Pinball Expo lights up Schaumburg Convention Center
This week’s 42nd annual Pinball Expo continued Friday at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel.
The final day of wall-to-wall fun runs from 8 a.m. until late Saturday night at 1551 N. Thoreau Drive in Schaumburg.
Event founder Rob Berk said fans can try their hands at both the newest and oldest machines.
Stern Pinball in neighboring Elk Grove Village is celebrating its 40th anniversary at the expo. Jersey Jack Pinball, also in Elk Grove Village, brought its new Sonic the Hedgehog game and the Guinness World Record holder for the largest collection of Sonic memorabilia.
With an ever-growing fan base through social media, including from overseas, Berk expects the expo to break last year’s attendance record of about 6,000 people.
New vendors and seminar speakers have been easier to find amid the wave of popularity pinball is enjoying, he said.
Though Berk expected the 1985 expo at a Holiday Inn in Rosemont to be his only public tribute to his passion, fans have been asking for bigger and better encores for 41 years.
He operates the Past Times Pinball & Video Arcade in Girard, Ohio, most of the time, but has always favored the Chicago area for the expos because he said it’s so intertwined with the history of the industry.
On Saturday, the expo will run from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m. Admission is $60.
For more details and a list of events, visit pinballexpo.com or follow on Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube.
epeterson@dailyherald.com