Should Camperjam have been cancelled

Left to right:

1. land rover
2. Lola
3.
4. poptop2
5. Baybirmingham
6. Silver
7. Woody
8. bumpnugger
9. Joycee
10. Smurfette
11. Fletch
12. Magical Trevor
13. Lowie
14.
15. golf?
16. Dicky ?

Fill in the blanks.

 

And the organisers have made LOADS A MONEY!!!!! They don't care. I wasn't there but good on those that made the best of it. The roads on Friday were terrible with delays and floods and accidents all over the country and dangerous as well everywhere. I wonder if the organisers will do the decent thing and offer some money back?

 

Left to right:

1. land rover
2. Lola
3.
4. poptop2
5. Baybirmingham
6. Silver
7. Woody
8. bumpnugger
9. Joycee
10. Smurfette
11. Fletch
12. Magical Trevor
13. Lowie
14.
15. golf?
16. Dicky (confirmed dude thats me!)

 

Left to right:

1. land rover (owned by the son of thefarmerlittlewife )
2. Lola
3.thefarmeslittlewife
4. poptop2
5. Baybirmingham
6. Silver
7. Woody
8. bumpnugger
9. Joycee
10. Smurfette
11. Fletch
12. Magical Trevor
13. Lowie
14.moley76
15. golf?
16. Dicky

 

hi all
I have just read all this..ouch....
first up ... whilst I am editor of the mag I am not involved at all in the mechanics of running the show (though do advise and suggest) so anything I say here is NOT official Camperjam response. I am sure a response about the show will be on website or forums soon however. Displays and show n shine are my total responsibility however.
Secondly..weather in run up. Yes its been dire all over for weeks. two weeks b4 CJ weston Park cancelled a show purely to ensure ground Ok for CJ. From Mon to Thurs team on site and weather Ok..damp..not serious just disappointing...Thurs actually saw fine skies in morning! Twas not really till Thurs eve media went into frenzy about incoming storms and torerents. Fri am was scary stuff. Think I would considered stayed home nif not had to go! Especially if long distance or with kids. Interestingly a Danish family came Harwich > CJ during Fri and saw no rain and were shocked arriving at 5pm!
No-one could have foreseen a months rain in 12 hours much earlier than Thurs eve. Serious stuff. Cancel now is really not an option. Think what you will I know from perspective of team that I work alongside it was all about how can we get people in at this stage and still try and look after them as best we can. I saw that in action all weekend.
and the rain fell ..and fell..and fell...and as buses came in it looked like the Somme in places. New areas hastily rearranged Fri morning...usual access not feasible..100s now have to come in one way on the only road..aaggghhh..
Thirdly. The mud. weston p[ark call the shots. They do not allow straw - churned swamp recovers quickly if tended..straw kills it and it takes much longer. What we DO need to do now however and put in place, after discussion with WP is what sorts of contingency plans like duckboarding etc need building in (well in my opinion anyway)
limited displays went ahead and dont blame anyone for staying put! I did not move my bus off camp area to use as HQ for fear of not getting back on again!
likewise show n shine. decided had to see if anyone wanted to brave it. 40 did with some very nice buses for all to enjoy.
The Beat..cant comment as dont know enough about background. a real pain though as a lover of two tone!

Over weekend I got mix of nasty abuse from some but lots saying well done for not cancelling. Comes of being the face in the mag they recognise I guess.Majority were resigned to make the best and we did have more than just a muddy site for you to do some stuff. 16 stone pig was a storm I heard the crowd singing the funfair was full...
so anyway..more steep learning curves ahead for the whole team.
I do hope you come back next year though..we have unfinished display business
david

 

Should it have been cancelled? I didn't go. But I've seen the pics. If I were a Health & Safety Officer (which I'm not), then from that point of view (the mud), I'd say absolutely yes, of course it should have been cancelled. I'd guess the only reason why it went ahead was due to the organisers' losses if it didn't.

 

Hi Dave. I wouldnt get down in to the weeds on a single issue. Im in the - had a good time cos I made the most of it but still not a happy bunny camp . I have responded but been at least a little constructive in my rant as Im sure other member have. Lessons need to be learned and I will accept that the decision would have been difficult to postpone or not. The weather info was available! but the issues around lack of traders/cancelled entertainment/the cancelling of Sunday,failure to maintain pedestrian routes around the trades area and the mixed standard of marshalling on entry...!

Thanks for putting your head above the parapet and Its unfortunate that you did recieve abuse but you are very recogniseable (Fancy dress next year!).

 

Yes thanks for responding, but you're deluding yourself and insulting us saying there was only 24hrs notice of the Friday rain - it had been forecast all week and posted up here on our thread for Camperjam.

 

yeah what zed says, i posted (as did ppm) daily pictures off weather apps......

 

Organisers really shouldn't worry so much about telling the obvious truth. I think everyone who went must have suspected (at the least) that it would be MUDDY and turned out anyway. Those that didn't attend knew it would be MUDDY and chose not to come.

If you CJ had had the balls to say it's going to get MUDDY, make a joke of it but say they'll do there best, just as many people, if not more people would have turned up IMO. What gets peoples goat is the skanky "Nobody could have seen it coming" vibe coming from CJ.

 

firstly the comment above about bringing in roadways or something..yes...but I think that would have been impossible to organise on the day...but I dong know about logistics of stuff like that all I think is that its now something that bwill have to be lined up ....
I did not see weather saying a months rain in 12 hours red and amber flood warning till late thurs myself and certainly not aware of such earlier in week...
not even the groundstaff at Weston Park thought it could go so bad so quick..
not a lot else I can really say...hindsight and all that..I just could not believe how many people braved the weather and knew it could be really really bad but still came along.

 

Zeds right, We knew all week about the weather and I had made contingency plans to go elsewhere for anyone that wanted to come, right upto about half ten on the friday morning we still did'nt know if it was gonna be cancelled or not, frantic phone calls were being made by us and we decided to head down when the news came through that all was ok at weston park Little white lie, like i've said on many times Camperjam has always been my favourate show but it really was'nt worth carrying on with it this year, it should've been cancelled on the thursday, this thread is only going because those who love camperjam thought it was the best show around, most have ditched Vanfest/Busfest because it got to big and impersonal and are sick of being ripped off, due to the weather and not cancelling I feel ripped off

 

Thanks for coming on David and speaking up, It's much appreciated. It was a far better responce then the e-mail I had from the offical side.

Well as long as lessons are learnt we'll be there next year for sure. 3 years of previous very good years will wipe this one out of my mind in around 6 months after a christmas Binge. :

All we need to know now is are the late bay line up geting there plaques???????