FIFTEEN YEAR HAMVENTION ATTENDANCE HISTORY: 2003: 22,168 2004: 19,869 2005: 20,411 2006: 20,324 2007: 19,318 2008: 17,253 2009: 18,877 2010: 19,750 2011: 22,312 2012: 24,483 2013: 24,542 2014: 24,873 2015: 25,621 2016: 25,364 2017: 29,296 (from hamgallery.com )
And another Hamvention has passed into history! This was the one that we had waited for for ten months or so, since the Hara Arena announced that they were closing their doors forever last July and DARA announced that Hamvention was moving to a new location. In fact, many people that I know have waited even longer for Hamvention to change locations ( ahem, Dan ). Apparently so many people were excited to see the new digs that the attendance this year came to 29,296 … almost 4000 more attendees than 2016,
So we were all at least a little bit anxious to see how things would work out at the new venue after 52 years at the old Hara. I was almost as anxious as I was in 2005 as I walked into my first Hamvention.