National Rally2019

Hi Alison,

your comment about the show grounds kind of explains why the club doesn't use them. We just returned from Stoneleigh Agricultural Showground, where Warner Leisure held an event with traders, entertainment and food stands. They must have been given time to set up and dismantle.  It was attended by a great number of people caravanning over the weekend.

We are scheduled to attend the Retrofestival at the Newbury Show Ground in August, god knows how many units attend, there are 3 big marquees, steam traction, traders, vintage fair ground and generators for the Berkshire rally attendees as well as the other traders and entertainment centres. Again must have a similar time frame for setting up etc as the National.

Shame the classic car rally had caused upset, had we not been elsewhere, may we'll have attended that with one of the Moggies.

Hi RnR,

the motor show certainly added to the event just the logistics of getting so many day visitors in and out through the gates along with our own that was awkward, as to the showgrounds issue yes we may well be able to get them for the extended time we need - but at what cost ?

I can just imagine the uproar from the members if we had to spend out more on sites for the National, we already get complaints about costs and we have volunteers running it that pay the same fees as everyone else, whereas Warners not only pay their staff, they ship in absolutely loads of hired outfits just for their use over the event. They are obviously a big company that doesn't have to answer to 'members' along the way.

Alison

Interestingly, the weekend away at Stoneleigh for us was from Thursday through to Monday for a cost of £48 for the both of us and caravan pitch. We had 4 nights of live music with 12 bands, plus live music during the day and dance lessons. I have no idea how they do this, we run jive dances with jusrpt 1 band in a night and need to charge £10 per person to break even.

As they are a business, there must have been some sort of profit at the end of the day, may be revenue from traders covered the costs, or it was a lost leader.

Will say we didn't have the community stuff though, like sporting competitions, dog shows or the other stuff laid on at the National.

Showgrounds are permanent venues with contractors available to build each event and they often run a continuous programme of events and shows, large and small making money from stall holders and on the gate charges. Plus revenue from conference, catering and social facilities for private hire. They are big businesses but some still struggle to keep going in some areas.