Indiana Hamfests

A hamfest is a gathering of amateur radio operators — part swap meet, part convention. You'll typically find commercial vendors and a tailgate/flea market selling new and used gear, special-interest forums and presentations, door prizes, and on-site license exam (VE) sessions. They are a great place to find a bargain, meet local hams, and pick up your first radio.

Two tables follow: the confirmed dates we have on the calendar right now, and a second list of the long-running Indiana hamfests that come back every year. Because dates shift from year to year, always confirm on the host club's page before you make the drive.

Open the live ARRL Hamfests & Conventions Calendar — filter by State: Indiana (or ARRL Central Division / Indiana Section) for current, confirmed dates.

Upcoming Indiana hamfests

Every date below was re-checked against the ARRL listing and the sponsoring club on 24 August 2026. Events that have already happened have been dropped from this table — if a hamfest you were looking for is missing, check the recurring list further down for the month it usually lands in. The ARRL search returns seven Indiana entries and carries nothing past the November 28 TurkeyFest, so the two spring 2027 dates at the bottom of the table come from the sponsoring clubs' own pages rather than from ARRL.

A few notes on the list above. Only four of these entries publish their hours, which is why most of the Date column carries a day and nothing else — the ARRL records for the MARC Tailgate, ARANCI, Shelbyville, Hamtober and Fort Wayne all give a date with no start or finish time. Where we could confirm hours from the club itself, they are in the table: Hoosier Hills runs 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., both Wabash Valley events 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., and Columbus 8 a.m. to noon. The ARANCI Hamfest in Winfield has moved off the mid-August weekend it used in past years to Saturday, September 26, at the same Christ Presbyterian Church venue, so it has been promoted out of the recurring list below; the club's own site, aranciradio.com, still has no event page, so call the contact in the ARRL entry if you are hauling tables. Talk-in is 145.33 or 444.250, both with a 131.8 Hz tone. For the Shelbyville Tailgate, the Blue River Valley club's site is still fronting its 2025 write-up — that running went 8 a.m. to noon with no admission charge and no table fee, and talk-in was 145.48 with an 88.5 Hz tone, but treat the opening time as unsettled until the club posts this year's page. Admission where we could confirm it: Hoosier Hills is $5, free for children 12 and under; both Wabash Valley events are $10 with the same under-12 exemption; Columbus still lists both admission and table fees as to-be-announced. The Wabash Valley club runs two hamfests a year at the same Brazil fairgrounds — TurkeyFest in November and a spring edition in March — and its page carries firm dates for both, which is how the March 27, 2027 running earned a place in the table above. Tables there are free on a first-come basis, or $5 to reserve one in advance (non-refundable), and talk-in for both is the K9IKQ repeater on 146.685 with a 151.4 Hz tone. The Fort Wayne Hamfest has traditionally run Saturday and Sunday, but the ARRL entry carries a single Saturday date, and the official address in that entry, fortwaynehamfest.com, is just a frame around the ACARTS hamfest page, which is still showing its 2025 wrap-up rather than this year's schedule. Watch it for the weekend hours and ticket prices. Hamtober Fest has a dedicated site at hamtoberfest.com, but its security certificate has expired and browsers will now block it, so we point at the ARRL record instead until that is fixed. The Hoosier Hills venue straddles a postal boundary — the ARRL database files it under Bedford while the club's own site says Mitchell; it is the same fairgrounds on US 50 either way. VE license testing is offered at many of these events: Hoosier Hills registers candidates at 9:30 a.m. and starts exams at 10 for a $15 fee (bring two forms of ID, one with a photo, and your FCC FRN), and the Columbus hamfest opens the doors at 8 a.m. and starts exams at 9. If you like to plan far ahead, the Wabash Valley club has posted November 27, 2027 for the TurkeyFest after this one and March 25, 2028 for the spring event after that. Columbus lists a 146.790 talk-in with a 103.5 Hz tone.

Indiana's summer run is behind us for 2026. The East Central Indiana Hamfest in Portland (Jul 25), Burning Ham! in Sellersburg and the Elkhart East Hamfest (both Aug 1) and the Hendricks County Tailgate Fest in Avon (Aug 8) have all come and gone. Every one of them is in the recurring list below — look for them again next summer.

Well-known recurring Indiana hamfests

These come back every year but have not posted a next date yet, so the month below is the one each has traditionally used — treat it as a planning hint, not a confirmed date. Anything with a firm date is in the table above instead.

Several of these are worth watching closely over the coming months, and the Hendricks County one needs a word of explanation. Its ARRL record and the Hendricks County ARES calendar both put the running that has already passed on February 7, 2026. The club's own page is now headed “Hamfest 2027” and advertises a Saturday, February 13 date, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with vendor setup the Friday evening before — but the year printed alongside it still reads 2026, which cannot be right, because February 13 falls on a Friday in 2026 and on a Saturday in 2027. Read as a 2027 announcement it is consistent; we have left it out of the confirmed table until the club corrects the year. It is the one to watch either way, since this hamfest carries the ARRL Indiana Section Convention designation. Elsewhere, the LaPorte County club is advertising a “Tailgate Hamfest 2026” with no date attached to it and nothing at all under the Cabin Fever name. The North Central Indiana Hamfest's dedicated site, ncihamfest.com, has lapsed to a parked domain and the Grant County club's page linked above is still handing out a 2025 flyer, so that one has no next date either; its recent runnings have landed in the second half of April at the Peru fairgrounds. The Northeastern Indiana ARA is still showing its 2025 Auburn Hamfest write-up. Clark County's Burning Ham! and the Elkhart East Hamfest are both still fronting the August 1 dates that just passed, and the East Central Indiana organizers say only that they are working out a venue for 2027.

This list isn't exhaustive — smaller club hamfests and tailgate events come and go. For the complete, up-to-date schedule, always check the ARRL calendar.

Related pages

Most hamfests are run by local radio clubs — browse the clubs directory to find one near you. And because license testing is often held at hamfests, see the exam sessions page for what to expect and how to prepare.