Kathy Kallestad, Garrison

My husband and I were very disappointed in the Hostfest this year.

#1 — It started out with the fact that the only way to get in was to have your Ticketmaster ticket on your phone. 

#2 — $5 to park. NEVER have we had to pay to park for the Hostfest.

#3 — No buses to shuttle people in OR out. We walked 1/2 mile in and we got there in the morning, so we were closer to the All Seasons Arena than most folks who came after us.  We can’t imagine what that was like for older/hard to get around people. They were using golf carts they said! We walked out the doors at 8 p.m. Friday night to head for the parking lot and our vehicle.  There were 5 golf carts lined up so we thought we got lucky and had a ride.  Then they all drove off, empty, and were done for the night! A quarter of our 1/2 mile walk to our vehicle was DARK because the street lights weren’t on!

#4 — There was a whole lot less area as the “Troll Stroll” that used to go down to Copenhagen Hall was eliminated.

#5 — The free stages had very limited time slots and not nearly enough seating. All of the free stages are always good entertainment but space was very limited at the better attended entertainers with very poor acoustics. 

It’s sad because we have always enjoyed the Hostfest, but we aren’t sure if we’ll be back.