The Fire Marshall was there -- writing tickets for smoking! IMO, anyone who could manage to smoke in those aisles probably can wriggle out of a ticket just fine; it'd take a Houdini. Apparently as long as each and every one of us Refrained From Smoking, the tight-packed crowd was A-OK with the Fire Marshall, since --Heavens to Betsy! -- only cigarettes could start a fire. (Is the FM really Morals Police? Can't be, not considering some of the T-shirts and bumper stickers for sale, but still...)
One story making the rounds was that the vendors in the back room at the last show -- which was at the Marsh Pavillion, the big building to the East of where it is this weekend -- complained about very low traffic; there's only one hallway between the two sections of that building and not a lot of signage to remind folks to have a look. So the "1500" promoters had requested the smaller building. Then, with an RV show at the Fairgrounds the same weekend and the Colts playing Sunday, crowds for this one were a lot higher: a bad combination.
The consensus seemed to be that the crowding was caused by an unusual concatenation of factors. The next one is likely to be less crowded -- and might be a good place to look for deals.
--Herself