Big Fort Fest happened recently and I checked it out. We normally have a festival in Fort Wayne named "Three Rivers Festival" that went bankrupt this year, and this festival stepped up to try and replace it (and some other groups tried to replace stuff that was previously part of the festival too, like "heART in the Park" which replaces an "Art in the Park" art market that was previously just part of Three Rivers Festival. I think the new festival does an ok job at replicating some of the stuff; a big appeal of the original festival for me was "Junk Food Alley" which had a whole bunch of food stands on display and lots of festival foods; this one has "Big Fork Fest" which focuses on local food options, but it did still have funnel cake and elephant ears and "spiral spuds" but which was missing stuff like foot long hot dogs, deep fried Twinkies, and I'm not sure I even saw any ice cream there.

There was this really long unnecessary rules list at the entrance which is not mentioned on the website or any promotional material at all, so you can get totally surprised to walk up to it and find out that you can't bring in outside food or beverages and can't bring in bags or strollers or umbrellas or professional cameras or all sorts of things. In this weather it's dangerous to go outside without bringing water with you, but if you do that then you now have an outside beverage you can't bring in, and it's also dangerous to leave a drink unattended, so I just didn't bother to stop by when I was nearby on a bike ride or walk. I saw skateboarders walk up and get turned away because they had skateboards, when I imagine they really just wanted to go look around and maybe buy things. I can deal with all of that though.

There was also a flea market and that heART in the Park event; last year I found Rudolph for Wii, and this year I got a Beatles CD and a bunch of coasters. There's someone who sells coasters every year that have an nature theme with trees and stuff, and they're samey but I like getting them. There's always a bunch of CDs at these events but I don't recognize most of the bands or artists out there since I've only really looked into like, T-Square, or Nelward, or Vylet Pony. I did get a little guy. I saw video games at the flea market but they were stuff like Wii Play, Call of Duty, "Imagine" games for DS, sports games, etc. and I didn't see anything I wanted.

I think the festival made me realize that a big appeal of the original one was this big carnival section that was missing this time, with rides and games that I don't actually do but they made the ambiance great and made it feel like I was at a big event with lots of energy. And I think I was trying to make the festival into this big event to look forward to every year and it's not really good at being that, especially the new one. I need to set up an amusement park trip if I actually want that. But the art market was really comforting to visit again; it's always the same and I saw artists whose work I recognized.