VA Bigfoot Conference June 26th-27th 2021

[SwiftWater]

Went to the convention today. Was not able to make it yesterday as I spent it with family.

 

This was my first Bigfoot conference, so I have nothing to compare it to. Also, I attended the second day of a two day event so I missed out on much of the headliner activity. I have not had a direct interaction with Bigfoot and my status is I am open to the idea of Bigfoot existing, have seen and experienced things in the woods while hiking and hunting that are typically attributed to Bigfoot, have started to journal and record these experiences, but I'm not a complete believer. I went in hoping to learn more about Bigfoot hunting, activities on the East Coast, and just in general useful things.

 

First impressions: The event is held at the New Hope Community Center. New Hope is a tiny rural town that is about ten to fifteen minutes from larger population areas. Small, mostly farming area. The community center was built probably between WWI and WWII and it shows. The building is fairly rundown, no running hot water, they were using a 50" tv as a viewing screen for the movies, etc, and a karaoke machine as a loudspeaker. Folding chair seating for approx 130ppl. Vendors were a mix of Bigfoot related and crafty stuff like concealed carry purses and tie dyed hair. There were about 30ppl there to listen to the speakers when I started and about 50ppl when I left.

 

The event was not sold out. Tickets were available at the door for $15. Sunday they had also heavily discounted their t-shirts.

 

The She Squatchers still had a table there day two and were talking to people. A lot of their belief seems to come from the idea that everything has a frequency to it and that they are attuned to the BF frequency. As noted above they also believe that BF is attuned more to female interactions and no firearms in the woods.

 

The Squatch Watchers were supposed to start at 11am. I believe it was about 11:25 when they finally got started with their "presentation". I use quotes because, as they said, they had no script, no video clips, nada prepared in advance. It seemed their hope was to get the audience talking about their own experiences, which fell fairly flat. So, they finally talked about some of their stuff which was meh and sprinkled with lots of "you can see this on our YouTube". They seemed to be highly against any sort of debunking and convinced that no creature in North Carolina with sharp claws can open a pickle jar (spoiler alert, black bears are more than capable of doing so). They devolved into talking about their latest gadget, a spirit box, with the belief that it allows them to communicate with Bigfoot and that one of them is also attuned to the BF frequency that the She Squatchers are into. And there was something about a UFO. I got up to stretch my legs (had sat through an hour of their presentation) and had the hope that they would stick to the schedule and let Zach make his presentation. Came back about 10min later and the Watchers were still at it with their presentation now sounding more like a church revival meeting talking about how if you go BF hunting without having a relationship with God that you are running the serious risk of getting fucked up. Yeah..at that point I gave up on the conference and heeded the call of a brewery I knew down the road with a pretty decent blonde ale.

 

I think Saturday would have been more interesting....I also think it would have been murder to park.

 

TLDR: 2nd day of this conference was boring and heavily into the paranormal woo side of Bigfoot. It wasn't well structured, ran late, and otherwise didn't feel well run. If you were a skeptic to start this conference would do nothing to sway you to believe in BF nor would it add any sort of validity to the efforts of researchers.

[Arvedis]

1 hour ago, SwiftWater said:

Went to the convention today. Was not able to make it yesterday as I spent it with family.

 

This was my first Bigfoot conference, so I have nothing to compare it to. Also, I attended the second day of a two day event so I missed out on much of the headliner activity. I have not had a direct interaction with Bigfoot and my status is I am open to the idea of Bigfoot existing, have seen and experienced things in the woods while hiking and hunting that are typically attributed to Bigfoot, have started to journal and record these experiences, but I'm not a complete believer. I went in hoping to learn more about Bigfoot hunting, activities on the East Coast, and just in general useful things.

 

First impressions: The event is held at the New Hope Community Center. New Hope is a tiny rural town that is about ten to fifteen minutes from larger population areas. Small, mostly farming area. The community center was built probably between WWI and WWII and it shows. The building is fairly rundown, no running hot water, they were using a 50" tv as a viewing screen for the movies, etc, and a karaoke machine as a loudspeaker. Folding chair seating for approx 130ppl. Vendors were a mix of Bigfoot related and crafty stuff like concealed carry purses and tie dyed hair. There were about 30ppl there to listen to the speakers when I started and about 50ppl when I left.

 

The event was not sold out. Tickets were available at the door for $15. Sunday they had also heavily discounted their t-shirts.

 

The She Squatchers still had a table there day two and were talking to people. A lot of their belief seems to come from the idea that everything has a frequency to it and that they are attuned to the BF frequency. As noted above they also believe that BF is attuned more to female interactions and no firearms in the woods.

 

The Squatch Watchers were supposed to start at 11am. I believe it was about 11:25 when they finally got started with their "presentation". I use quotes because, as they said, they had no script, no video clips, nada prepared in advance. It seemed their hope was to get the audience talking about their own experiences, which fell fairly flat. So, they finally talked about some of their stuff which was meh and sprinkled with lots of "you can see this on our YouTube". They seemed to be highly against any sort of debunking and convinced that no creature in North Carolina with sharp claws can open a pickle jar (spoiler alert, black bears are more than capable of doing so). They devolved into talking about their latest gadget, a spirit box, with the belief that it allows them to communicate with Bigfoot and that one of them is also attuned to the BF frequency that the She Squatchers are into. And there was something about a UFO. I got up to stretch my legs (had sat through an hour of their presentation) and had the hope that they would stick to the schedule and let Zach make his presentation. Came back about 10min later and the Watchers were still at it with their presentation now sounding more like a church revival meeting talking about how if you go BF hunting without having a relationship with God that you are running the serious risk of getting ****** up. Yeah..at that point I gave up on the conference and heeded the call of a brewery I knew down the road with a pretty decent blonde ale.

 

I think Saturday would have been more interesting....I also think it would have been murder to park.

 

TLDR: 2nd day of this conference was boring and heavily into the paranormal woo side of Bigfoot. It wasn't well structured, ran late, and otherwise didn't feel well run. If you were a skeptic to start this conference would do nothing to sway you to believe in BF nor would it add any sort of validity to the efforts of researchers.

 

 

Thanks for the on scene report Swift!  I saw a clip of the stream and it seemed to be a pretty low key event. Maybe the old building and echo with the sound had something to do with it. These DIY events are hit or miss. Glad people were able to get out and mingle. Some of the vendors travel far for these events. I always confuse the she-squatchers with another female biogfooter team. These ladies come from the midwest so they must feel some kind of commitment to doing this.  I think paranormal investigators in bigfootery is here to stay, always has been. Personally, I don't mind the mix of speakers. It all depends on what else I find and the people I run into at these events. Maybe the west virginia event had the better idea of including music to pick things up a bit.

 

 

Edited June 27, 2021 by Arvedis

[SasquatchTheLeg]

On 4/8/2021 at 4:22 PM, Arvedis said:

 

If you go, I'm sure this board would be interested in hearing your feedback. In looking over the speaker list, no one seems familiar to me. I'm wondering if they are mostly local researchers.

YES was it a good one ? it was just out of the Range of even my Alabama Clan..  we missed it 

[Arvedis]

Here are some photos with funky music: