i'm on soc sec and have very little savings tho my home is paid for... the point is that $5 is a lot for me to come up with often or on the spot, but quilt shows don't come up often and there is NOTHING i wouldn't give $5 for more willingly... every man in our lives spends more than that for one day's lunch... and we don't even question it... not only do i think i deserve a $5 now and then, but i deserve a few dollars to spend while at the show... i will happily brown bag it to the show so i have enough money to buy a book or a new tool or a half yard of fabric. i understand if you don't feel like you can spend $5 or $10 to get in and would rather spend it some other way, but that is your choice... we all spend our money differently and it is our choice... just because we don't have a ton of money doesn't mean that we can tell the people who run quilt shows that they should give us something for nothing or that the speakers don't deserve their fees or that the building owners shouldn't help offset their costs of electricity, insurance, etc. I have never met a more generous and giving group than a bunch of quilters... one of the vendors i patronized one time told me not to bother when i started to get out my ID for a check, "I've never had a check bounce from a quilt show," she told me. I have no reason to believe that any group of quilters is trying to gouge me for one extra dollar. These shows are a huge amount of work for a lot of people and I think the entrance price is a good bargain.