Aircooled 15 at Stratford......

Still smarting from the fact we paid £50 for two of us to go to this.......Possibly the worst VW show I have ever had the misfortune to attend....

 

Live and learn that camping with your mates in pub field or little campsite in a nice place for a fiver a night takes all the beating, it's the future

 

Too right mate....Only the dog enjoyed this weekend...there was acres of room to throw the frisbee!
There was hardly enough there to keep anyone amused for a day...let alone the weekend.

 

this is what happens then the t4 and t5 guys arent invited

 

Was that as busy as it got? They have had bad luck last year and this with the weather. Shame really as its a nice venue and from what we saw last year I think it could grow into a good show. Must be difficult trying to get a new event off the ground

 

I went again this year, the weather yesterday was miserable, but our little group got into the spirit of it and joined in with all the activities.

We did the treasure hunt, colouring in, and some of us had a go at the driving gymkhana in the afternoon. And I came home with this:



I tried to encourage the sun to come out with this:



It dried up later in the afternoon and we had a nice evening sitting round with a few beers having a good Chinwag.

Today was better, some more vehicles came along so a bit more to look at and new people to talk to.

New, small shows will never get any bigger if people don't make the effort to go and make it good.

I really like the concept of an aircooled specific show, and if the organisers can make peace with the weather gods, it could become really brill.

Incidently, there was also a beer and cider festival on at the racecourse which I heard was pretty good last night too.

 

Good to hear something positive, I know Graham and Jen put a lot of work into it. We wanted to get along this year but work commitments ruled out Friday, then the rain and a poorly baby ruled us out for the rest of the weekend.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's not the greatest show ever, but to me 95% of a good weekend is made up with attitude, company and location, the rest is incidental to me

 

I think for a show to take off it's gotta be in stunning location, it's gotta have something different from the boring norm of most shows, the drive there and back has gotta be nice and even then after about twice it get boring. Loads have tried and failed and loads still keep trying. Good luck to them but you can only charge good money once you've got something good to offer, The show scene years back was really good but it started dying on it's arse about ten years ago when Vanfest got greedy and started ripping everybody off, loads of old rusty buses, tat on stalls and a rubbish band don't do it anymore.

EDIT I'm talking shows in general not this show because I did'nt go

 

I appreciate that various factors contribute to the success of failure of these shows....my point is, if I'm paying £50 for two of us I expect to get something in return.....There was bugger all here!
We ended up walking into Stratford just for something to do....
There was a beer festival at the same location...but....that was another £20 for two of us to get in!!
I like to try and support smaller shows, but I was glad to be driving away from this one.....

 

I went on Saturday, I was one of the three day visitors in the afternoon.
I appreciate that the organiser are doing their best but as bobdogs says at that price you expect more.

gutted I missed the Frisbee session.

I hope this show doesn't disappear as the concept is brilliant. Hope

 

I went on Saturday, I was one of the three day visitors in the afternoon.
I appreciate that the organiser are doing their best but as bobdogs says at that price you expect more.

gutted I missed the Frisbee session.

I hope this show doesn't disappear as the concept is brilliant.

 

I don't know Graham or what exactly drives him, but I've noted him over the years enthusiastically announcing "stuff" and getting into things like this event with seemingly little more than a wing and a prayer. "Build it and they will come!" style. I admire the fact he prefers to eye up the end and head for it disregarding any difficulties along the way and only admitting defeat when there is no other option. I hope he hasn't lost too much money but I suspect he probably has despite the apparent lack of "stuff" going on.
These kind of events are made by the attendee's who could very well be in someones back garden having also having a great time. How do you attract them? But more importantly why? What's the point of having a large VW festival every single weekend throughout the spring and summer and into the autumn?
The only attraction I can see above normal camping is to those that like the chance to let their hairs down, stay up all night and make a lot more noise.*

* And those that like to just make normal sociable noise to later than a camp site would approve and that's everyone at some point.

 

We went last year not to bad but this year it clashed with my local show alive and dubbin which despite a bit of rain the show was heaving had to open another car park,
Steve

 

MY lord... really! I would have been more than gutted. Times to precious to waste it going to something like that. Looks like 20 minutes would have done there!

 

Yep, Damn phone ran out of battery when i pressed Post. went back to it this morning and it looked like it didn't post, so re-posted. My Bad.