Hawkesbury Flea Fair June 1-2, 2019 - Official Thread

[Azatotht]

I'm glad you all had fun.

June first was my daughter's dance show as usual and I had to drive her to the practice around 11 and pick her back at 2PM for eventually being back there at 6:30 for the show itself.

Well done Chris !

[Dave W.]

Just got home and am unpacking tools and my pin.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered their time, brought machines, and sold parts... made it all come together really nicely.
Great way to kick off the Summer

[Blackghost4]

I would like to thank Chris for this wonderful event. You did a great job. I would also like to thank Warlock for the great tournament and Rob for taking my boards for repair.
Had a great time.

[cap]

And to top it off, My 11 year old son won the tournament!!!

I saw your son play the first 30 sec of his game on my Stargate and I was very impressed.
I'm glad it was not just a fluke and he is truly as talented as I thought.

[Woody]

Super pinball week-end, special thanks to Chris to make it possible.

[geester]

Another great weekend for the memory bank! Thanks Chris and everyone involved!

[nostalgiaqc]

Another great weekend for the memory bank! Thanks Chris and everyone involved!

THX everyone for making this happen ,it was a success once again,loved the place and ppl.
It felt good to disconnect from Everyday life once again.

Nice to see you all and BTW Geester your a great Photograph.
Cheers
Yan

Chris doin a quick fix

[cait001]

Thanks for bringing out some great games.

The following games were the nicest examples I had EVER played:
Centaur
Stargate
Getaway

New discoveries that I hope to check out again the future:
Pink Panther
Lucky Ace
Black Knight: SoR

[R.A.B.]

Thank You Chris !!

What a fun event this was, largely thanks to your vision. I reckon you were basing yourself on the first Hawksbury event back in 2015 as you began planning how this gig was going to go down in 2019. Back to basics, and back to the very real Olympia Bowl. Correct me if I am wrong, but you likely thought that it was time to go back to what felt good rather than trying to maintain something much more publicized, logistically complicated, and loaded with expectations. Hype and expectations are rarely good in my book, and the combination of the two basically amount to some bullshit or other that the new dumb generally ride on mainly due to a lack of personal vision based in experience. This makes them very unoriginal every time they do something by choosing actions generally stemming from the numerous opinions of others they don't even know on a one to one basis. It inevitably gets messy and repetitive. Acting on hype, expectations and the opinions of strangers is simply pure folly to me. Your own experience will always have more clout in specific cases like this, because this is your gig, you know the ropes, the ins and outs, and in the end it is an expression of who you are. It is all about taking the helm and growing into the responsibility for your choices.

But this is a new & brave reality for many. Making decisions based largely on the floating opinions of almost anyone with a facebook account and looking at the amount of followers they have managed to lure as some sort of measure of how valuable their opinion is a sure path to the ordinary. Hell, not every knowledgeable person posts on facebook, and nobody knows everything about anything, in fact it is likely that the least thoughtful of the general population which are the ones making the most noise, in fact they are a very large majority, so I guess it makes sense in a democracy to at least hear them and surely use them for profit, that is what "the man" does. Yet it seems difficult for many to think clearly for themselves when the approval of others rules what they will do and becomes pivotal to their decision making. Ok, so let them eat cake, says the man. Most of these morons will eventually self-destruct, maybe fall off a cliff, or get run over by a freight train while posting their professional opinion about seeing a black bear from a mini van at a crossroads, or when taking a picture of their last meal just before getting killed by a rhinoceros. Let's leave all that to evolution to take care of. People who can't find the nearest hospital in their hometown without a gps, or do anything more complicated without the use of a cell phone to guide them, will eventually be served, but for now they are led down the path that the powers that happen to be want them to walk on, in line and on line. Those who can not command themselves will be commanded. Jesus, where was I ? - wait let me look at my phone, oh yeah....

So the decision to go back to what felt good four years ago and recapture those good feelings was a wise decision. You are the anglo version of a “bon vivant” and that is why I like you so much. You decided that having fun and seeing people smile instead of sweating while moving 100 machines was more important to the community than walking your cock about how big the show was. Machine count and hype was less important this time around and that personally suits me just fine. Bravo !!

Seeing everyone and my older collector buddies and just doing whatever felt right made it a different type of show. I am still tried from all the commotion, but not a zombie like tired, a happy tired.

This was a different kind of success Chris, be proud.

Hugs,

Rob

[Honey Badger]

Thanks Chris, Scott and everyone in between. Congrats to Carter!!!

[Chris Silver]

Good morning everyone,

What a wonderful moment. From what I know of, everybody had a good time. A few people have asked me if I was enjoying myself and I wasn't completely sure until I knew all turned out well. I had a great time.

I've mentioned before - I'm not the best player or the best tech. I don't have a large collection or the best machines. Oddly, I'm not the most social enthusiast nor do I know the history of pinball in depth, but the one thing I can do is fabricate a time and a place for all those people to get together to design their own event and create fantastic memories for all. Its my gift back to the community.

I want to thank everyone who participated. It was so much fun. If it wasn't for you the Hawkesbury Flea fair wouldn't exist. On a side note some gifts came my way. Realistically I don't really need, expect or want anything. The items themselves weren't necessarily what put a smile on my face, it was the fact that I made people happy enough to want to give me a "smile I could hold in my hand". I have some amazing keepsakes and they are all super cool.

Everything aside, we have pictures, Jason's fantastic video and certain memories burned into our minds for the rest of our lives. If we keep doing this I might be able to build my social skills and kick some asses at pinball. I'll shut up now. Thanks again everyone. I did have a great time.

See you all in Ottawa this fall.

[WARLOCK]

This was a very well run and relaxed event which I enjoyed.

Thanks to Chris for running a great event and for all the great hospitality.
Thanks to everyone who helped out, brought games and parts and participated.
Thanks to Michel from Player 1 for bringing us Black Knight - Sword of Rage to play.
Thanks to Walt for setting up event submission + the computer portion of the tournament in advance for us.
Thanks to Sparky for repairing and bringing my C-37, Algar and Gorgar and having them play so well for us in the tournament. Much appreciated.
Thanks to Laney, Mike, Megan, Craig and Cait as well as anyone else I might have missed for assisting with entering scores and helping out in the tournament.

Big congrats to Carter who played so well and won the whole tournament.

It was great seeing everyone and I am looking forward to the Ottawa show next.
All the very best everyone. More soon.

[djodars]

Thanks for organizing this event, we didn't have a lot of time on our hands unfortunately but I got to meet Robert, Scott and Sylvain and play a few games (that getaway is in godlike condition btw, blew my mind. ) Looking forward to the next event!

Edit: Special thanks to Scott who made buying my first machine so easy and enjoyable. It's sitting nicely in the basement and I'll start working on it soon. Pics to follow

[cdnpinballer]

To the guy who walked off with my Taxi Spinout Ramp please get in touch for payment.

Thanks

Update on this I was contacted and have settled this issue. Honest mistake all is well that ends well. Thanks!

[Chris Silver]

To the guy who walked off with my Taxi Spinout Ramp please get in touch for payment.

Thanks

Update on this I was contacted and have settled this issue. Honest mistake all is well that ends well. Thanks!

Great news and an easy misunderstanding. Now the weekend was fantastic and someone has a ramp to better his machine.

[cait001]

To the guy who walked off with my Taxi Spinout Ramp please get in touch for payment.

Thanks

Update on this I was contacted and have settled this issue. Honest mistake all is well that ends well. Thanks!

Great news and an easy misunderstanding. Now the weekend was fantastic and someone has a ramp to better his machine.

Next time we'll have the "free" table a bit removed from everyone else's stuff. On that note, was so happy that so much random stuff on the free table found homes!