The Cullman Hamfest is a four hour hamfest held on a Saturday morning each July. This year (as in recent years) it was held at the Cullman Fairgrounds, in one of the ag buildings, which is an un-airconditioned concrete block structure. As hot as that sounds, just read on...
The Cullman club borrows swamp fans, and put them around the hamfest area. These are five-foot tall fans that have water circulating through them, and they keep the area pretty comfortable. We were dressed for the weather, and it never got overly warm. Kudos to the club for making that effort!
The story on the venue is that they used to have the hamfest in the local civic center, it was torn down, and the fairgrounds was the only affordable place available. Hams being resourceful folks, the host club really made a silk purse out of a potential sow's ear, and hosted a fine hamfest at the fairgrounds.
The location was open Friday afternoon for vendor setup, which we took advantage of, and then had dinner at Taqueria Las Cebollitas, the most authentic Mexican restaurant we've seen north of the border. Excellent food and service, it's well worth the visit.
Vendor doors opened around 6:30 Saturday morning, and by 8:00 the place was packed with hams. We got to see a lot of friends, such as world-famous Clif Homan, KK4PKR.
The hamfest was a lot of fun, and well worth the trip. It's a three hour drive from Starkville, so we eneded up making a six hour round trip for a four hour hamfest, but it was worth it. We'll be back next year!
