If you haven’t heard the news, the Pacific Bonsai Expo is sold out – thanks so much for the support!
There’s a chance we’ll have a limited number of same-day tickets available at the door, but we have yet to receive confirmation about this from the venue. I’ll provide an update when we know more. In the meantime, the only ways to obtain passes for the Expo are to volunteer or to make a qualifying donation.
Related, we expect that parking will be extremely limited at the venue. If you live in the area or are staying nearby, we strongly encourage you to carpool or use a rideshare service like Uber or Lyft. You can also take our free shuttle that will run between the Hyatt House and the Bridge Yard from 8:30am to 5:30pm Saturday and 8:30 am to 4:30 pm Sunday.
Tickets are available for the Saturday evening Awards banquet through next Thursday, October 27. We cannot sell tickets after that date to ensure the Fratellanza Club has adequate time to prepare our meals. Chicken, beef, and veggie entrees are available – learn more about the banquet here.
Speaking of food, there are no services at the venue so plan to bring a lunch or visit a restaurant like those at the nearby Emeryville Public Market.
The view from the Bridge Yard
Award Updates
We have two news items related to the Expo awards. The first is that we’ve revised our criteria for the best in show award to accommodate an additional winner, if need be. Here’s how this will work.
Members of the judging panel (the exhibitors) will score every tree in the exhibit using a scale of 1-5. (A score of “3” represents a tree of average quality based on the trees in the exhibit.)
We’ll normalize and average these scores to determine the winner for each of the five category awards noted below.
Judging panel members will separately nominate several trees for the best in show award. We’ll use these scores to determine which tree receives the top prize.
If a single entry receives a category prize and the best in show award, we’ll present the tree’s owner with two trophies and $2500.
If the best in show award doesn’t go to a tree that wins a category prize, we’ll award $2500 to the best in show award winner and $2000 to each of the category winners.
This brings us to the second bit of news – we have six fantastic sponsors for our awards!
- Golden State Bonsai Federation: Best in Show
- Joshua Roth Limited: Best Large Broadleaf Evergreen
- Peter Tea Bonsai: Best Large Deciduous
- Kimura Bonsai and Landscape Nursery: Best Large Conifer
- Encinal Nursery and Jeffrey Stern: Best Medium Display
- California Shohin Society: Best Shohin Display
Another sponsor that deserves the spotlight is Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery, lead sponsor for our John Naka-inspired artistic display centerpiece.
The support provided by these sponsors is key to staging an exhibition of this scope. For a full list of our donors and sponsors, visit the Supporters page on the Expo website. If you want your name to appear with such great company, learn about making a donation.
One last thing – if the idea of scoring the exhibit sounds like fun, we encourage you to give it a try! Visitors to the exhibit will find scoring forms in their programs that make it easy. Which trees do you think deserve an award? Fill out the form at the event and find out!
I’ll be back next week with another update. In the meantime, Expo show books and t-shirts are available online.
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