MaryKatherine, your quilts belong in those big shows!
I understand the points made, but I still love the big shows. I get my creative batteries re-charged by looking at the great quilts and taking classes and I get ideas from the vendor displays. I don't buy much, and I agree that many of the vendors have the same thing, all of which can usually be purchased for less money online. I'm not as interested in the art quilts as in the traditional bed quilts, but I really appreciate seeing the beautiful longarm quilting. Sometimes the refreshments are ridiculously over-priced, and I agree that it's cheaper to carpool than to go on a bus, plus I prefer to choose my own hours.
I'm also astonished by the main reason your group cited for not going - not needing to buy anything. Does that mean that the main attraction for those people is the vendors, not the quilts? And yet another point was that there are too many vendors and not enough quilts. I guess this difference in opinion shows why it is impossible for the quilt show coordinators to please everyone.