The Year Without a Breyerfest

It's official -- the Kentucky-based celebration of all things model horse known as Breyerfest is cancelled as a destination event, and is being hurriedly redesigned as a virtual on-line event.

This is the announcement that went out everywhere on Monday morning:

While I haven't been following much of the reaction to the announcement in model horse social media, most of the responses I have seen have been fairly positive.  There hasn't been a noticeable weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.  In part, I believe this is because most people were expecting something like this to happen.  It also may be that folks have come to realize that, in the grand scheme of things, not having Breyerfest is one of the most trivial of "first world problems."

Long time collectors will tell you that they got on just fine without Breyerfest for many, many years.  Even I had been collecting for almost four years before the first Breyerfest was announced, and I did not actually get to attend Breyerfest until 10 years after that.  And I'm an exception among my friends.  Most of the other collectors I know well have never been to Breyerfest at all.

And in a way the world has never been better suited to virtual festivities than it is right now.  With the incredible spread of on-line access, the continual improvements being made in social media, and the general public's comfort level with using computers, we can get together during this lock-down in ways that would have been the envy of past generations.

And Breyer will, fortunately, have similar virtual events to model itself on.  The Seattle Soiree, for one, is sure to be a dress rehearsal for Virtual Breyerfest.  Other companies are also going digital with their destination events -- the one that leaps to my mind since it starts in a couple of days is Turner Classic Movies' Classic Film Festival, which has gone from a huge movie buff get-together in Hollywood to what they're calling a "Special Home Edition" on-line event.  I'm pretty sure Breyer will be tracking the success of events like this one to get some ideas on how to make a Virtual Breyerfest the best that it can be. 

Like many others facing this news, I'm now trying to decide whether or not to buy a ticket in order to get into the on-line line-up for Special Run and Store Special models.  It's a toughie.  The early bird prices expire very soon, and even if I were to make a decision today, do I really want to spend almost $90 U.S. for the chance to buy a $60 to $85 U.S. model?  If the Celebration horse was something I needed the decision would be a bit easier, but I already have one Show Jumper I'm in love with and I just don't have the room to add any more.  The on-line workshops do hold some attraction, but they may still cost extra and most of the rest of the stuff that comes with the ticket, like the diorama contest, I'm just not prepared for.

I suspect I'm not alone in my quandry.  Breyer will be trying hard to get out some info about how the Virtual Breyerfest will work by the end of this month, so despite the early bird discount I'll probably put off making a decision until then.

In the meantime, I still have all my Collector Club Grab Bag horses to play with, and the Collector Club Appreciation horse to come some time in May.  That's almost Breyerfest enough for me.