The Corinth Hamfest (previously called the April Fool's Hamfest) is usually held on the first weekend of April, to coincide with April Fool's Day. This year (2024) there was a major conflict due to the ripple effect of a scheduling mistake at the Bartlett Municipal Center. How does an error in Bartlett, TN effect a hamfest way over in Corinth? Turns out, it's pretty easy to do.
The Memphis Freefest is held each year in the Bartlett Municipal Center in Bartlett, TN, in May. This is a huge, well-attended hamfest. When the Bartlett government person in charge of scheduling the Municipal Center scheduled a different event on top of the Freefest, the Freefest folks had to scramble for an alternate date, and they ended up on the first Saturday of April. This, of course, unintentionally created problems for the Corinth hamfest, and the ripple effect rolled into place.
Not to be stymied by a scheduling error in Tennessee, Harold Bullard pulled together some folks and held the Corinth Hamfest on April 27, and did a stellar job of putting the show together.
This year's Corinth hamfest had more vendors and more attendees than I have seen in a long time, and they gave away an Icom 7300 as a grand prize. The hamfest was Saturday only, and lasted until 3:00 PM in the building behind the Crossroads Arena. The barbeque truck (I forget the name of it) served some really fabulous, rich, thick BBQ sandwiches for less than one would pay in a roadside BBQ joint. Coffee flowed all morning. Miss Diane was there with her pecan pies. The A/C worked well, and it was a really good show.
I think Corinth has found the hamfest formula that works, and we hope they stick with it in the future. We'll be back for certain!
