Vapefest: Message from the organisers

[Mark]

This was posted on FB by Fiona Douthwaite (one of the VF team) and thought it worth sharing

"Hi everyoneThank you for attending Vapefest this year, I hope you enjoyed your time there.
For us it really was a step into the unknown. From a back garden in a pub to 53 acres requires lots of planning, and even then things can and do go wrong. So I feel it’d be best to share some before we get bogged down with
Arrival – What the vendors saw
Every year The Pony Club holds a week of… well, whatever it is they do. As far as I was told, they were only using part of the venue. In fact they had all of it, and a formal agreement from the venue manager. So when I received a phone call en route from a very distressed Pony Club organiser who was closing the gates on those who had arrived early was not the best start. Recieving panicked calls from vendors which were relayed whilst I was driving wasn’t great either.
Queued through the CarFest traffic and ended up arriving at 13:10 rather than 11:30. Pushed for time I spent 10 minutes calming down the Pony Club organisers and agreeing a plan of action.
I also discovered the venue manager I had been dealing with for 6 months was on holiday and one of the trustees was taking the reigns.
With that done I moved the vendors in as quickly as I could. I was still moving them in and running about when it was time to let campers in.
The Layout – The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men / Gang aft agley
I had planned the layout differently. I had to base it around the vendors who wanted electricity running to their tents and those who had pre-ordered marquees from a company the venue reccommended.
Unfortunately when the venue read my plan the week before they set it up on the wrong field entirely and the first I heard was “I had to move some tents around as there were trees in the way”. There were no trees on the field I had planned and everyone had more space. Phoned a few vendors. Not much to do about it.
The Raffle
“Called it too early” “Called it too late” “It went on too long” “The waiting time was poor”
Had to call it some time. We ran a little late as the venue had locked up the tannoy system I was hoping to use in the office, again something I wanted to plan with the venue manager and couldn’t with the trustee as he’d left the site by the time I had the oppertunity to think about it.
As a result DV very kindly offered us the use of their PA system with the proviso of “break it, buy it”. This took about 15 minutes to set up. When the rain did come, we needed to get it in as quickly as possible. Sorry if you felt it wasn’t communicated effectively that the raffle had ended.
I stuck to the 5 minute wait as if I dropped it and then a claim was made there’d have been hell on. In hindsight 2 minutes would have been better. Also the pre allocation of prizes, in previous years having the winner pick a ticket to see what prize they’d get worked, this year it didn’t.
The food.
I’m as annoyed about the food as you all are. I was told prices would be reasonable, they weren’t. The quality of the offering wasn’t that great either. Also because they are used to people overestimating attendance they didn’t believe our number expectations, neither did the venue, which is why there was also a queue.
But the bit that really grinds is there was no vegetarian option. There’s simply no excuse for them to not have offered this. I wasn’t told about it until Sunday or I would have approached them. I had asked for it when planning with the venue.
The food was tied to the venue, written in the contract of hire. I’d have rather had none and said to bring your own than the shambles it became. I’ve fed some of this back to the venue in a quick chat I had with the trustee, but there will be a further more comprehensive breakdown being sent on.
Bins
Because there was no break between the Pony Club leaving and us arriving the bins that were there weren’t emptied ready for us. There also weren’t enough of them.
Camping conditions
When I did the handover of the keys with the venue I explained what the deal was with the camping conditions and as we were up against it (time wise) I could do with not having to check, was a digital copy now ok, explained that it was posted up on the website and anyone could access it. Trustee said ok, sorted, one less thing to check as everyone can access a copy anyway. So, sorry to those who went to the extra trouble. We’ll know for next year and I’ll be asking the venue to update their conditions.
JuiceFest & Vendor opening times
It’s been suggested that there was only juice and not enough ecig gear was available at the event.
There were plenty of gear vendors that attended. Perhaps you missed them. Unfortunately with being behind schedule we didn’t have time to publish the map which we were going to put up on Friday.
Some vendors also didn't turn up and we only found out on the day. We tried to get a full spectrum but if people don't turn up on the day there's nothing we can do. This could be a reason you didn't see a full range of gear available.
As for opening times, it’s a tiring day for all and we can’t say to vendors that they must stay open. They open and close whenever they like within the opening times of Vapefest.
Disabled access
Vendors present were asked to ensure disabled access was catered for. The team on the day recieved no complaints.
It saddens me that having received no request for help on the day, we have received complaints after the event when we can do nothing about them. There is a time and a place for this to be dealt with, that’s at the venue as a reasonable adjustment. All you had to do was ask and we would have been happy to help.
We provided a whole field for disabled parking. It didn’t fill up so there was plenty of space.
The state of the venue
I was told the venue are awaiting sponsor to remedy the roads, unfortunately this didn’t come through in time for VF or their own County Show. So when the rain came, and came, and came some vendors looked like they’d hired a moat for the day. Nowt can be done, except maybe a drawbridge. As a result things got a little muddy.
Toilets at most festival venues are a bit crap. However I don’t think it was helped in this case by there being no break for cleaning between The Pony Club and Vapefest.
Rubbish
Campers, this doesn’t concern you, you were brilliant and responsible, skip to the next bit
Vendors. The state some of you left your pitches in was atrocious. It wasn’t just noted by the staff, but also by marquee companies and people posting reviews on youtube.
Clean up took from 6am Sunday morning until 6:30pm. 12 hours worth of cleaning up, the majority for people who should know better. Shame.
Ric (VF Organiser) and the Vapefest Committee"

 

[Ment]

Sounds OK to me, I still wish I'd been able to go. People these days want their noses wiped for them, but us vapers are a tough lot.

 

[Tubbyengineer]

From someone who was there...

Most of the arrangements were fine, Yes food prices were eyewatering and a selection of £Ouch for a hot pork sandwich, £OMG for a Burger or £Jeezus for a Sausage masquerading as a hot dog was not great, but most people seemed to appreciate the food was not your fault and certainly the POTV camping crew found out the real truth by Sunday morning.

Road / Path conditions, most people I spoke to were unsuprised at the roads / paths, It's an agricultural showground, It was just a mercy the grass didnt turn into a swamp - Frankly most festivals suffer far worse problems and all the wheelchair users I saw seemed to be making the best of it.

The Raffle, Hmm - Yes a bit of a logistical nightmare and we came up with the solution of a one minute wait then write the number on a board, move on to the next one and keep calling unclaimed numbers at intervals until the end then re-draw them, and all during the drawing as soon as it becomes clear that someone is claiming a prize call the next number, But Hey it'll work better next year, and my little group got raffle tickets but couldn't find / get the giveaway bags with the golden tickets in.

Gear / Juice ratio, If some Vendors didn't turn up then thats beyond your control but juice is by far the most varied range of goods in the Vaping world so juice vendors would be more numerous - they are on the internet... I didnt get round all the stands I wanted to visit but did get My Vapourshark RDNA, A Vulcan RDA, Aerotank Mega and Mini, Lots of lovely juices, a very sad wallet and extremely sore feet...

General rating 7.5 out of 10 - A few rough edges to knock off but generally a very positive experience. I'm looking forward to next year and if you can have a word with the weather people to provide Sunshine, gentle breezes and unlimited free beer I'd be eternally grateful...

 

[Colonelboom]

I think any new event at a different venue is going to have a few hiccups and I was made aware of the status regarding the layout change on arrival (late on in the day as my driver had crashed the hire van - whoops)

That being said there was only one real gripe which was addressed - the food, prices and lack of choice! From a vendors standpoint it was incredibly hard as we didnt get anything to eat the first attempt which had apparently sold out, the second attempt was a 45 minute wait and around 4pm before we had anything to munch on - when you consider that we arrived at 8am to setup the tent and were rushed off our feet from 8:30 onward it was hard going without a quick and easy way to refuel.

Similarly coffee, I need buckets of it usually and it was 4pm before any hit my lips. Thankfully JustDave managed to find a source for bottled water or it would have been hell.

That being said, it was a minor hiccup and out of the organiser control, essentially greed on the venue's part judging by it being written into their terms.

Nicer weather would have been good but even then we found the rain brought people into the tents anyway, we had a few disabled visitors who had no issues getting to the tables. You can't please everyone but I thought the problems they had with services and organisation were well masked - if only I had a chance to go and buy some shinies it would have made a great time for me

 

[Empvap]

I just want to add my mahoosive thank you for all of the organisers and most especially Ric. This chap works full time and yet was there for vendors into the wee small hours tapping out e-mails back and forward, answering all the daft questions that us vendors have in the months, weeks and days running up to VF14.

When things changed, like a complete move of field for us electrified peeps, he was right on the phone.

Some things were completely out of the committees control such as the Marquee company erecting the wrong size of marquee and placing it round the wrong way. Still Ric was there to offer support, suggestions, even a tape measure.

For other vendors I would advise :

Camp, staff loved it ! They preferred being all together rather than separated out in rooms.

Bring lots of food and drinks - it saves queuing times and keeps staff happy. It also helps out if you are travelling a long distance, like us, and want to keep on the road as much as possible.

Food in Shrewsbury:

Shrewsbury is well cheaper than major cities for food and taxis - We were astounded at how cheap fish and chips were for 9 people. Ditto the taxi to go get them. The portion sizes were also very generous.

My only query when gathering up our rubbish was the complete lack of recycling. It may be different in England, but in Scotland, new laws came into effect earlier this year which require all businesses to recycle with fines if they do not. After carefully sorting out our cardboard/paper from plastic/cans etc, I could not find any form of recycle bins to dispose of them separately.

Great venue, pity about the rain but hey ho it is Britain and what an experience for vendors and visitors alike !

Amazing work by the committee, Thank you.

And finally,

I would like to apologise to all the visitors who had to wait an extra couple of hours for us to open. Having lost about 3 hours on the road on Friday to traffic issues on the M6, we could only do a third of the set up we had planned for the Friday evening and thus had no choice but to complete it on the Saturday morning. It did however give us the idea of having a closed Marquee next year as the interest in what was behind the flap was high. Every few minutes a head would pop round asking "are you open" ! We reckon having someone standing replying "Shh, round the back mate, don't tell anyone" could go down really well