Thanks Dan, I'm interested to read your experiences there.

Dan, I also look forward to hearing your perspective.

Hi there! I'm sorry for the delay, I've had a ton of homework lately. I guess "a little bit" meant more than a week... oops.

Groomporter pretty much hit the nail on the head.

The seminars, etc. have mostly stayed the same over the past couple years, but a few new ones are in the works as I understand it.... coupled with roughly the same vendors, its been a little on the stagnant-feeling side, but its worth it to network, shop around, and see friends. This is coming from someone who's been to almost all of them though

There isn't much snobbishness to be had, though there have been a handful of Jack Sparrow pirates and fantasy-type warriors that have attended in costume... Unfortunately one particular Jack Sparrow wannabe got interviewed for a Chicago News network there last year or so.... something I could've done without. That said, there were many fantastically well done real Golden Age of Piracy kits there- the farb-types were definitely in the minority.

A few groups have booths/areas set up for recruiting, but not too many. A few from Renaissance Faire groups (A military group, a court group, and an inn group), a nice Roman group, a Scots-English Rev War group, some WWII Russians, those GAoP people, and a Revolutionary War artillery company. There were probably a few more...but that's all that comes to the top of my head.

The event always seemed a little underpopulated to me. Given the great many reenactors in the Illinois-Wisconsin area (let alone the surrounding states), its never seemed like they were there in any great number. Then again, a lot of them kind of blur together when you're there, so I may be mistaken.

The afterhours events are fun as well... various trivia games for participants including some that are off the wall.

Overall, its a fun and worthwhile event that I look forward to year round.

They are clear about the historical focus in the FAQ:
"This is a Historical Reenacting Convention. That mean recreations of HISTORICAL costumes and uniforms. Wizards, Hobbits, and Stormtroopers have their own conventions, and we please ask they respect ours by not attending dressed in fantasy costumes."
In spite of that, I have not seen the snootiness that can sometimes occur between SCA vs reenactors vs Renfairs, it's pretty inclusive in my experience. There are a couple groups from Bristol who usually attend at do some presentations.

The public is welcome to attend, but it's really mostly aimed at people who are already reenactors in some form. Usually it has had just about everything from ancient Romans to WWII. Here in the Midwest WWII reenacting seems to be one of the biggest growing areas of the hobby. The Roman group is pretty impressive right down to giving their marching commands in Latin.

Saturday night there's a period ball where people can learn dances from various eras, usually once the period dances are done the DJ plays the "Time Warp" and it changes into just a dance party with people in dress from various eras. Our first year there Caligula was sighted doing the safety dance.
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Heck, it might' ve been the same legionnaire. :-)