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FanFest - Saturday Update
January 12, 2008 – 12:50 pmFanFest is great - packed with everything Braves related, and then some! We’re coming up for air to post some updates about today. Firstly, if you’re thinking of coming today, it’s already jam packed. I’d advise coming tomorrow first thing if you want to beat the crowd.
Let’s take a look at some of the attractions, and I’ll post the schedule for tomorrow as well.
The Stages - There’s a trivia stage where you can try your hand at trivia, as well as a main stage where different activities are going on during different times of the day. We just caught the Heavy Hitters - the drumline for the Braves - and they were good. Frank Wren is doing a question and answer session as I begin this post, and they’ll have other stuff throughout the day as it progresses.
Homer dancing with the Heavy Hitters.
Autograph Stands - The main attraction of FanFest, at least by popularity. The lines for these suckers are all the way long-ways across the floor of the room. Come in groups so one of you can hold the line while the others take bathroom breaks. One autograph per fan, Braves players rotate as far as who’s at what table when. They’re calling it “Treasure Hunt Style” - which means, as best as we can gather, nobody knows for sure what player is going to be there when.
Batting Cages / Radar Gun / Base Running - these look fun - get in the cage and bat, or test the speed of your fastball. I would have stood in line for these if I didn’t have to make this post. Shorter lines than the autograph tables, and you get to have a little bit of hands-on fun.
Home Run Derby - This looks like tons of fun. Stand in line, you get selected to participate, and then you participate in a home run derby against other fans. If you’re there at the right time, you may catch some coaching from the Braves players or coaches.
Terry Pendleton and Matt Diaz give tips to youngsters before a Home Run Derby.
The Tomahawk Team - Yes, they’re there in full force, looking pretty and handing stuff out. I landed a T-Shirt during the Heavy Hitters performance.
We mostly just wanted an excuse to post a picture of the Braves Beauties.
More to come tomorrow - we’ll be on location the whole day. If you see one of us in a BravesBlast T-shirt and toting a camera around, say hi! We’ll hook you up with an entry for the Kelly Johnson baseball. Have fun at FanFest - hope to see you there!
Posted in FanFest |
By Sheryl on Jan 13, 2008 | Reply
I would have to say I give it a “6″ at best—the other stuff was great but with only 2 autograph stations it was next to impossible to get through the line more than once. I think they need to change the autograph stations to how they did them previously…at least you have a change of getting those you would like to have instead of waiting in line for 5 hours to wind up with Charlie Leibrandt or getting someone you already had.
And with all the ones that were around me in line the feelings were pretty mutual. Lots of unhappy campers in that area.
I do think the interaction between the young kids and players was definitely a plus!
Thanks for your reporting. I’ll be there again today!
Better get a move-on!
Sheryl