ALLENTOWN, Pa. — The Lehigh Valley's annual festival celebrating the classic game of flippers and flashing lights is back at the Allentown Fairgrounds, with an expected nearly 4,000 to pass through the gates throughout the weekend to play, peruse and compete.
- Annual Pinball festival Pinfest takes place this weekend, featuring casual open play, trading and competition for the hobby
- Pinfest continues Saturday May 6 from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
- General Admission per day is $20 for people 12 and older, while children under 12 are $10 and those under 5 are free.
Allentown native Ivan Lysykanycz, organizer and promoter of Pinfest, said that while some come to take advantage of the open play, others — such as collectors — come to get specific parts and trade among new, classic and custom machines on display.
"We have a small team that helps me pull this together and it takes about six months," Lysykanycz said. "But the real satisfaction is seeing everybody really enjoying themselves and satisfying that itch.
"Every game has something to offer and it appeals to somebody."
"What makes it so popular is the game's never the same twice. There's a real skill to getting great at the game. It takes years."Pinfest organizer Ivan Lysykanycz
Throughout Agriculture Hall at Allentown Fairgrounds, enthusiasts and casual perusers took advantage of the open play of more than 400 pinball machines — some young and some having taken part in the hobby for decades.
Many travelled throughout the northeast and at times even beyond to attend.
"What makes it so popular is the game's never the same twice," Lysykanycz said. "There's a real skill to getting great at the game. It takes years."
Former collector Bob Williams of Lancaster said he comes every year to the show at Pinfest.
"They're all here," Williams said. "You can play the old ones or you can play the brand new ones."
He said it's great to see young people still involved in the hobby.
Top level competition
If one goes to the back of Ag Hall, they can find a set of 18 setups solely dedicated to competitive play as part of the Stern Pinball Pro Circuit, a series of 20 high-level pinball tournaments throughout the year throughout the country.
Players who enter the bracket open have to choose 12 of those machines to play a round on before logging their scores. The top scorers then will move on to elimination rounds until a champion is crowed Saturday.
"The young players, especially teenagers, seem to absorb the rules and the strategy really well."Tournament co-organizer Greg Poverelli
Many there say there has been a resurgence of young people at the top level of play in recent years.
"The young players, especially teenagers, seem to absorb the rules and the strategy really well," tournament co-organizer Greg Poverelli said.
"But there's also players have been playing for decades that are top players. So much like the age diversity of machines comes into play, there's a very diverse group of skilled players from all over the world. There's players from all over the country here today."
Organizers said they expect more than 100 players to have entered and completed their 12 rounds by the end of the day.
Jason Zoller of New Jersey, the current No. 2-ranked player in the world, is only a freshman in college and already a previous champion and seven-time attendee of Pinfest.
He said his dad, who also was there competing Friday, got him into the hobby with a machine they owned and started playing competitively when he was only 8.
"If you were to look at like, the Top 10 right now ranked in the world, I think almost eight out of 10 of those are kids that are younger than 21," Zahler said. The younger players "give me a tough time now."
Soon, Zahler said, he will leave the country for the first time to compete in the world championships in Echzell, Germany. Still, he said he's teaching himself to have fun at the events and enjoy the more casual offerings Pinfest has to offer in addition to competing.
Streaming adds attention
Many Top 100 players on the international pinball rankings, including most of the Top 5, were at the event to compete in hopes of upping their rank.
Women's and children's divisions also were established to encourage new groups of people to enter and to remain as inclusive as they could.
Even those not competing for the top spot often wore merchandise representing their club or region they originate from, be it Scranton, New York City or Rochester.
Live streaming for the event took place on the twitch channel BackhandPinball, where stream manager has set up camera setups on a machine to see the competitor, the ball and machine itself, as well as the tournament floor while doing commentary.
The New England based-streamer said he got into it after originally starting out in the fighting game community before discovering the pinball community.
"Creating this platform so we can show a physical game that you need to control, that you can affect in ways with your own hands I think is incredible," he said.
"Being able to put it in camera form, I think, has grown the sport as well as just the community tenfold in the last couple of years."
Pinfest kicked off Friday, and continues 9 a.m to 8 p.m. Saturday, May 6.
General admission per day is $20 for people 12 and older, while those under 12 are $10 and under 5 are free.
