East Alabama Gun & Hunting Show Now Under New Management

In 2018, a young entrepreneur and Auburn college student created a company called East Alabama Gun & Hunting Show with the sole purpose to bring a gun & knife show to the East Alabama area. Rumors were that there had not been a true gun show in that area in close to 20 years. This was a much needed thing in the area of East Alabama.

This person contacted the owners of a local event center which were a group of people that revamped what appeared to be an old grocery store and turned it into the Village Event Center where people from the area could rent it for events from Weddings to Christmas events to dances and all types of other events. Side Note: More building in Alabama & the South in general need to be done like this. Instead of leaving them sitting empty, re-purpose them and let's revitalize Alabama's lost business and help our small towns all over the South!

This was the perfect place for the East Alabama Gun & Hunting Event offering plenty of parking for not only vendor and their trailers but also buyers.

The Spring Event went off amazingly well and was successful and had tons of support from the local area as well as some great sponsors. He could not have done it without initial help and start up from the Gun Show Vendors of the South that had already been doing shows close by for years they gave this new show a chance and people came from all over the tri-county area and the support showed with incredible sales.

So, this entrepreneur scheduled a Fall show. Come Fall 2018, this new promoter did the unthinkable and raised the rates for the show vendors; the same people that helped make the original show successful. He started to charge spectators to bring in their own guns to sell; we were told $5/ gun which is absurd. During our investigation we were advised he didn’t spend money on advertising like had on the Spring show and lost out on the majority of his sponsors for one reason or another. The Fall show turned out to be the worse show of the year for many and countless vendors vowed to never return. Even before the show was over vendors were talking pretty loudly that they either wanted their money back or they wanted another promoter to step in and take over the area. When you treat your vendors wrong, I guarantee you they will spread the word about it!

By February 2019, the word must have gotten around to the young College Entrepreneur vendors would no longer support him and show vendors started getting emails and phone calls from the Village Event Center who hosted the event that they were taking over the show from this former college student and he would have nothing more to do with the show and they would be running the show going forward. To be honest we also had our reservations and we had initially booked a Florida show and then changed it to give Opelika a chance. For the sake of clarity, I will be honest and say, some of my reservations about this show have to do with football, as I was scared that any promoter hosting a Gun & Knife Show on the same day as a SEC College Auburn (or Alabama) A-Day is crazy; especially hosting one in the same town as the college/game. However Spring 2018 the show was amazing, so let's see what this new promoter will bring to the table.

Spring 2019 East Alabama Gun & Hunting Show is in under new management and promises to be better than ever and we were informed it will be as the name implies, more of a true Gun & Hunting show; this is what was lacking in the previous show. You can bet things will be drastically different and one show you will not want to miss. If you are in East Alabama I encourage you to give it another try and let's all support the Village Event Center in the en devours to pull off what the predecessor could not. Speaking as a fellow vendor attending the show we need your support and would love to see our friends and fans come out too see us and all the vendors and give this show a chance. The show will take place all day Saturday 9am-5pm and Sunday 10am-4pm Auburn A-Day does not start until 3PM, so make plans to come see the vendors and share in the experience at the Village Event Center this weekend in Opelika, Just minutes outside of Auburn, AL. You can still get to the game in time and make sure you come back on Sunday to see everyone. Make sure you stop by our booth EveryDay Preppers and check out all the new things we are bringing this year.

See Ya This Year, EDP

Please leave your comments below and let us kn ow what you think of this years show and we will be happy to forward it along to this promoter. God Bless and we hope we see you in Opelika this weekend Rain or Shine.

EDP