This last weekend while scrolling through the local events and social media I saw TinyFest California was down at the Del Mar Fair Grounds and I saw our friends at GTFOverland where going to be there as well. So I had a break in my schedule after a full Saturday with Active Valor so I figured I would head down to see what I could see and worst case scenario hang out at the beach.
I got there about eleven an hour after it opened and the lady at the parking kiosk said it was pretty popular and a lot of people had been there yesterday, so it sounded like I was beating the traffic. Bonus we got to park in the back of the fairgrounds by the railroad trestles. I know at this point you are like get to the point and stop talking about parking, good parking in SoCal is something to be celebrated, but here we go.
TinyFest is a festival, show, convention type of event that brings together all kinds of cool stuff when it comes to the small foot print living concept. I love the concept for camping and cabins but these guys and gals take it to the next level. They had everything from granny flats and connex modular living spaces to adventure vans and a trailers. I thought the mix of styles was really cool and had a chance to learn a lot too. They had speakers and interactive areas to learn, Houses on display that you could go through which was pretty cool to get the feel for what a tiny home foot print might be like.
What I thought was cool was all of the conversions and creative vans and busses on display where you could meet the owners and take a look this was a great opportunity to talk to people doing the #vanlife first hand and get some pointers and talk shop. There were a lot of van conversions professionally done that looked really good, but I was really digging was the busses and diy work on a lot of the very well thought out and creative rigs. Some of them were still in work which was neat to get to see a little behind the process.
This is all really fitting for San Diego too since housing is at a premium and being able to creativity scale down could make it a little more available and affordable for many people. That was one of the themes as the show and there was some very creative ideas and neat housing solutions.
But the main reason I rolled down was to see our buddies from GTFOverland and catch up plus pick up some Front Runner Wolf Packs from him so I didn’t have to pay shipping, haha. They had an awesome set up and It is really cool to see all of the overland gear they have available, I still need to make it to the shop but I was busy checking out their selection at the show. I also picked up some lighting for car camping that is pretty legit. The Hard Korr Awning and Tent light looks pretty legit and wait to see a review on that soon!
The Tiny fest over all was a good event to kill a couple hours on a Sunday and at twenty bucks to enter it didn’t break the bank. This was TinyFest California and sorry you missed it but give them a follow for the next time they come around. Good news for the Midwest there is one coming to Des Moines, Iowa June 13 and 14 and then a TBD one in Portland as well. If you are into this kind of stuff (like me) it’s worth checking out and learning. AS Always, thanks for checking out what we have to say and hope you can make it to one of these if you get the chance, if not hope to run into you on the trail!
