Jae this year
 

Just got back from the weekend in JAE this year. TBH Im a little bit disappointed. Although me or my mates didnt have any problem with camping, as a few of us didnt have any stand passes, I think the whole thing got off on the wrong foot due to confusion over the camping issue. We arrived on the Friday and pitched near the Essex boys and not too far from sidc/scoobycity "stage". Hats off to those boys, they know how to party, the fri night was cracking and sat night was spoiled a little by the 10.30 pm curfew on private music etc. I know there was housing nearby but a 10.30 curfew, everyone I spoke to thought it was a joke.

In comparison to previous JAEs at Billing, I thought this one was a bit of a damp squib. And thats not just down to the pissy weather today. I didnt think there was much in the way of trade stands, and didnt see any auto jumble type stalls, always good to have a rummage and find a bargain ;).

Everything also seemed miles apart. There just didnt seem to be the numbers there of previous meets of either traders or punters. I must say i dont think Ill be going next year.

miserable git :p the copious amounts of alcohol made up for it though :D
good night and god bless

Crate of stella saw me through ;) LOL good night and God bless from the celica stand at 22.29 :D

I live a few hundred yards away from the Showground, and the curfew for music/parties for other events is normaly 12:30-1:00am :confused: All the locals accept this and don't have a problem with partying so Gawd knows who dreamt up the 10:30 curfew (thought it was abit quiet last night :D )!!!

From a newcomers point of view me and the missus had a cracking day out yesterday but were expecting alot more trade stands and thought Subaru/Nissan/Mitsubishi UK etc would have had a major presence promoting their wares.

The missus saw a silver Scoob with a pink/silver sticker set and now is intent on stickering up our car in similar colours :eek: :rolleyes:

i didn't think much to it this year, i still don't know what the deal was with camping - i turned up said no im not in a car club, he said sorry this is for car clubs only ?????? then the missis had a go and he let us in :)

and what happened to the fireworks ow and 10.30 shutdown, the aquadome didnt get started till 10.30

things for j.a.e to think about next year

the toilets were discusting
the lack of bins around the site
sign posting for exits and stands and clubs
were was the dicso tent as from last year and fireworks
10:30 curfew is never going to work how boring
flame comp in arena why do it in day light and parking the cars next to the track wall lots of people could not see a thing
show and shine why have it on a dusty track ????????? some of these people spent all weekend cleaning the cars then had to do it again after show and shine

oh and better weather would be nice.... lol

I too live very close to the Showground (100yds away from the nearest fence) and we were very surprised at the lack of noise. The major events when people camp (eg TruckFest) were much louder, much later. It doesn't bother us (double glazing) and in any case I'm quite happy with people having a good time late into the night.

It was the first JAE that I've attended and TBH I won't bother next year, even though it is only a 5 minute drive round to the car park. Not enough trade stands, and most of them were styling/ice, not something I'm interested in. Hardly any motorsport/performance suppliers of interest, though it was nice to take a look on the Zen stand.

Poor value at £10 for a day ticket.

On the Negative side: (We only went on the Sunday)


The toilets were disgusting near the SIDC area, and the gents closed on the Sunday altogether, prolly could not take anymore.

This has become more of a get together for clubs, than a show for the public to see our cars.

The rain was wet.

Having said this, it offers more potential than before at Billing.

Thanks to SIDC City & ESC clubs for the BBQ that was first class, and thanks for the hard work the club organisers put into arranging it for us.

Roll on next year.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.la.../Spoiler/a.JPG

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/paul.la.../Spoiler/c.JPG

Scoobydaddy, AKA Ajax, Paul

Well,a few negative's about the show
personally i had a great time,had a good chat to the guy's and girl's at the nissan micra club,they were brill !

enjoyed the show and shine,tug of war etc,food was the best ive ever eaten at a public fair/event

got some great imfo and idea's from the various trader's there

Many thanks to scott www.scottlowe.co.uk for his hospitality on the day

only a couple of downside's to the show were the weather(but we are brit's and get used to it) and the taxi driver on the sunday morning,that demanded £13 from our hotel to the show ground,roughly 1 and a half miles away,like Fak i was paying that and gave him a fiver

I'm surprised at people saying how bad the toilet blocks were. Where we were camped everyone said how good/clean we thought they were which made a nice change, then again there were probably more people using the ones next to the car clubs.

We had a good and busy weekend which was good in a way but didn't really give us a chance to get a proper look at all the cars that were on show as they seemed so spread out over the place.

I did enjoy the weekend and it's always good to catch up with people who you may only ever talk to via the internet. :)

curfew @ 10.30!!!

Ok it was turned down a bit but sidc/scoobycity was still going when i finally collapsed @ 1ish

yep i'm a heavyweight , lightweight lol

lots to learn from this year

like jesus doesn't it take a long time to cook 500 rashers of bacon ;)

Some interesting comments there.

Carlos13, I'm a little disappointed with you saying you probably won't go next year. You've no idea about what may be planned for the next one - give it a chance!

The facilities were the best I've encountered at this type of event. Sure the toilets became a bit of a mess - but it's those who abuse them that are mainly to blame.

The club stands were presented extremely well and everyone made a good effort - a very well done to you all, especially the small and new clubs. The layout wasn't particularly effective. A ring-like arrangement would have been far better as it would have been easier to get to see all the clubs. For the narrow-minded one-marque person it was ok. They were spread out too much too, with large gaps, making it much further to walk.

The trade stands... A good turn out, but not enough. It can work out rather expensive which definitely put smaller traders off. The pitch cost, personnels wages and possible loss of earnings by not carrying out usual business is not to everyone's liking. The requirement to offer 'special deals' on the day is another thing that puts them off. Whether they lose out in the long run is another matter. There were a number of traders who wanted to attend, but couldn't get a space - why were there gaps in the trade area?. I felt the trade stands were also poorly positioned in relation to the clubs stands - put them central!

There were the usual nuggets (right next to us), dough-nutting and playing football next to expensive cars - I somehow managed to restrain myself from physical action. I'll do my best to make sure they don't get a stand next year (non-Subaru people thankfully).

I've got a lot more to say (good and bad), but I must do some work today ;)

Just a well done to everyone who attended. Pity about the weather. I enjoyed it, probably because it gave me a chance to see and speak to people that I haven't for a while.

Take the opportunity to put your good and bad points across so it can be better next year.

The camping and boozing aside, I tend to find this type of show a tad boring now. A bunch of cars, most of which we've seen before, a few trade stands flogging the same old stuff! If you compare this with say, Rallyday at Castle Coombe you begin to see what I mean - For the same price you get good entertainment - track action, real rally drivers driving real rally cars, stunt driving, loads of trade selling some good bits - not just cheap speakers, coloured side repeaters and noisy dump valves! Oh, and of course, you get to see more than just Jap cars! Trax is another super day out. I love performance cars, not just Jap performance cars!
JohnD

I gotta agree about the trade stands and the toilets but apart from them 2 items i found it a top w/end altho the 10:30 curfew only ment i had to sit round the BBQ talkin to m8s instead of shouting at them ........ the shouting started after we was p***ed and in the tent :nono: but ill be going again and i loved the "unofficial skyline owners club" they took it in good fun when on the friday i walked into there marque and explained how much better scoobies were then skylines :iamwithst top w/end and roll on the next meet cos remeber it aint exactly the event its the ppl that make it great for ya

I went on the Sunday and it was really wet....but i still enjoyed it....but the biggest shock was when i was in the INVOAUTO tent...they had some very interesting stuff but the guy that runs it was the rudest bad mannered guy i had ever seen....the tent was full and a customer(fellow scooby owner) enquired about a center section exhaust for his classic scoob....Tommy the guy who i think runs or maybe even owns the place gave him a price of £180..
the customer replied "that's expensive" and turned around to walk off....anyway blimey did the Tommy guy lose it....starting going off on one shouting and how dare he say expensive...and how he did not like people coming into his tent and saying stuff like that...the guy replied that it his opinion and why is he losing it so badly.....anyway Tommy went on and on....i never ever seen a customer being talked to that badly ever...specially when the guy did not even say anything bad.....i really felt sorry for the customer and it really did put a dampener on the show....more so than the weather...

There might have been a few negatives about the weekend, but it certainly wasn't the fault of the SIDC - well done guys, you put in a great effort and it really paid off. Karaoke may never be my thing, but you did a great job with the bbq - I certainly wasn't hungry :) (That said, if you're after constructive criticism, a bit more variety might not go amiss next time if you can manage it - it is possible to get burger poisoning? ;) )

The layout was good too - I was able to camp right near the car, which is handy, yet far enough away from the disco that I was able to get to sleep without being unduly disturbed by it. I'd be the last one to suggest that everybody should have to pack up and go to bed just because I'm tired, so it was nice to have the choice.

Overall I felt the show was a bit too spread out to really get much of a 'buzz' going - it did feel a bit flat, especially on the Saturday morning. Maybe that's the downside of spreading everything out over a larger venue, I just hope that next year the weather is a bit better and more people turn up to fill the space better.

Trade area: pretty good IMHO. More is always better, but I was able to pick up a few bargains (sponges, wax, tools) which was good. I'm never going to make a major purchase like a new turbo or spoiler on impulse at a show, so I like there to be a wider selection of inexpensive goodies. JAE was the best show this year in that respect IMHO.

The bogs were horrible though, not through abuse but simply because they weren't getting cleaned often enough if at all. They're bound to end up stinking of piss after a while - it's in their very nature - so 0 out of 10 to the showground staff for not realising this and making an effort. The rest of the site was clean enough.

Many thanks to the SIDC committee for all your hard work, it really made the difference between a good weekend and what could have been a disappointing one. Special thanks to Karyn & Dave for the use of your van to store the beer barrel :)

The bogs must have been cleaned. I went to three different ones throughout the weekend. The one near the Toyota/Honda stand was spotless on Saturday evening - definitely had been cleaned recently. I also went to the ones near the Skyline (closest to SIDC) stand and that was clean at around 11.30 am on Sunday, just a bit of dirt dragged in on peoples feet due to the rain I suppose.

I had a great day, some good points made though, interesting to hear :thumb:

Thanks for the compliment. It was only our 2nd show at which we have had a stand with products on display, and it's always tricky to know how to pitch it. A number of traders only came on the saturday, but I agree the quality wasn't always good.

From our position we didn't quite cover our costs, despite taking £1400 in sales on the day. We had planned to put a car on the stand, so had a larger stand than we actually needed, the overall costs were around the £500 mark (cost of pitch, van hire, consumables, insurance, not to mention absorbing the cost of an £800 awning, or my time). If I had had work booked in on the saturday then i would have lost potentially a further £500 in being away. So for a new business you need to look at the long term gain, and hope that you can draw at least a few customers that bring you repeat business and spready positive word of mouth feedback.

It would have been much better i think if the traders had been central. Because I never got a chance to really look at any club stands, and felt that for some it was too far to come given the size of the venue.

It was starting to look good on sunday people wise but the weather soon put paid to that. :(

Paul

I agree with Paul about the trader layouts - coming into the show it looked like there was to be acres of trade stalls arranged in typical showground style to accomodate large crowds - but then it just lasted a few hundred feet.....

I enjoyed the closeness of stalls and clubs side by side at Billing and I missed this at Peterborough.
To me, that is the enjoyment and uniqueness of JAE as it differs from the big show clones that blur into a sameness.

Perhaps a large centre of stalls facing inwards towards the tit$ n glitz stands to keep punters circulating next year?
Clubs closer to trade stands?

It felt like a bit of a transition stage from Billing and I hope that future shows retain some of the old character but are sized to cope with visitors that Billing couldn't cope with.


Nick

Get your constructive critisism in here:

http://www.japcarclub.com/jae/forums...=ST&f=1&t=372&

why did it move from billing?

I think that it was decided the venue was too small for the amount that attend.

JAE was not half as big as the VBOA tho??

I was certainly surprised not to see trade stands from the like of subaru, mitsibushi, honda and toyota indeed the organizers missed a trick not getting the local dealers involved, nor any of the copious amount of car magazines we have based here in the city nor any of the Kit car companies we have Tiger or Radical both using jap engines(tenuous i know, lol). I think JAE certainly need someone working on things at a local level.

Not a bad weekend all in all.
The Scoobycity/SIDC/Essex Crew stand rocked through the Night, ( 12.30 am) and guys you really have to make it too the Friday Night Disco next year ;)

i've been to a few VBOAs and i agree - they are much bigger and much better than this weekend's JAE.

hopefully next year will be worth the 500mile round trip i make...

i have been to a lot of VBOA`s and i know the VBOA is much, much bigger


saying JAE was to big for billing had me a bit miffed, VBOA takes over most of the entire park :)

not just the odd field?

there must be another reason, this reminds me of the time when the PNG moved there yearly meet away from billing, (which seamed to crash and burn shortly afterwards lol) lots of reasons were given for the move, but we all knew it was due to ****wits driving around pissed and crashing into rivers etc etc

I enjoyed camping there last year in the Billing. Couldn't go this year.

Sounds mixed.

Brian :)

mate came into work today for a chat and said it was really bad in his opinion
i heard 2/3 of the car clubs refused to move and stayed at billing by themselves?