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Louisville Off Road Expo

Seen this little guy at the show earlier and he wanted to sign us some posters because he drove a mini monster truck. Seen him at Hard Rock and we went up and told him we were big fans and would like to get pictures with him. Good to see kids like this.
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Didn't get to make it to 4th Street last night due to having to be at work early Sunday morning. Had a good time at the show but I think it was a little smaller this year than last. Appeared to have a few less vendors. Still a good time and I was able to get a few questions answered by some of the vendors.

We we to the River Raid Friday evening at Waterfront Park and it was a good time. There were a lot of rigs there and the weather was awesome. I really hope they do it again next year. I didn't tow my rig down there because I was not sure what the logistics were gonna be but I will next year if they do it again. If you had a ticket to the Expo, you got 2 free craft beers and a meal from a food truck. You also got an entry to the give-a-ways at the end of the night. They gave out a bunch of stuff. Tons of gift certificates, several sets of wheels, BFG tires, a Superwinch, and a Warn Zeon winch. Good times were had.

The wife took a bunch of pics here are a couple.
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Great pictures! This is the only expo I've missed, so was it that much smaller than last year?
 
poolman said:
Great pictures! This is the only expo I've missed, so was it that much smaller than last year?

It wasn't a huge difference in size. I just noticed that it seems as though there weren't as many vendors this year as last. I know of at least two vendors that had large booths last year and didn't have any booths at all this year(one of those is a fairly large and well known local shop). Not sure why, just something I noticed. It also seems like the outside vendor area was lacking a little also. They did have a monster truck ride for the kids which was pretty cool(at $10 a person and a very short ride it seemed pricey to me) and a chassis dyno($80 for 3 pulls). They also didn't have the outside Food/Beer garden area which was disappointing.

The obstacle course seemed a little better this year but the racing was very limited. Seems they are catering more to the folks that want to get out and drive the BFG Jeep's or their mall crawler on the course. Not that that is a bad thing but there isn't as much excitement for the fans. I am sure I am very uninformed on the subject but I think they are more concerned about what the vendors want than what the visitors want. Seems backwards to me. I understand that without the visitors, the vendors would not be there and without the vendors, the visitors would not be there but isn't the idea to attract more people every year(both visitors and vendors).

This is still a cool show and I will continue to go back. I don't think I will ever go more than one day unless they come up with more to offer. I hope this year does not start a trend of shrinking. I will go to the after parties because that is a good time and you get the chance to win a bunch of cool stuff. I did win a Windrock year pass at the River Raid Friday night and can't wait for temps to cool off so I can put it to use.
 
I was there with a buddy Friday and until about 1 on Saturday. I have gone every year and thought the numbers were down this year too. There seemed to be less vendors. Also, last year the little parking lot between the expo hall and the offroad course was packed with Show and Shine rigs. There were a lot of nice looking rigs out there last year. This year it was about a quarter of the size. I'm not a JK hater, but that seemed to be the common theme this year. I'm amazed at how you can build a pretty badass JK and never pick up a welder. The aftermarket has really made it easy to upgrade them to a pretty capable vehicle if you've got the $$$.
 
I was involved with the show and shine last year with my little harley powered buggy and it ended up being very disorganized and ran poorly. Several of the entrants said they wouldn't come back next year. I believe that and canceling the cavern ride last year really hurt attendance this year.
 
yankster said:
I was involved with the show and shine last year with my little harley powered buggy and it ended up being very disorganized and ran poorly. Several of the entrants said they wouldn't come back next year. I believe that and canceling the cavern ride last year really hurt attendance this year.

I agree completely! I have not been involved in the show and shine but I did notice how disorganized it has been and I would say that is a direct reflection of the turnout.

Cancelling the ride last year really gave them a bad look. They took donations for two days last year from everyone who wanted to participate in the ride only to cancel it for unlicensed vehicles at the last minute(public safety was cited as the reason due to storms moving through the area). Not a big deal for the JK/mall crawler crowd but it really pissed off a bunch of people that went out of their way to get their rigs/SxS to the show. I have several friends that ride rzr's that swear to never go back. They have also told their friends to not go back.

I really hope they can recover because I think we need this kind of thing on our side of the country. I really enjoy seeing and talking with the vendors, checking out the new innovations, and hanging with my wheelin buddies all in a one stop shop.
 
Never been to the Expo but here's my .02. In years past my social media has been inundated with Expo related advertisements and promos leading up to the event. This year I literally did not see a single advertisement and had no clue it was even this weekend until I started to see friends posting about heading up to Louisville around Thursday/Friday on my facebook timeline. Take that for whatever it is worth.
 
redneckengineered said:
Never been to the Expo but here's my .02. In years past my social media has been inundated with Expo related advertisements and promos leading up to the event. This year I literally did not see a single advertisement and had no clue it was even this weekend until I started to see friends posting about heading up to Louisville around Thursday/Friday on my facebook timeline. Take that for whatever it is worth.
X2. The only reason I knew anything at all about it was because I had just text Enzo last week and he mentioned it.
 
redneckengineered said:
Never been to the Expo but here's my .02. In years past my social media has been inundated with Expo related advertisements and promos leading up to the event. This year I literally did not see a single advertisement and had no clue it was even this weekend until I started to see friends posting about heading up to Louisville around Thursday/Friday on my facebook timeline. Take that for whatever it is worth.

I agree and made the same observation. Even talked to a few people who also agreed about the lack of advertisement. This year the same group held an expo in Texas in March. I have a feeling that the energy put in to the Texas show left the Louisville show lacking. They seemed to advertise that show a ton leading up to it but I saw very little info on the Louisville show until the week before. I think they are spreading themselves too thin and it showed!
 
I enjoyed the show, I had never been, but to me it also seemed smaller than I was expecting.

Lots of stuff to see but it got a little redundant with the same kinds of stuff on display.

I would defiantly go back but not for the whole weekend anyway, we went up Thursday and came home on Sunday. Went to the race track Thursday night and that was pretty cool, at Churchill Downs.
Went to river raid Fri night, but missed out on the free beer and food somehow. Lol


I also seen someone with a HL shirt on with his wife and kid, I had mine on but just hated to walk up to a stranger as I don't know many on here personally, if you seen me I was the guy with one arm..........

I'm sure you guys just didn't want to point that out on the forum. :rolf:
 
The Luke said:
X2. The only reason I knew anything at all about it was because I had just text Enzo last week and he mentioned it.

You must not follow us on Facebook or watch any of our Youtube Videos. Been advertising the Expo for months. Either that or Facebook just doesnt want you to see
 
I definitely watch yalls stuff. But it just doesn't seem like as much as last year. I dunno.
 
Re:

I didn't see a single advertisement for it till last week before the expo

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