Tips for visiting the Arnold Sports Festival!
The Arnold Fitness EXPO has over 1000 vendors of the latest sports apparel, equipment, and nutrition companies. It also features two stages that hold events throughout the three-day festival. I visited the 2019 Expo which was held March 1-3, 2019.
While the event is an incredible experience, it can be a bit overwhelming. People come in the hundreds of thousands from all over to the Greater Columbus Convention Center for the nation's largest health and fitness expo.
Here are my top tips for a successful trip to The Arnold:
1. Go to Arnold on Friday!
We visited the EXPO for a few hours on Friday and all day Saturday. Everything I had read told me that Saturday was the busiest day but WOW. Nothing could have prepared me for just how busy Saturday was. It was hard to even navigate our way to the next place we wanted to go simply because the isles were so crowded with people walking and lines. I would highly recommend going on Friday if at all possible. You will be able to accomplish so much more in the time you have, and booths will have a full stock.
2. Plan Ahead
There will be so many companies there that you may have never heard of before but that doesn't mean that they don't have amazing products. The official Arnold Sports Festival website will have an Exhibitor Directory on their website when it gets closer to the event that lists every exhibitor that will have a booth. Look into every single company before getting to the EXPO so that you will already have a good idea of which companies are most important for you to visit first and which items you want to buy. I have read that many companies do not give the best deals are Arnold but I got quite a few great deals. I made myself a budget which had all items I wanted to buy along with their online price. This ended up being a great tool to ensure I was getting the best deals.
3.Talk to the Vendors
We all like free stuff. Heres the secret to getting the most free stuff possible: talk. Many vendors are just giving out free samples or will ask for your email (plan to have a junk email if you don't all these companies emailing your real account) but there are a lot of them who don't have any samples that are freely being handed out. The more interested you seem in a company, the more likely they are to hand out samples. If you're interesting in a company or product, stop by their booth and talk to them. You just might end up with a free sample.
4. Pre-pay for Parking
Thousands of people will be looking for parking around the Greater Columbus Convention Center. This also means that Uber or other ride services have the option to bump up prices in these high-demand areas. There are a few options I will recommend. If you are coming early in the morning and plan to stay all day, you should probably pre-pay for parking. The Arnold Fitness Expo offers a downtown shuttle from a lot of hotels. This is a good option if you can afford one of these hotels but they are not cheap hotels. The convention center offers parking in one of its four garages for $25 per day. We opted for a garage in the Arena District. Lot I was about a 5 minute walk to the EXPO. The walk seemed like we were in a pretty safe area and we only paid $11.50 ($10+fees) which we booked online about a week before.
5. Stay in groups. The buddy system is best!
While I did feel pretty safe in the Columbus area (keep in mind that I live outside one of the deadliest cities in America), it is not entirely safe. The Arnold Sports Festival serves as one of the highest sex trafficking weekends in America. This was actually quite terrifying for me. I have high anxiety being in new places as it is. I personally did not encounter anything that made me uncomfortable or unsafe. Four of us traveled from Maryland. Three females and one male college aged. On Friday, we split up to have the three females together as the male watched competitions on stage. On Saturday we split into two groups of two. I feel that this worked best as we could travel to where we wanted to go better than being in a larger group.
6. Get there early
Especially if Saturday is your only option, please do yourself a favor and get there early. By 10am on Saturday, there was a huge line to meet Alani Nu owners, Katy Hearn and Haydn Schneider, which ended up having people waiting for over 3 hours. By 11am on Saturday, you could barely walk. Im not saying you need to pay for the early entrance but I absolutely think it would have helped. Buying tickets in advance helped to save us money and made sure we only had to go through one short line to get our wristbands.
7. Write down times and booth numbers of everyone you want to meet
Look, I know we all think "oh, its fine, ill just check their insta post when i get there" Thats what i thought I was going to do but it just wont happen. It is almost impossible to get anything online to load. Make a list in your notes or screenshot times and locations of meet & greets. Prepare to stand in line to meet people.
8. Pack a bag
I highly recommend bringing a full sized backpack. Food and drinks are expensive inside the venue so bringing snacks is a great idea. Also my portable charger was a life saver.
9. Visit the Bang stage during their party time
Throughout the day, the Bang stage will have a super wild party where they give out cases and cases of free Bang energy drinks. Make sure you're in the front of this party. I personally got eight cans each day.
10. Keep an eye out for famous athletes
There were so many famous athletes just walking around the EXPO. Arnold himself often times walks around. Athletes such as Larry Wheels or Bradley Martyn posted videos of themselves just hanging around the expo so that fans could find them. On the edges of the EXPO, there will be areas where things will load, be sure to check out you favorite athlete's instagram stories.
While the event is an incredible experience, it can be a bit overwhelming. People come in the hundreds of thousands from all over to the Greater Columbus Convention Center for the nation's largest health and fitness expo.
Here are my top tips for a successful trip to The Arnold:
1. Go to Arnold on Friday!
We visited the EXPO for a few hours on Friday and all day Saturday. Everything I had read told me that Saturday was the busiest day but WOW. Nothing could have prepared me for just how busy Saturday was. It was hard to even navigate our way to the next place we wanted to go simply because the isles were so crowded with people walking and lines. I would highly recommend going on Friday if at all possible. You will be able to accomplish so much more in the time you have, and booths will have a full stock.
2. Plan Ahead
There will be so many companies there that you may have never heard of before but that doesn't mean that they don't have amazing products. The official Arnold Sports Festival website will have an Exhibitor Directory on their website when it gets closer to the event that lists every exhibitor that will have a booth. Look into every single company before getting to the EXPO so that you will already have a good idea of which companies are most important for you to visit first and which items you want to buy. I have read that many companies do not give the best deals are Arnold but I got quite a few great deals. I made myself a budget which had all items I wanted to buy along with their online price. This ended up being a great tool to ensure I was getting the best deals.
3.Talk to the Vendors
We all like free stuff. Heres the secret to getting the most free stuff possible: talk. Many vendors are just giving out free samples or will ask for your email (plan to have a junk email if you don't all these companies emailing your real account) but there are a lot of them who don't have any samples that are freely being handed out. The more interested you seem in a company, the more likely they are to hand out samples. If you're interesting in a company or product, stop by their booth and talk to them. You just might end up with a free sample.
4. Pre-pay for Parking
Thousands of people will be looking for parking around the Greater Columbus Convention Center. This also means that Uber or other ride services have the option to bump up prices in these high-demand areas. There are a few options I will recommend. If you are coming early in the morning and plan to stay all day, you should probably pre-pay for parking. The Arnold Fitness Expo offers a downtown shuttle from a lot of hotels. This is a good option if you can afford one of these hotels but they are not cheap hotels. The convention center offers parking in one of its four garages for $25 per day. We opted for a garage in the Arena District. Lot I was about a 5 minute walk to the EXPO. The walk seemed like we were in a pretty safe area and we only paid $11.50 ($10+fees) which we booked online about a week before.
5. Stay in groups. The buddy system is best!
While I did feel pretty safe in the Columbus area (keep in mind that I live outside one of the deadliest cities in America), it is not entirely safe. The Arnold Sports Festival serves as one of the highest sex trafficking weekends in America. This was actually quite terrifying for me. I have high anxiety being in new places as it is. I personally did not encounter anything that made me uncomfortable or unsafe. Four of us traveled from Maryland. Three females and one male college aged. On Friday, we split up to have the three females together as the male watched competitions on stage. On Saturday we split into two groups of two. I feel that this worked best as we could travel to where we wanted to go better than being in a larger group.
6. Get there early
Especially if Saturday is your only option, please do yourself a favor and get there early. By 10am on Saturday, there was a huge line to meet Alani Nu owners, Katy Hearn and Haydn Schneider, which ended up having people waiting for over 3 hours. By 11am on Saturday, you could barely walk. Im not saying you need to pay for the early entrance but I absolutely think it would have helped. Buying tickets in advance helped to save us money and made sure we only had to go through one short line to get our wristbands.
7. Write down times and booth numbers of everyone you want to meet
Look, I know we all think "oh, its fine, ill just check their insta post when i get there" Thats what i thought I was going to do but it just wont happen. It is almost impossible to get anything online to load. Make a list in your notes or screenshot times and locations of meet & greets. Prepare to stand in line to meet people.
8. Pack a bag
I highly recommend bringing a full sized backpack. Food and drinks are expensive inside the venue so bringing snacks is a great idea. Also my portable charger was a life saver.
9. Visit the Bang stage during their party time
Throughout the day, the Bang stage will have a super wild party where they give out cases and cases of free Bang energy drinks. Make sure you're in the front of this party. I personally got eight cans each day.
10. Keep an eye out for famous athletes
There were so many famous athletes just walking around the EXPO. Arnold himself often times walks around. Athletes such as Larry Wheels or Bradley Martyn posted videos of themselves just hanging around the expo so that fans could find them. On the edges of the EXPO, there will be areas where things will load, be sure to check out you favorite athlete's instagram stories.
I would have loved to go to this! Thanks for the info!
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