sheathmaker
Custom Leather Sheaths
- Joined
- May 18, 2005
- Messages
- 4,650
The BLADE Show is the world’s largest, most important knife show, and has taken place every year since 1982 and in Atlanta since 1992. Upwards of 1,000 exhibitors from more than 20 countries display their knives and knife-related items over a three-day cutlery celebration that also features BLADE University knife seminars, knife auctions, custom knife awards, celebrity appearances and much more.
The first paragraph was written by Blade staff and very word of it is true....and more!
The following is my very own PERSONAL opinion written by ME.
I always have an absolutely great time at Blade....the one chance each year to catch up with and visit with my very good friends, to make new friends and mourn the loss of old friends. That alone is worth the trip. That is all certainly a fact, but a few things this year changed rather radically, that made it a little less enjoyable .
Free parking became $5 a day parking (and that's a bargain). BUT getting a parking place and the getting back out of the parking facility can be a nightmare! Picture if you will everybody trying to leave at once and then merging with the horrendous traffic created by the Braves having home games both Friday and Saturday evening. You need a survival pack, really a long wait......or you can park some distance from the show and walk and then still be in that aforementioned horrendous ball park generated traffic. Don't want to beat the horse, but it was bad.
Concessions within the actual room were reduced by about 60%. Instead of three fairly well stocked options, there was one with a reduced menu, but you did have the chance to pay $11 for a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and a Coke. Outside the room, Chic Fil A stand doing a brisk business and then down the escalator there was the Subway and Chinese take out and the other sit down Chinese restaurant. Lines at each averaged 30 to 40 minutes, although prices while elevated sightly were more normal.
The "add on" room was very nice and large and the traffic from the overhead walkway funneled right into the front doors of the added room and the one time I ventured over there it seemed be having brisk traffic with pretty decent crowds. I couldn't help but wonder if folks entering there were aware of the big room and folks entering from the side into the big room, knew about the added room?????
It was definitely a knife show, no question about that, but with the myriad of various vendors It kind of resembles a trade show . No, not kind of, it DOES look like a trade show with a lot of makers thrown in.
That's my take on it, and it does just represent one opinion (Mine). I'm not saying I will, and I'm not saying for sure that I won't attend in the future,,,,,,but it's the first time that question has even crossed my mind.
Paul
The first paragraph was written by Blade staff and very word of it is true....and more!
The following is my very own PERSONAL opinion written by ME.
I always have an absolutely great time at Blade....the one chance each year to catch up with and visit with my very good friends, to make new friends and mourn the loss of old friends. That alone is worth the trip. That is all certainly a fact, but a few things this year changed rather radically, that made it a little less enjoyable .
Free parking became $5 a day parking (and that's a bargain). BUT getting a parking place and the getting back out of the parking facility can be a nightmare! Picture if you will everybody trying to leave at once and then merging with the horrendous traffic created by the Braves having home games both Friday and Saturday evening. You need a survival pack, really a long wait......or you can park some distance from the show and walk and then still be in that aforementioned horrendous ball park generated traffic. Don't want to beat the horse, but it was bad.
Concessions within the actual room were reduced by about 60%. Instead of three fairly well stocked options, there was one with a reduced menu, but you did have the chance to pay $11 for a BBQ pulled pork sandwich and a Coke. Outside the room, Chic Fil A stand doing a brisk business and then down the escalator there was the Subway and Chinese take out and the other sit down Chinese restaurant. Lines at each averaged 30 to 40 minutes, although prices while elevated sightly were more normal.
The "add on" room was very nice and large and the traffic from the overhead walkway funneled right into the front doors of the added room and the one time I ventured over there it seemed be having brisk traffic with pretty decent crowds. I couldn't help but wonder if folks entering there were aware of the big room and folks entering from the side into the big room, knew about the added room?????
It was definitely a knife show, no question about that, but with the myriad of various vendors It kind of resembles a trade show . No, not kind of, it DOES look like a trade show with a lot of makers thrown in.
That's my take on it, and it does just represent one opinion (Mine). I'm not saying I will, and I'm not saying for sure that I won't attend in the future,,,,,,but it's the first time that question has even crossed my mind.
Paul
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I hope to go back next year, but I also heard if you didn't have a table reserved by noon on Sunday you might not get one and we didn't, so this might have been my last Blade show. 
