Derby Reprise

This week we received the official Derby summary from the organisers (thanks Josh) and an interesting read it was too.

What caught our eye in particular was the reference to a minority of traders taking more space than they were allocated which compounded the crowded nature of the venue (and there’s no getting away from the fact it was crowded) which got us to thinking; does this happen all the time? is it the same minority? is it custom and practice? and I guess, is it true?

The reasons behind the move were good to actually here from the organisers – I think we heard at least four different reasons before and during the show – the % reduction in numbers was also good to have officially – again every person we chatted to at the show seemed to have the inside track on the ‘massive reduction’ in attendance numbers which actually weren’t that bad considering. Whether the numbers can recover next year will be the real test we think.

The idea of a separate marquee for the tournament games seems like a good idea; certainly a load more space will be made available for the trade and/or display games although we stick to our point made in the earlier post that the foyer area needs to be utilised far more efficiently. I’m presuming the tournament players are OK with the marquee idea? and where will it go? The marquee for the catering seemed to take the available space around the building, maybe we missed something?

The reference for better toilet signs did make us laugh. We spent Saturday bitching about how small the toilets were, near us in the foyer area, “this is ridiculous, blah, blah, blah”  only to realise when we came back Sunday that there was a much bigger & better area at the far side of the hall and we had a map! We blamed it on the crowds.

It seems only fair to give the organisers a second chance, these things are hard work and if the problems can be overcome then Donnington will be a faded memory just like the university before it became.

The original plan for this post was going to be a ‘out of the box’ build and review of one of the Warlord WWII vehicle kits but the crash of the tablet wiped out each of the step by step photo’s – just as well really because it wasn’t a great experience – will mention in passing when I do the next one.

Bye for now.