The sixth annual Reef-A-Palooza (RAP) is hitting the Orange County Fairgrounds for the sixth time this weekend bringing together hobbyists, coral vendors, manufacturers and speakers for a weekend of reefing excitement. With a few tricks up their sleeves, the Southern California Marine Aquarium Society (SCMAS) is putting together one of the “must attend†events in the hobby on Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25.
“Our goal this year was to build excitement in the hobby and have a little something for everyone,†said RAP Chairman Greg Carroll. “We have a few great speakers with some great topics, plenty of manufacturers on hand for the equipment junkies and of course, plenty of vendors for the coral nuts.â€
The original event just started out as a simple frag swap as a way for the club to help promote its charter of educating and promoting coral husbandry and propagation in the hobby and has grown into one of the premier reefing-related events. Realizing the busy nature of Southern California, the club has made the event affordable, fun and accessible — smack dab in the middle of one of the most prolific areas for the marine hobby.
The RAP crew is putting together some great give-a-way’s including a special treat from Piscene Eneregetics for the first 200 people through the door each day with a free 4 oz. package of PE Mysis. You can also get a chance to win other great free prizes by filling out one of their free door prize entry forms available at local fish stores.
If you’re not already on the Twitter bandwagon, you might want to sign up and make sure to follow www.twitter.com/reefapalooza since they’ll be using the real-time, micro-blogging platform for interactive give-a-ways throughout the event giving you a heads-up over the rest of the crowd. The RAP team also is putting their vendors more in control of raffle prizes with plenty of goodies being raffled out throughout the event directly from the vendor’s booths.
“We wanted to really keep the energy up through the whole event and having raffles right at the vendor’s booths helps keep that level up the entire time. We have great vendors on hand and you’re going to want to make sure to check them all out,†adds Carroll.
RAP speaker list includes Scott Michael, Bob Fenner, Greg Morgan and Chris Clough, Justin Credible, Scott Vallembois and Reef Builder’s own Scott Fellman. There are just too many awesome manufacturers, coral vendors and clubs on hand to name them all, so check out all of them here.
The club is making it a very affordable event to attend with daily tickets available for $10 a day or $15 for the weekend plus plenty of opportunities to save a few bucks in these tough economic times. As an added perk for reef club members, any one in SCMAS get in for free and all other aquarium club members get $5 discounts making another great reason for joining a local club! Students and seniors also get the $5 discount and all kids 12 and under get in for free. Doors are open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday.
