Posted on 22nd Jul 2010 @ 8:56 PM

Well nearly a week has passed and I am still sorting the stock that was my stand at Billing.  This is about par for the course, invaribly back home either late on Sunday or mid Monday morning, then the first thing is to pack all the orders through the website, we started fulfilling these on Tuesday this week but have only just got them all done to be honest.  It has been a very busy couple of weeks.

Thoughts on the show..... Well my own opinion (and that shared by a number of my trade colleagues) would suggest the days of the Billing show are numbered.  For those traders who remember the early years of the show, and I am not one of them, though I was an early visitor to the show long before Touring Gear came about, things have changed.  I would suggest the trade stands have dropped in number by about 50% and the visitor numbers are down by about 75%.

I am setting myself up here, I am sure some organisation or other will point out that it was another 'classic Billing show' with thousands through the gates etc etc.  In some ways the old favourites are still there.  Cold showers (again) Running out of water (again) Blocked toilets (again) Vehicle theft (again) Less room to camp (again) get the picture?  I am unsure how it has improved, I only see the issue from a trade perspective though which may be blinkered / biased / honest depending which hat you wear.   I am told however that it now costs £15.00 per adult for a day ticket and £10.00 per child, so a family of four = £50.00 add in the food costs and travelling to the show etc and it soon becomes an expensive gig. 

I remember going to the show as a punter and struggling to see down the aisles for folk going around and I could wander around all day and barely see the same stand twice.  One year I even went there Saturday and Sunday because I felt I had missed some of it  (I think it used to cost a fiver to get in)  In those days you only had the Billing show, the other events had not started so for a one off weekend all the trade piled into Billing stacked up their wares and the folk flooded in, it was great.  Nowadays everybody wants to run a show and running the events has become big business and the organiser is most likely the biggest winner, their profits may be down due to the current 'Credit Crunch' (but at least they are making a profit) but they dont loose out if the weather is bad or the showers are cold or the toilet is.... done that already, sorry.

The trouble is Billing is just not a show site, it is a camping and caravan site and it probably does that very well, the facilities cope OK and the site has enough attractions.  Add in say 10,000 people over 3 days with 70% of those on Saturday and it will struggle, I heard a rumour about parking problems on Saturday, another side effect of the onsite building program no doubt.

Me thinks it days are numbered.

The next event is the LRM show at Stoneleigh in Warwickshire.  This is a purpose built show site and should offer much better facilities with a good central location.  The question is can LRM (and the new publisher Dennis) deliver a good event on what is sometimes a tricky weekend.  Time will tell.

Must finish unloading the van. 

See ya.