Norfolk Show (1 Viewer)

[appydaze]

Shame about the weather and the fact that I wasn't able to make the show. How was it, I understand its a new one. I hope everyone had a great time.

 

[Taran_Las]

WET​

 

[sweetie]

Managed to go in the dry Friday morning. Arrived at 9.45 departed at 11.30
I know it was the first Norfolk show but it was very poor.
Think it was the wrong time of year for first show, in most dealers busy times and the start of summer holidays.

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[kip]

Only been to one other motorhome show (peterborough) but looking at the amount of campers there it would seem to have been a good turnout.The enclosed area was a little disapointing,quite small & not much to look at.weather as mentioned was crap so very little oppourtunity to sit outside & meet fellow campers.sat nite entertainment was good.About it really.Lets hope next years one will be better.

 

[wingman]

Top marks go to MHF Rally Marshalls for braving the elements with a smile!

Funny thing is; I was parked next to and met the above poster - Taran-Las!

Not much one can do about the weather. I guess there were thousands of outdoors events that suffered over this 'summer' weekend.

Over all, I thought the show was pretty good. The venue - obviously a large show ground - had good road links, was well signposted and the area itself had good internal hard roadways. Despite the lengthy heavy rain, the pitches drained ok.

The Saturday was the best day as it was sunny and warm for most of the day. There were three shuttle buses for show-goers, running continually to Norwich City Centre - at £2 for a return journey.

We took the shuttle and had a wander around the old part of the City, including the amazing Cathedral. We decided to skip the Norfolk Gay Pride march!

Didn't bother with Bobby Davro; not our cuppa tea, but Friday's free entertainment, a comedian (a-la Peter Kay) and three guys singing Motown-type hits were great.

As previously posted, Mrs W was a bit miffed at taking a few glad-rags, only to don waterproofs for the walk to the entertainment venue, leaving the frock in the wardrobe! We thought that there would only be a dozen hardy souls watching the performance, but were surprised to enter and find circa 1,000 people sitting down and having to get a table at the back!

As far as merchandising stalls went, there were the usual awning breeze blockers, Safari rooms, breatheable ground sheets, solar, LED and camping paraphernalia. There was also a fair amount of new and pre-owned Motorhomes on sale, though not on the scale of Petrrborough or Lincoln. I felt so sorry for the exhibitors; all those muddy feet tramping through their vehicles. Not ideal weather to promote the outdoorsy life either!

Note to oneself: Add waterproof trousers permanently to the clothing list

 

[s7ev0]

I thought it was a very decent stab at a first show at a new venue. Can't do much about the weather, and when it was dry there were lots of people about. It was a very nice showground too, with plenty of loos and trees, and a mahooosive entertainment hall. Even the ground stayed firm despite lashings of rain.

Looking forward to next year.

Steve

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[Easyliving]

This was the first MH show me and the mrs have been to and we thoroughly enjoyed it. The weather was really poor - didn't stop raining for 24 hours but we made the best of it.

We went to see the entertainment every evening and were very impressed. We particularly liked Dictionary of Soul with Roy Hemmings on Saturday evening and as for The Ivy League.....superb.

We have booked for Lincoln, these are great value shows.

Paul

The Ivy League in action.....

 

[RS_rob]

Sat turned out nice, didn't bother with the entertainment as it looked approx a mile away from where we were parked.

 

[MitchandJenny]

A good first effort run by Simpsons of Great Yarmouth. ( our dealer ).
We went on Saturday afternoon in the car as its only 15 miles away from us and the weather held.
As said previously, only a few exhibitors and stalls, but will be bigger next year and hopefully be blessed by better weather.
Mitch.

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[Taran_Las]

On the whole not a bad first attempt at all. As has been said before the organisers and punters are at the mercy of the british weather. The showground is ideal with plenty of toilets and the showers were OK. The show was a good opportunity to meet a few new faces and a lot of 'old' ones too! A big thanks to the marshalls for their sterling efforts despite getting rather wet.

​

 

[trekkin]

Think the era of shows is coming to an end, wether we like it or not, and I don't particularly, the world is getting smaller and with Internet communications so fast the need to visit these shows purely for information and ideas has dwindled. This is now a very expensive way of showing new models, products and ideas, as the organisers seem to be milking the traders for every penny for their share foot. The same can be said for most of the large trade shows at venues like the NEC.

We made it to the Stratford show recently and it took all of 10 minutes to see the show, but we had a brilliant time catching up with new friends and old. So for me now a show is a good excuse to all meet up enjoy the company and the atmosphere, see the local area, oh and if I get time I might wander around the show and spend a pound or two. But dry weather does help.

 

[Mikeco]

The timing is not great as it's only three weeks to the Malvern Show and that will be around twice the size of the Norfolk one in terms of traders and other things. Malvern is a show we go to as it gives us the chance to meet up with friends and people we see in Spain in winter.

Mike

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[Minxy]

We arrived on Thursday late afternoon and got pitched up. Friday we went straight over to Simpsons (first through the gate!) but were disappointed that they hadn't brought any 'rummage boxes' of spares etc to sell as we usually pick up a few things we didn't know we needed etc! It didn't take long to go round the stalls, about 2 hours and it was notable how many regulars were missing and although there were a few new ones their offerings were on the whole non-MH related.

Due to the weather deteriorating we decided to go to Great Yarmouth for a potter round and spent a good couple of hours or so there ... I even had a nice paddle in the sea which surprisingly wasn't cold! We had parked in Aldi for the 90 mins free parking but subsequently found out that Asda offered 3 hours free parking which was just another minute's walk away. We did buy some stuff from Aldi though so we didn't 'abuse' the parking as such!

Friday night we went t the entertainment for the last half hour of the female singer who was good but just not our cup of tea, and whilst I'm not a fan of Peter Kay the 'tribute' chap was very, very good indeed! We didn't stop for the later music though.

On Saturday after a potter around the stalls again in the morning with the dogs we went to get the bus into Norwich ... we must have been standing for at least 30 mins in cold (fortunately the rain hadn't started again) waiting for the bus - why on earthy they put on single deck coaches I don't know! Eventually we got to Norwich and were told to get the bus back from the same spot just before the crossing. After having a nice potter round and hitting the charity shops (getting an absolute bargain in the process) we had a nose round the market stalls and some of the other shops, a quick wander over to the 'gay pride' stage area then went to get the bus back ...

Despite going to the exact spot we were told to, there were 2 queues ... ours and another further along the road ... when the coach came he sailed past us and went to the other one so we all headed up there, we SHOULD all have been able to get on but the blooming bus driver let some others who walked up from where we had been originally get on first (even though they hadn't been queuing at all) ... none of us in the queue were happy and my hubby told the bus driver than we'd been told to go to the original drop off point by another driver and that the ones he'd just let on hadn't been queuing at all. We ended up with a further 15 mins or so wait for the next coach. It was raining when we got back to the camper and it continued for the rest of the day so we chilled out.

On Sunday morning I went for a potter round on my own while hubby had a sit in the van looking at stuff on the laptop, then later he went for a potter with the dogs whilst I tidied up ready for the off. We then set off in the heavy rain for our static caravan.

Whilst the show ground was good and took the heavy rain well I wasn't overly impressed with the signage etc ... on Friday to get tickets for the bus trip we had a game of 'hunt the information office' - it was right away from the rest of the show and the only sign we saw for it was once we were virtually in it! Some of the stalls weren't where they were supposed to be and on Sunday some of the appear to have been moved anyway to fill in some of the gaps.

On the whole I wasn't that keen on the show ... not enough stalls, not a massive amount of accessories etc - for example if you'd gone for a Cadac BBQ you'd have been sorely disappointed, not many of clothes stalls ... curry stall, cheese stall etc ... yes I know you will get variations due to the different locations but there were, IMV, not enough stalls specifically for MH bits and bobs ... there was even one encouraging MH owners to px them for a static caravan or park home!

We won't be going again and I guess a lot of others won't either.

 

[Minxy]

We made it to the Stratford show recently and it took all of 10 minutes to see the show, but we had a brilliant time catching up with new friends and old. So for me now a show is a good excuse to all meet up enjoy the company and the atmosphere, see the local area, oh and if I get time I might wander around the show and spend a pound or two. But dry weather does help.

Stratford, IMV is NOT a show, it's a few traders at a rally! Great if you're happy with that but not if you've traveled a long way believing it to be a show as we did one year ... although to be fair we were educated about the wondrous thing that is a McDonald's McFlurry ice-cream for the first time!

 

[s7ev0]

Agreed the Malvern show is much bigger, but we always like a show in a new area as we get to see new folk (read: customers!). We always find that there are lots of new motorhome owners at new shows, as they've not usually been to a show before and decide to pop along to the show in their local area. And for the first year it is already bigger than many other shows I could mention.

Of all those we chatted to over the course of the weekend, I can't remember one who wasn't pleasantly surprised by how good the show was.

Agree too, however, that Stratford is more of a good week away than a show.

Steve

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[sweetie]

A good first effort run by Simpsons of Great Yarmouth. ( our dealer ).
We went on Saturday afternoon in the car as its only 15 miles away from us and the weather held.
As said previously, only a few exhibitors and stalls, but will be bigger next year and hopefully be blessed by better weather.
Mitch.

I think you will find the show was put on by Warners group publications who put on many
motorhome shows such as peterborough and lincoln, so not a first effort. Only first for norfolk.
Simpsons where only a stall holder.

 

[cruiser]

sounds like a very disorganised show. but could get better. we may try this next year. I will see if I can get our Norfolk friends interested. how about it @Dawn B and @DuxDeluxe

 

[Minxy]

sounds like a very disorganised show. but could get better. we may try this next year. I will see if I can get our Norfolk friends interested. how about it @Dawn B and @DuxDeluxe

It wasn't very disorganised as such, just room for improvement and from a company who run shows all the time they should be aware of the things than need sorting so they shouldn't happen. If it was a local show I'd probably go as a day visitor for a mooch around (weather permitting!) but not for a weekend again.

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[DuxDeluxe]

sounds like a very disorganised show. but could get better. we may try this next year. I will see if I can get our Norfolk friends interested. how about it @Dawn B and @DuxDeluxe

We were otherwise engaged this year, but certainly could put it on the list for next, dates dependant......

 

[sweetie]

So pleased we only had 20 miles to travel and had a B.O.G.O.F £6 ticket

 

[RS_rob]

sounds like a very disorganised show. but could get better. we may try this next year. I will see if I can get our Norfolk friends interested. how about it @Dawn B and @DuxDeluxe

We would go back, its local ish

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[cruiser]

we might see you there @RS,rob