I beleive Hamfests are a traveling caravan of scam artists.
I have been over charged and lied to by long time, respected vendors.

The recent Tampabay hamfest had a raffle. It was printed on the ticket
"drawing 1:00 pm Sunday". I showed up and waited at the drawing location.
About 1:15 I tracked down the local official only to be told that they
decided
to have the drawing at noon!?

I asked, who won the radio? He pointed to a fellow working the booth
directly
behind the drawing area and called him by first name.

Considering the hundreds of (perhaps thousands) of attendees this seemed
VERY suspicious.

Don't give these traveling band of theives your money (nor the local outfit
who pimps for them).

The focus on getting to together to share and learn about our fun hobby is
almost non existent.
These events are only designed for one thing, to seperate you from your
money.