Stick a fork in it...A year "break" is the death knell..
I didn't go last year, but I heard it was disappointing..the place they had for a few years post-dome had potential, but once they moved to RIT, I knew they were in trouble...
Makes me long for the days at the Dome...even with the lousy food vendors and the crappy (pun intended) rest room facilities...Even though the last few years at the Dome was 30% non ham related, it was still a decent fest.
I know that the power struggle within RARA caused a lot of issues that hurt the fest. IMHO the trouble began when they starting monkeying with the fest dates and it got pushed into early June...I know the excuse was it was too close to Dayton, but it didn't hurt it before then..at least I was there during the glory days and have fond memories of sitting with a SB-220 on my lap when my club sponsored a bus to go out there, and years later lugging a Viking II to the parking lot after I bought it from a spot that was the farthest away from my car..
Anyway, there's still Nearfest in May, looking forward to that..