The 2011 Seattle Old Bike Swap Meet, our 23rd consecutive year for this event,will be held again this year on our traditional date, the last Sunday in March (Sunday, March 27th)
This year the event will be held in a new location at the Meridian Park Elementary School in Shoreline, Washington.
The change of venue from the old location is due to the fact that the National Guard Armory in Kent, Washington, which has been our home for well over ten years, has added training and drill dates to their calendar and the building is unavailable for rent until July of this year. In light of the situation, several collectors joined the event organizer to find a suitable location to make sure our now 23 year-old event would not lose a year. Several new locations were considered, and my wife, Laurie, chased the paperwork on two of them and secured the Meridian Park School location for us.
The 2011 location should work well. We have plenty of outdoor space available for those who prefer it and the use of the school cafeteria for those who would like to vend from a heated indoor location. The indoor spaces will be 8’ x 8’ and outdoor vending space, in addition to parking lot spaces, will also include covered walkways so outdoor vendors will have cover in case of rain - which was not possible at Kent.
The location itself is in the city of Shoreline, which is essentially the northern extension of metropolitan Seattle and is about twenty five miles north of our old Kent location. Meridian Park Elementary is just one long block west of the 175th street exit (exit 176) from I-5 so access is very direct and easy from the freeway. For vendors coming from north of Seattle the drive should be a bit shorter than it has been and for those coming from the south it will be about a half hour longer.
While our hobby is somewhat self contained, it is likely that this location, along with the added promotion we intend to post and distribute this year, will attract a larger crowd of interested buyers from the lightweight collecting crowd and general public. We have plans in place to do extensive event advertising between now and March 27.
I will have the indoor floor plan and the associated space cost set by this coming Tuesday. To make everyone’s lives easier, we are setting up online registration and payment through PayPal and will have that information for you on Tuesday as well. You will still be able to download and mail a registration form if you wish.
To facilitate answering questions and handling vendor registration I have opened a gmail account: [email protected] to keep all event specific email inquiries in one location.
This year the event will be held in a new location at the Meridian Park Elementary School in Shoreline, Washington.
The change of venue from the old location is due to the fact that the National Guard Armory in Kent, Washington, which has been our home for well over ten years, has added training and drill dates to their calendar and the building is unavailable for rent until July of this year. In light of the situation, several collectors joined the event organizer to find a suitable location to make sure our now 23 year-old event would not lose a year. Several new locations were considered, and my wife, Laurie, chased the paperwork on two of them and secured the Meridian Park School location for us.
The 2011 location should work well. We have plenty of outdoor space available for those who prefer it and the use of the school cafeteria for those who would like to vend from a heated indoor location. The indoor spaces will be 8’ x 8’ and outdoor vending space, in addition to parking lot spaces, will also include covered walkways so outdoor vendors will have cover in case of rain - which was not possible at Kent.
The location itself is in the city of Shoreline, which is essentially the northern extension of metropolitan Seattle and is about twenty five miles north of our old Kent location. Meridian Park Elementary is just one long block west of the 175th street exit (exit 176) from I-5 so access is very direct and easy from the freeway. For vendors coming from north of Seattle the drive should be a bit shorter than it has been and for those coming from the south it will be about a half hour longer.
While our hobby is somewhat self contained, it is likely that this location, along with the added promotion we intend to post and distribute this year, will attract a larger crowd of interested buyers from the lightweight collecting crowd and general public. We have plans in place to do extensive event advertising between now and March 27.
I will have the indoor floor plan and the associated space cost set by this coming Tuesday. To make everyone’s lives easier, we are setting up online registration and payment through PayPal and will have that information for you on Tuesday as well. You will still be able to download and mail a registration form if you wish.
To facilitate answering questions and handling vendor registration I have opened a gmail account: [email protected] to keep all event specific email inquiries in one location.
