Pheasant Fest 2013 - 28,855 total attendees!

While the festivities at the Pheasant Fest banquet last night were a big hit with the attendees (see Dave Orrick’s article), day 3 proved to be a good day for snagging last minute deals on items before they were packed up and hauled back to the various locations they came from.

Happy customers and tired vendors were all that was left at 5pm as the mass exodus began. Trucks and trailers wrapped around the convention center as each vendor took their turn at the loading docks. Cart after cart wheeled by with merchandise and booth structure materials.

While vendors may have been tired, there were many comments complimentary of this year’s event. 28,855 was the 3 day total, (Bob St Pierre will be on next week’s radio to recap the event), and we can say that Saturday was huge. Aisles full of men, women and children, dressed in blaze orange craning and peering around every corner to take it all in.

Sunday’s crowd may have been a bit lighter, but they seemed more engaged. Mika made more friends and the Minnesota Sporting Journal gained a whole new legion of subscribers.

We’d like to thank our new readers for signing up and welcome anyone else who’d like to subscribe. ($18/1 year, $30/2 years).

This was our first Pheasant Fest and we met a number of people who all wanted to lend a hand and for that, we’re very grateful. If we met you there, we’d love to talk to you more, feel free to reach me at Bret@mnsportingjournal.com.

We were happy to catch up with some old friends like the Wilderness Land Improvement guys, Bank Brewing/Beer for Wildlife (Rooster Lager, Walleye Chop, Longbeard Winter Wheat and more), Radco, and some new ones from Hevi-Shot, South Dakota Tourism, Crazy Quail, Kruger Farms, Kansas Tourism, Minnesota Horse and Hunt Club, Prairie Restorations, Purina Pro Plan, Waterfowling Minnesota, MN Waterfowl Association, Joe’s Sporting Goods, Zoom Dog, The Sporting Trader, Aleutian Island Waterfowlers, Fort Knox Security Products, Rio Indio Eco-Lodge , Poodleshunting4u, SoundGear/Starkey, Thunderhook Fly-ins, Watson Hunting Camp and Dakota Screen Arts, and anyone else I may have missed!