bear, jpcubs, lee:
As any of us who have hosted a CubFest know, if you host it they will come. You may be surprised at who will show up. Once it is decided and up on the calendar forum folks in the region of the fest will show .. and you may be surprised at who may show up from your local area as well. I know I was quite surprised and got to meet a lot of unknown, lurker cub owner's who found out about the Fest via the tractor underground. My basic fear was no one would show up since it wasn't in Ohio .. but George, BD, Albie and others continued to convince me not to worry and just go with it. Albie told me that if even one person showed up then the fest would be a success. And yes, he was correct in that assessment. To my surprise and great relief, we had many more than one. Kind of funny cause I was looking at some old pics of CubFest Northeast 2004 and I was really surprised to see who was there. We had folks from near and far.
bear10 wrote: I have thought about trying to do one in Southwest missouri but I don't know much about doing one.
It really isn't difficult.
Post a query on the forum about interest for a specific date. Try to keep it away from nearby existing festivities if possible. Then decide what to do.. what you would like/what is possible. Workshops designed for a specific project are not necessary... simply just have a couple Cubs to work on etc. When I did my first CubFest we had specific workshops which were great, we had demonstrations which were fun but the best part for me was simply mingling and watching how the visitors enjoyed the weekend. Mind you as co-host there was very little time to mingle .. but managed a bit.
The first CubFest I went to was Cecil's CubFest Northeast 2006 and it was a blast. Cecil and Pris do things up as only they can. They had workshops going on all the time (scheduled and non-scheduled), demonstrations and simply time to play on Cubs. Meal times were wonderful and are one of the highlights of any of Cecil's fests.
A mini-fest or a full blown weekend fest is entirely your choice. Mini-fests may be easier to put on depending on your time/labour constraints and of course the better half
Having on site meals is not a requirement, simply something that many of us choose to do. My 1st fest we basically contracted dinner out to the local church group and incorporated a tractor ride to get to dinner. For our 2nd fest, my bride Em and our girls took on that chore (well me too
) and had help from the ladies attending. It really turns into a family/friends affair and many of us now consider our friends more family than anything else
If you are close to restaurants, a meal break may be all that is needed, or even ordering in pizza would work. There are as many solutions as there are cubfests and hosts so do what you feel most comfortable with. The biggest part of a fest and the most important part is the people - meeting new cubbers and renewing older acquaintances and simply sharing quality time
Big Dog has posted this thread :
What is a CubFest????. That in a nutshell is what they are all about and actually a good concept to keep in mind when deciding to host one. Remember that hosting practices vary from Fest to Fest and are very individual - usually like their hosts and each one has it's own flavour.
Yes, I'm good for an Okie Fest (provided my work schedule allows)