that this was a big event and it was getting bigger, and of course, it made big money. At that time there was a council member who was a HAM, and allowed the hamfest committee to hold the event there free of charge, but when that person left office, things changed quickly and the fair ground management started charging the committee for every item used on the grounds and it was getting extremely expensive. For example, we were getting charged per chair and table, electrical outlets, buildings etc. Also, they would not allow us to provide our own food vendors,or clean the grounds up ourselves. They made us pay to use their own people to do that work. Then the big kicker came when York city wanted to charge a tax on addmission and also taxed the tailgators and vendors on what they sold which put a bad taste in those folks mouths and many of them  never came back after that. 1996 was the last year that it was held at the fairgrounds and it's been a struggle to find good locations at minimum costs.