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choice of venues

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choice of venues

Postby dingdangdo » Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:22 am

seeing that alot of us had major hassles with our well organized friends at billing :roll: , would it be possible to look at our venue's for TRANSITMANIA 2010? there should be a few sites that could accommodate our needs, and hopefully be better ran :wink:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby madmark_50484 » Wed Nov 04, 2009 10:00 am

I actually enjoyed billing but I only went for the day thought the site was alright thinking of camping next year but I do see what you mean in terms of people not being able to use the forum discount and the problems you had.
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Re: choice of venues

Postby dingdangdo » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:03 am

don't get me wrong the site it's self is pretty good, more that enough space to fit us all on, and I had a great weekend meeting some new faces, but the booking staff don't seem to know whats going on or listen to anyone but them selfs, like we told them 3 times we had a dog and on the entrance ticket they put down that we had a gazebo not a dog :roll: , ok it was the same price but when you tell someone 3 times you expect them to listen. Plus the time and effort Luke put into this could have been spoiled by them if it wasn't the fact that we all knew it wasn't his fault, but if I was a new member or didn't even use the site and booked off billings site that possibly wouldn't be the case, they take alot of money from events like this, not just in tickets but also the amount it brings in for the rest of the park, so a little better organization on their part would be nice, and like on another tread theres already a couple of other forums that have stopped using billing possibly for similar reasons
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Re: choice of venues

Postby Luke » Wed Nov 04, 2009 11:44 am

If you think you had hassle with billing, trust me, it was nothing compared to the hassle I had :lol: Yes, they are very disorganised but overall we managed :lol: I've even had trouble booking next years event (I'll not go into it here). The problem we have changing venues is, it's like starting all over again - the only way we can finance the event and secure it's long term future is by attracting traders and the bigger the venue is, the easier that will be :D

Before contacting billing, I did try some other venues and billing was the only one that was financially viable to hold the show, as I was hoping to get the event established 1st before at least contemplating swapping venues :? personally I thought billing was good apart from the few booking hassles, it went pretty well and we'll be prepared for those next year :lol:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby psv-hgv-flt » Wed Nov 04, 2009 12:52 pm

:shock: (damm) no bonfire :roll: :?:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby MinorMatt » Wed Nov 04, 2009 1:32 pm

PSV - we could arrange for big beefy the guru to dring his van? :lol: :lol:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby DOL » Fri Nov 06, 2009 4:11 pm

anywhere but BILLING!! :D only been there a couple of times 1st it was ok clean facilities,no hassle with booking etc etc last time hassle with booking,dirty facilities hassle with electric hook up :twisted: generally i thought it was just give us ya money n do whatever as we dont care weve got ya money(i`d like to add this was nowt 2 do with luke as he did a top job :D )
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Re: choice of venues

Postby belly » Sat Nov 14, 2009 3:18 pm

Beaulieu are quite good for motor vehicle aimed clubs :D
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Re: choice of venues

Postby GBBiker » Sat Nov 14, 2009 4:04 pm

In all honesty, I seriously doubt I will go to Billing again.

As a venue, IMO, it could not be a worse choice. The place is too large and impersonal. There is no way of making any division between FTF members and Joe Public. Apart from that, their on site facilities are sub standard and prices extreme.

As far as I am concerned, a smaller venue would suit better. Something we could take over 100%. Maybe a campsite where we could book a complete field? Somewhere like the Peak District maybe?

As for entrance costs. £30 for Billing? WTF makes them think that is justifiable? Any campsite would be less than half that!
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Re: choice of venues

Postby DOL » Sun Nov 15, 2009 12:55 pm

GBBiker wrote:In all honesty, I seriously doubt I will go to Billing again.

As a venue, IMO, it could not be a worse choice. The place is too large and impersonal. There is no way of making any division between FTF members and Joe Public. Apart from that, their on site facilities are sub standard and prices extreme.

As far as I am concerned, a smaller venue would suit better. Something we could take over 100%. Maybe a campsite where we could book a complete field? Somewhere like the Peak District maybe?

As for entrance costs. £30 for Billing? WTF makes them think that is justifiable? Any campsite would be less than half that!


i agree with you on that 1 GBBiker
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Re: choice of venues

Postby trigger » Sun Nov 15, 2009 3:04 pm

I paid £75 to get into mania, they said cos it was bank holiday it was a minimum 3 night stay, if it is going to cost that much again i will be in 2 minds about going as i don't have a lot of money, Wicksteed park may be a good alternative and it's only up the road from Billing and it's more private
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Re: choice of venues

Postby Brian_and_Rhona » Sun Nov 15, 2009 4:20 pm

Wicksteed Park at Kettering sounds good to us - not that we've managed to get to any meets so far.
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Re: choice of venues

Postby Luke » Sun Nov 15, 2009 5:55 pm

Unfortunatly it's not as simple as just changing venues :(

The deal billing offer us we dont have to risk a large amount of money on holding the show - this year i knew the max amount of money we could possably loose and even if no one turned up then the losses would be the same, other places (and ive talked to a fair few) we need to spend a lot more money and take a gamble on the amount of people are going to turn up!

i appreciate people would like the event to be cheaper - and if it was up to me it'd be free entry for everyone :!: the idea behind Transitmania is a show run by enthusiasts for enthusiasts - all i want is for the show long term is for it to be self financing (ie not cost money to run) i'm not the slightest bit interested in making money out of it, if it ever got to the point where it's making money that money would go back into the show! If it cost the same in 2010 as it did in 2009 then i dont think we'd be able to continue long term, but on the bright side the running costs should be less and we should have more interest from traders!

I have talked to wicksteed park and the way they run it is we have to hire the field and re-coup our costs by adding our costs to the ticket prices, i havent discounted Wicksteed as a possable future venue - infact in 2010 i'm gonna make a point of going to a show there have a look round at the facilities and hopefully have a chat to the manager who ive spoke to on email.

once the show is established it's easier to move from billing, in 2009 we had roughly 150 people 80/90 vans if we can improve on that for 2010 then it gives us a better idea as to how many we'll get for 2011. The problem i have is if we book a different venue we need to gamble on how many will turn up - it'll be more predictable in 2011 than it is in 2010 the running costs for the show dont go up relative to the amount of people turning up - what i mean by that is it wont cost twice as much for twice as many people.

I hope everyone can see things from my side - what i'd like is for us to eventually have a show to rival the VW's (aim high :lol: ) but seroiusly i see no reason why we cant have a weekend show with 1000 transits there in a few years 8)
but we need to walk before we can run!

The top and bottom of this is i'm gonna book Transitmania 2010 at Billing again :oops: :lol: and if the feeling is the same then move it for 2011 - i hope people will continue to support us as we do need the show to grow! one thing is it wont be on the bank holiday weekend so hopefully no one will have to pay the extra price mix up :(

if anyone wants to speak to me about this feel free to approch me at a meet and have a chat i dont mind at all - i find it much easier to explaine things face to face than typing it out! and theses so much more to it than what i've just typed out! i dont mind hearing peoples opinions - i know we cant please everyone but we do want to make it a weekend everyone enjoys :D

comments welcome :mrgreen:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby madbri » Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:22 pm

so come on transit owners all behind luke and make transitmania great :) :) :) then we can move cause well av bargining power and maybe well get invited ? p.s luke ure doing a top job and nobody blames u for billing being arsoles!!!! :wink: :wink: :wink:
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Re: choice of venues

Postby trigger » Sun Nov 15, 2009 6:27 pm

I am also in the Granada drivers guild which is the largest Granada club going and they moved from Billing to Wicksteed park this year and nearly all the members voted to stay at Wicksteed, they had a whole field to themselves and it's a lot quieter than Billing
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