FanFest Recap

Written by Colin on January 14, 2008 – 10:51 am

It’s time for our comprehensive review of this year’s FanFest.  We went both days, spent significant time participating in activities, and yes, Rue wants me to mention, once again, that she got her picture made with Buddy Carlyle, even though the rest of the BravesBlast staff can’t quite figure out the obsession.  So after many hours spent, we feel we can offer our opinion on FanFest and the craziness within.


The Good:

The interactive activities.  Seeing John Smoltz and Sid Bream pitch batting practice to little leaguers, and watching kids running sprints, hitting batting practice, playing home run derbies, and testing their throwing arm had to be the highlight of yesterday.  The lines moved relatively quickly and I think everyone could have gotten in on this action.

(click on the picture to enlarge)

  • The Photo Booth.  This line moved quickly as well.  Only downside here is that you had no way of knowing which player you’d end up taking a picture with.
  • Running into friends.  We met McCann’s Cans and a couple fans of the site (and friends on MySpace).

The Bad:

  • The autograph stations.  There weren’t enough of them and they were poorly managed.  Only Sunday did we receive a sheet mentioning who would be autographing at which stand - and even then it didn’t include times.  With only two stands, the lines were bad even with the smaller crowd yesterday.

The Ugly:

Lines on Saturday were downright nasty.  Sunday was significantly better than Sunday, but the number of people in that building on Saturday was absolutely outrageous.  There need to be more autograph stations to spread the crowd out.  When you see people standing in line by a “5 hours from this point” sign - at an event that is only open for 7 hours - it’s a little bit sad that they’ll spend most of the event waiting for an autograph - and it may be Jair Jurrjens, who may be a great guy, but he’s not Smoltz or Glavine


Posted in FanFest, General |

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