Quote Originally Posted by Vypyrz View Post
I think there are two reasons that the Fall Raleigh show suffers: 1) scheduling, 2) competition.

For those who are not familiar with Raleigh, it is a major college city (Duke, Chapel Hill, Wake Forest, as well as, quite a few smaller colleges). The production company that puts on the Raleigh shows always schedules them for the same two weekends. the first weekend of May, and the first weekend of September (Labor Day). On Labor Day weekend, there is a large exodus of people out of Raleigh. They all head to the coast for the last big beach weekend of the year. I know, because my town gets overrun. And for those who stay in Raleigh for the weekend, there is a big music festival, as well as all of the "end of summer" parties.

In addition to all of the other things going on, competition from another production company seems to be having a big effect. It seems that the number of shows that Repticon puts on in the region has greatly increased over the last couple of years. They also changed the dates of the Fall Charlotte show from October to the last weekend of August, the week before the Raleigh show.

My opinion is, that it is this increase in the number of shows throughout the Southeast and Northeast that is reducing the overall quality of the shows as a whole, because alot of the vendors and customers, who would have travelled several hundred miles to attend a big show, now stay more local, because there will be shows that are closer to home. It seems that what has happened is, instead of a few big production shows each year, it has become more of a larger number of smaller, local shows. I wish it would go back to just a few big shows each year. More vendors, more people, more fun...
It has to do with the poor marketing of the Raleigh show promoters. I use to go to every Raleigh show and even with the weekends the Raleigh shows are on it was always packed. They made a big mistake moving the show from Dorton arena and also do no promote the show. Look at Repticon how they promote their shows, Facebook and social media. Look at Gila Productions facebook wall and their website, there is hardly any activity or change, just like their show. Heck, they do same seminars, same stage show every single year as they have for past 10 year and it is very old by now. Hardly any good vendor go to it any longer and with good reason. I was so surprised at the fall Raleigh show, they did not even promote their own New Orleans show and 2 weeks later were forced to cancel the show. On their website they claimed was due to health issue of show promoter but yet go to their bakery wall and you will see they were very active there. Sad to see what was once a great show flop as it has.