Gaydon 05--Comments Invited

@ Andrew Dale: Good comments/explanation and the point about the trade stalls pricing is well put...Personally, I reckon anyone complaining about £75 isn't a proper trader in any case! I did feel, though, that the one thing sorely lacking was a selection/variety in the food and drinks dept...Resulting in long queues at the (one) burger bar...Didn't affect us, too much, cos we brought a picnic! But trying to get a coffee, even if the price was good, meant a 15min wait! Also the selection on offer wasn't great...Veggies had chips or chips to choose from.

It certainly didn't *look* like BMWUK were in evidence...a few dealers and a random single seater on a static display isn't representative of the might of BMW as a company...It is their problem, obviously, but I would (as a first time visitor/participant) have expected a bigger presence with some/all of the new range on display or available for a spin on the test track...
If I were BMWs' marketing dept I would have considered that an opportunity missed!

The prizes were (obviously) well appreciated, but who won? Surely a bit of publicity for both the donating dealers and the winners wouldn't go amiss! I, for one, had no idea who had donated the prizes as I bought my tickets!

Personally, regarding the helping, I would be interested in doing something, but not being a traffic warden!
As for venues...There must be a case for moving, if the issues of space can't be sorted out. Plenty of venues, not necessarily motor industry based, that I can think of...Beaulieu, Longleat, or one of the racing circuits (Oulton Park, perhaps?).

@ E46ACS (c'mon the gooners!)
well we arrived around the same time as you...No queue, exactly, but we were directed to a gravel car park...Now my car isn't concours, and I am happy to drive it (almost) anywhere...but I can see why someone who has spent hours prepping their car for a competition might feel miffed about being asked to park on a dusty surface with the potential for stone chips...
Furthermore, when the arena did open, the wait to get in was compounded by (as previously mentioned) by the queue from the road being allowed in before the queue from the car park....Didn't bother me, too much, but it wasn't exactly the height of good planning!

[QUOTE=Nigel]

IF the committee are looking at any other venues, may I suggest something a little better placed for everyone in general, perhaps in the North West/East ?

One thing that has to be available at any venue is somewhere to go if it rains. Over the years we have been very lucky in this respect, but it would only take one good downpour to ruin the event if there were no 'insides'

Whilst it seems logical to hold the event in the Centre of the country as a whole (Huddersfield in my case) we have also to look at the geographical number split.
If you look at Gaydon I would say that around 60% of the membership live to the South of, or around it.

I was not at the event this year for the first time for a while. Even the few who grumble without giving a constructive criticism seem to agree that despite their comments, it was a Great Day.

Now I know that many members think that because they have to pay to get in, they don't have to do anything. I agree. But it would be nice if instead of grumbling, they rang the office and asked if they could help out. That way they would get in for free but would then see how difficult and hard the organising members have to work. The job of planning the next event starts almost straight away. Today for instance, this post was studied, discussed in detail, and notes made of all comments so that problems could be reduced next time. Many comments have been taken on board, the helpful, the moans, and even some that were at first glance, quite outrageous.

So if the festival is at Gaydon next year, I hope that you will all have an even better time than most of you did this year.

i think walsall is a good place to have it