This was in my inbox today:
Due to changes forced on us by Ripken Stadium, which unilaterally took our "regular" dates that we've had for the past 6 years, the Rally Committee met yesterday to make adjustments.
We now will have the Rally the FOURTH weekend of May instead of the 2nd.
The Rally website has been adjusted to reflect this.
Ripken has a High School baseball series that same weekend and has imposed parking changes on us.
We have "lost" rows A-B-C from Vendor spaces to general vehicle parking but have gained use of the "VIP" lot for parking on Saturday which we did not have previously.
General parking will be "1st Come, 1st Served"
We will also be using the large school lot across Rt.22 and running a Shuttle Bus for public parking.
Due to the forced space changes, we will have to make some changes for vendors and food locations. These will be published in the M/V mags and ECR Website as part of the Vendor Registration form.
We are establishing a "Large Vendor" area, which means preference for those getting two (maybe three) or more spaces to allow these "serious" vendors who earn their living by vending to be "clustered", so some are no longer separated by big empty spaces of people who get only one space, usually just for convenient parking, and show up only one day, which put some of our larger "serious" vendors at a disadvantage.
This Large Vendor area will be in the Purple and Green areas, starting with Row D and going down to the new Display Area which used to be General Parking.
For those "Large Vendors" who have had spaces in these areas (Purple & Green) previously, we will try to let them have preference for their previous spaces if possible but we have to reserve our right to adjust spaces as needed.
It appears now that the Food Area will be about midway in the Yellow Area.
We are looking at other areas for the ECR for 2010 on but nothing is even seriously being considered as yet. We have to get through 09 first.
We'll keep everyone updated as we move through this.
Sorry for the disruptions but we had no control of this unfortunate situation.
Please bear with us.
Thanks!
Tim Clark
VP, WAC/BG
ECR Chairman