@ Britt! I love the expression! I could say the same. I'd be inclined to go all the same if it wasnt so bloody expensive but their prices are a joke for what could prove to be a weekend in a field.
Vantastival
- Thread starter Brian T
- Start date
@ Britt! I love the expression! I could say the same. I'd be inclined to go all the same if it wasnt so bloody expensive but their prices are a joke for what could prove to be a weekend in a field.
all very sus in my opinion.
unknown organisers who didn't approach the clubs but waited for the clubs to approach them? working for a festival just means putting bog roll in the portaloos in exchange for free entry. tell them Eircooled will collect the money from our members on their behalf and hand it over when half way through the "festival". that way no-one loses. unless they don't trust a club which would be very un VW of them
unknown organisers who didn't approach the clubs but waited for the clubs to approach them? working for a festival just means putting bog roll in the portaloos in exchange for free entry. tell them Eircooled will collect the money from our members on their behalf and hand it over when half way through the "festival". that way no-one loses. unless they don't trust a club which would be very un VW of them
Dont believe a word of it , We passed you on your way home.
:lol::lol::lol:
I love your basket Justin
Great idea Ruairi, If they are genuine they should go for it,
Deckie email them back and see what they say.
Would they have any objection to a row of gas canisters filled with nitrous oxide to sell fillable balloons to punters? Just curious...
Right folks,
I suppose a few introductions are in order. I'm Benny,myself and my partner Lou are the event directors of the festival .. sorry for the delay joining the forum but the past three weeks have been MENTAL , and besides, nothing i own apart from a few generators is air cooled.. I had a good laugh reading the forum, and am glad to see that the time honored Irish tradition of taking the piss is alive and well on Eircooled..
To begin to address some of your concerns, yes, this is an ambitious project. Already three months work has gone into it pretty much full time by both of us. As Lou mentioned in her e-mail to Declan, we have almost 20 years of combined experience in the festival and event industry, in my case, mostly on the site production/management/crew end(stages,layout,services,crew management,structure ect) and for Lou its site decor, and festival production (helping run the event once commenced). In all these years we have managed to make a few friends in the business who are willing to back us in this venture, in fact most of the Vantastival crew are Electric Picnic regulars so again while this is an ambitious project both of us feel we're up to the task.
Now, moving on to the music. Although we did contact Jedward, they were unfortunately unavailable to headline although they did say they might make a special appearance. This said we did manage to get Kila and Jack L as headliners with some amazing Irish act's on three stages including Fred, The Hot Sprocketts, Jinx Lennon, Fiach and Prairie Dawgs. Seriously we have booked 25 music acts so far with many more to be confirmed, and they will be listed on the website this week with links to their myspace pages. I urge you to check them out, as some of them are off the scale. We have gone for a diverse mix, 70's rock, electro, rockabilly, memphis blues, heavy rock, swing, ambient rock, reggae and an entire stage dedicated to trad and folk. We are also close to closing a deal with the Gramophone Disco from Electric Picnic to run an all night speak-easy.
This will be a great music festival in it's own right, but we have had our VW Lt35 for some years now and often thought a good campervan festival would be a good idea, had done a few conversions for friends and understand how consuming a project gets, so when i lost my job in October as a carpenter I started to really play this festival around in my mind, to mix a good weekend with professional knowledge and like minded people. Lou rode a Vespa in college and I have some friends into the scooter scene who suggested we add the scooter aspect and since we launched our facebook page and website have gotten quite a few queries about bringing vintage cars on site. To this end we will include a vintage car area although there won't be many (any?) trade stands catering for vintage car enthusiasts.
Regarding the price we are trying to keep this as competitive as possible, we understand cash is tight but unlike some of the English van shows we are offering a full festival of music and all that that entails cost wise. Also this is a bring your own beer event and as we are not making any revenue from an onsite bar this leads to better value for the festival goer. In addition to this we are making this event fully legitimate and will have to cover all Garda, ambulance, security, fire and health and safety costs, while paying insurance at uniquely Irish prices. If we can establish this festival and grow the numbers over a few years the cost may come down but right now we are on a knife edge trying to put enough in the kitty to expand next year.
Anyway I hope this has answered some of your questions and i hope you get behind the event. We're working hard to create something new and different over here and don't be afraid to contact me, even if its only for a good slagging!!!
Regards to you all
Benny
I suppose a few introductions are in order. I'm Benny,myself and my partner Lou are the event directors of the festival .. sorry for the delay joining the forum but the past three weeks have been MENTAL , and besides, nothing i own apart from a few generators is air cooled.. I had a good laugh reading the forum, and am glad to see that the time honored Irish tradition of taking the piss is alive and well on Eircooled..
To begin to address some of your concerns, yes, this is an ambitious project. Already three months work has gone into it pretty much full time by both of us. As Lou mentioned in her e-mail to Declan, we have almost 20 years of combined experience in the festival and event industry, in my case, mostly on the site production/management/crew end(stages,layout,services,crew management,structure ect) and for Lou its site decor, and festival production (helping run the event once commenced). In all these years we have managed to make a few friends in the business who are willing to back us in this venture, in fact most of the Vantastival crew are Electric Picnic regulars so again while this is an ambitious project both of us feel we're up to the task.
Now, moving on to the music. Although we did contact Jedward, they were unfortunately unavailable to headline although they did say they might make a special appearance. This said we did manage to get Kila and Jack L as headliners with some amazing Irish act's on three stages including Fred, The Hot Sprocketts, Jinx Lennon, Fiach and Prairie Dawgs. Seriously we have booked 25 music acts so far with many more to be confirmed, and they will be listed on the website this week with links to their myspace pages. I urge you to check them out, as some of them are off the scale. We have gone for a diverse mix, 70's rock, electro, rockabilly, memphis blues, heavy rock, swing, ambient rock, reggae and an entire stage dedicated to trad and folk. We are also close to closing a deal with the Gramophone Disco from Electric Picnic to run an all night speak-easy.
This will be a great music festival in it's own right, but we have had our VW Lt35 for some years now and often thought a good campervan festival would be a good idea, had done a few conversions for friends and understand how consuming a project gets, so when i lost my job in October as a carpenter I started to really play this festival around in my mind, to mix a good weekend with professional knowledge and like minded people. Lou rode a Vespa in college and I have some friends into the scooter scene who suggested we add the scooter aspect and since we launched our facebook page and website have gotten quite a few queries about bringing vintage cars on site. To this end we will include a vintage car area although there won't be many (any?) trade stands catering for vintage car enthusiasts.
Regarding the price we are trying to keep this as competitive as possible, we understand cash is tight but unlike some of the English van shows we are offering a full festival of music and all that that entails cost wise. Also this is a bring your own beer event and as we are not making any revenue from an onsite bar this leads to better value for the festival goer. In addition to this we are making this event fully legitimate and will have to cover all Garda, ambulance, security, fire and health and safety costs, while paying insurance at uniquely Irish prices. If we can establish this festival and grow the numbers over a few years the cost may come down but right now we are on a knife edge trying to put enough in the kitty to expand next year.
Anyway I hope this has answered some of your questions and i hope you get behind the event. We're working hard to create something new and different over here and don't be afraid to contact me, even if its only for a good slagging!!!
Regards to you all
Benny
I'm afraid you won't reach future years at those prices! Trying to run before you can walk is my opinion. Why not reduce the number of acts (of which I know 1) and overheads and create a good Festival at a reasonable price, then expand it next year. I'm sure people will be more willing to pay an extra 10 or 20 euro the following year due to the success of the previous year!
I wish you's all the best of luck with your venture and really hope it does work out and become a regular large scale Camper Van event in Ireland. The country needs something like this to stop us travelling abroad for it!
But at those prices per person I think I'll stay home!
I wish you's all the best of luck with your venture and really hope it does work out and become a regular large scale Camper Van event in Ireland. The country needs something like this to stop us travelling abroad for it!
But at those prices per person I think I'll stay home!
Sorry you won't be there KnK.
Our club rate is €60 and (early bird) first 500 are €65... If we go any lower guaranteed there won't be a second year! Major overheads are Gardai, security and site infrastructure and dealing with relevant bureaucracy. These costs do not come down in conjunction with numbers and are only slightly lower irregardless of whether we have 1000 or 3000..
Try and think of any weekend camping festival with prices as good as these.. All feedback so far regarding price has been positive.
Cheers,
Benny
Our club rate is €60 and (early bird) first 500 are €65... If we go any lower guaranteed there won't be a second year! Major overheads are Gardai, security and site infrastructure and dealing with relevant bureaucracy. These costs do not come down in conjunction with numbers and are only slightly lower irregardless of whether we have 1000 or 3000..
Try and think of any weekend camping festival with prices as good as these.. All feedback so far regarding price has been positive.
Cheers,
Benny
To many ingredients is my opinion! Shows have been discussed here before and Ive always wanted to be part of running a VW show and Ive ideas about an extreme sports gig too. Mates of mine have organised one day events in the past for modified cars (KNK knows em!).
Anyway Ive been to most of the major VW shows in the UK over the years, BVF, BugJam, Action, RTTS, Stonleigh, Volksworld, NAS, BigBang etc etc plus Im into bikes show Ive been to biker rallies, and other big big event plus of course music events from Witness to Glastonbury!!
Im all for what your doing but I think you've too much going on!
What exactly is it your pitching? A music festival? A Van festival??? A campervan festival or a scooter show? and now you have classic cars too!!!!
Its not a VW show for a start as theres not enough of a scene to support all those bands even though there is enough VW at this stage to run an all ireland show, (only only a small percentage ever turn up to shows any way)
Whats a van owner??? White van man? Mikey the Pikey?? Theyre not the same as VW owners.
Camper owners??? Retired folk or caravaners without a tow-bar, not exactly festival goers, so that leaves the carni folk, new agers, tree huggers etc!
Surfers, mountain bikers, motocrossers etc might have vans and campers but whats to attact them apart from it being a music festival!
Scooters, well they are theyre own scene, and a mix of skins and Mods.
As for the vintage car scene, eh no! Escorts, Vws, Twin cams perhaps but apart from the 24 -40 year old guys into retro stuff i cant see any classic car guys being into it!! Theyre a different sort, look at Limerick show, its a bit us and them!!!!
Prices too are a lil steep, theres a resession on, i can have 3 days of everything i want at Bugjam for about £45 (£35 advance), thats drag racing, trade stands, RWYB, skate park, bands, dj's, show n shine, funfair, comedy tent, open air cinema, MX freestyle display, stunt driving etc, etc.
Check out www.bugjam.co.uk
And whats with the 'camper build off', 5k for each team or did i read that wrong?
I'd love a decent show, a weekender where i can park my VWs and stay over and theres nothing like that in ireland, but I be cautious about attenting what seems to be a music festival in my 54' cos it would mean that there would be lots of none car folk there, just getting pissed all weekend and with no respect for someones pride and joy!
SO in one line/statement what type of show is it?
Anyway Ive been to most of the major VW shows in the UK over the years, BVF, BugJam, Action, RTTS, Stonleigh, Volksworld, NAS, BigBang etc etc plus Im into bikes show Ive been to biker rallies, and other big big event plus of course music events from Witness to Glastonbury!!
Im all for what your doing but I think you've too much going on!
What exactly is it your pitching? A music festival? A Van festival??? A campervan festival or a scooter show? and now you have classic cars too!!!!
Its not a VW show for a start as theres not enough of a scene to support all those bands even though there is enough VW at this stage to run an all ireland show, (only only a small percentage ever turn up to shows any way)
Whats a van owner??? White van man? Mikey the Pikey?? Theyre not the same as VW owners.
Camper owners??? Retired folk or caravaners without a tow-bar, not exactly festival goers, so that leaves the carni folk, new agers, tree huggers etc!
Surfers, mountain bikers, motocrossers etc might have vans and campers but whats to attact them apart from it being a music festival!
Scooters, well they are theyre own scene, and a mix of skins and Mods.
As for the vintage car scene, eh no! Escorts, Vws, Twin cams perhaps but apart from the 24 -40 year old guys into retro stuff i cant see any classic car guys being into it!! Theyre a different sort, look at Limerick show, its a bit us and them!!!!
Prices too are a lil steep, theres a resession on, i can have 3 days of everything i want at Bugjam for about £45 (£35 advance), thats drag racing, trade stands, RWYB, skate park, bands, dj's, show n shine, funfair, comedy tent, open air cinema, MX freestyle display, stunt driving etc, etc.
Check out www.bugjam.co.uk
And whats with the 'camper build off', 5k for each team or did i read that wrong?
I'd love a decent show, a weekender where i can park my VWs and stay over and theres nothing like that in ireland, but I be cautious about attenting what seems to be a music festival in my 54' cos it would mean that there would be lots of none car folk there, just getting pissed all weekend and with no respect for someones pride and joy!
SO in one line/statement what type of show is it?
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Thanks Dirty1, you have made some good points. What we are aiming for is a family-friendly weekend of entertainment, music, trade and activities for camper, scooter and music lovers.
We are not pitching the event as a VW festival. Ireland has a lot of music festivals, large and small, and the aim of this one is to accommodate camper owners in a way that none of the other Irish festivals do. This includes all campers, from the classic splits and bays through coach builds to home conversions. There is something for everyone. It is definitely not a classic car show but due the number of queries we've had from car owners reluctant to park their pride and joy in the general car park, we have decided to accommodate them with an on-site car park where they can do a bit of tyre kicking. There are a large number of camper and scooter owners, both classic and modern, who don't affiliate themselves to clubs but still love their machines, and this gives them an opportunity to meet like-minded people and chat to some industry experts. Having plenty of friends in the surf scene and being a kayaker myself, I know that all owners like an excuse to hit the road and to talk shop. The festival will be open to everyone and there will be many there who are just interested in admiring the machines and listening to some good music. We have also taken pains to ensure the range of music we're offering appeals to most tastes, except dance and techno which could possibly attract the wrong element.
This festival is different than your average music festival because most of the activities are specifically aimed at vehicle enthusiasts. For example, the scrapheap challenge. The idea of this is to get two similar old vans, get them mechanically sound before the event, and let two teams of conversion nuts work on them all weekend using parts from old caravans which we will provide. The aim is to spend not more than €3000-€4000 on each van, from purchase to mechanical to finishing and accessories, a budget provided by the festival. The finished vans will be voted on by the festival attendees and then raffled off to raise money for local charities. This is an audience-friendly event, people love to watch this kind of thing and those interested can pick up a few tips from the pros.
Even though the festival is open to everyone, we want to offer a good weekend for club members and to this end, we plan to divide the campsites accordingly. We would not expect you to park up next to a transit! We understand this event may not appeal to everyone, but should cater to many and we really believe that it will be a great weekend for all. We've been onto the folks in Type 2 Ireland and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which is encouraging. The price comparison with England is pointless really. It's a different economy - a pint of beer there costs about £2.50! A tenner of the ticket price goes on VAT, and that's before we've paid any other taxes. I'm afraid everything is just more expensive here.
I appreciate you taking the time out to raise these issues and I hope I've clarified the spirit of our event.
Regards,
Benny
We are not pitching the event as a VW festival. Ireland has a lot of music festivals, large and small, and the aim of this one is to accommodate camper owners in a way that none of the other Irish festivals do. This includes all campers, from the classic splits and bays through coach builds to home conversions. There is something for everyone. It is definitely not a classic car show but due the number of queries we've had from car owners reluctant to park their pride and joy in the general car park, we have decided to accommodate them with an on-site car park where they can do a bit of tyre kicking. There are a large number of camper and scooter owners, both classic and modern, who don't affiliate themselves to clubs but still love their machines, and this gives them an opportunity to meet like-minded people and chat to some industry experts. Having plenty of friends in the surf scene and being a kayaker myself, I know that all owners like an excuse to hit the road and to talk shop. The festival will be open to everyone and there will be many there who are just interested in admiring the machines and listening to some good music. We have also taken pains to ensure the range of music we're offering appeals to most tastes, except dance and techno which could possibly attract the wrong element.
This festival is different than your average music festival because most of the activities are specifically aimed at vehicle enthusiasts. For example, the scrapheap challenge. The idea of this is to get two similar old vans, get them mechanically sound before the event, and let two teams of conversion nuts work on them all weekend using parts from old caravans which we will provide. The aim is to spend not more than €3000-€4000 on each van, from purchase to mechanical to finishing and accessories, a budget provided by the festival. The finished vans will be voted on by the festival attendees and then raffled off to raise money for local charities. This is an audience-friendly event, people love to watch this kind of thing and those interested can pick up a few tips from the pros.
Even though the festival is open to everyone, we want to offer a good weekend for club members and to this end, we plan to divide the campsites accordingly. We would not expect you to park up next to a transit! We understand this event may not appeal to everyone, but should cater to many and we really believe that it will be a great weekend for all. We've been onto the folks in Type 2 Ireland and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, which is encouraging. The price comparison with England is pointless really. It's a different economy - a pint of beer there costs about £2.50! A tenner of the ticket price goes on VAT, and that's before we've paid any other taxes. I'm afraid everything is just more expensive here.
I appreciate you taking the time out to raise these issues and I hope I've clarified the spirit of our event.
Regards,
Benny
Hi Benny, thanks for dropping in and answering questions. I think it sounds like you've got the makings of a good gig there. Of course, you can understand peoples misgivings about it simply because its your first year and because it was all sort of heard of through the grapevine rather than through official channels, if you follow. That said, I think it'll be good craic. For what it is, the price seems reasonable, and I will be there.
Thanks for that Banny, glad you didnt think I was having a rant! Its a tough one, running something like tht in ireland, trouble here is theres lots of cool scene, like the crowd here, but there never enough of us to have a big event, same with stuff like scooters, hotrods what ever, bringing them all to geter is a brave move though and I think thats where everything gets confusing!! Anyway this sounds like a chilled out affair, rather than a dance festival, thats my main worry with Irish festivals, too many scobes go to them and get wrecked. As for the van build off, Id love to do that as Ive too on the go at the mo, a sprinter box van and a T4 so Id be well up for it, onmly it would take over the whole weekend and there'd be no chilling!!!! Where have you advertised it?
Cheers lads. I understand what you mean about hearing it through the grapevine airhead. That was not our intention but circumstances kind of forced us to launch prematurely as we needed to have the website and Facebook up for a meeting in early January with potential investors to show them that there was interest in the event. In our business plan we had scheduled to contact clubs individually before launching our online presence but we weren't given much notice about this meeting. Anyway, we've been so busy since going online that we're only getting back on track now. Sorry about the confusion this has caused.
Regarding advertising the event, the marketing campaign will begin in earnest next week. We plan to advertise in local and national publications - newspapers, event guides and music magazines as well as industry/camper magazines. Online marketing through social networking and specialist forums will play a big part, as will poster, flyer and sticker campaigns. We're open to ideas if you can think of any!! Obviously word of mouth in the relevant circles will be important.
With the build off, I envisage two core crews with anyone being able to offer their expertise and time in their specialist field. As much fun as it sounds, we don't expect anyone to work around the clock! It will be more like taking shifts so you should still be able to get plenty of chill time!
Regarding advertising the event, the marketing campaign will begin in earnest next week. We plan to advertise in local and national publications - newspapers, event guides and music magazines as well as industry/camper magazines. Online marketing through social networking and specialist forums will play a big part, as will poster, flyer and sticker campaigns. We're open to ideas if you can think of any!! Obviously word of mouth in the relevant circles will be important.
With the build off, I envisage two core crews with anyone being able to offer their expertise and time in their specialist field. As much fun as it sounds, we don't expect anyone to work around the clock! It will be more like taking shifts so you should still be able to get plenty of chill time!
Benny,
I wish you the best of luck, as 1 of the organizers ( usually in the background) of one of N.I's larger VW campouts I think you are taking on allot. I agree insurance, security, site maintenance are your largest costs. I had toyed with an all Ireland Big show but the venues were limited and costs were huge. You have an uphill battle and I wish you the best.
Britt
I wish you the best of luck, as 1 of the organizers ( usually in the background) of one of N.I's larger VW campouts I think you are taking on allot. I agree insurance, security, site maintenance are your largest costs. I had toyed with an all Ireland Big show but the venues were limited and costs were huge. You have an uphill battle and I wish you the best.
Britt
Cheers Britt,
thanks for the encouragement. This is obviously a big undertaking but we're confident that with our experience and contacts in the festival industry that it is certainly achieveable. Most of the crew are campervan owners themselves and this idea strikes a chord with them so they are really willing to get behind us and give us the benefit of their time and expertise. I don't think the event would be possible without this support and I love them all for it. I think your idea for an all Ireland Big VW Show is brilliant and having gone through the bureaucratic mill in the last three months, we would be happy to share any insight and contacts we have gained with you should you ever revisit the idea. General feedback for the festival has been overwhelmingly positive and we are determined not to disappoint and to make it a great weekend for everyone.
Benny
thanks for the encouragement. This is obviously a big undertaking but we're confident that with our experience and contacts in the festival industry that it is certainly achieveable. Most of the crew are campervan owners themselves and this idea strikes a chord with them so they are really willing to get behind us and give us the benefit of their time and expertise. I don't think the event would be possible without this support and I love them all for it. I think your idea for an all Ireland Big VW Show is brilliant and having gone through the bureaucratic mill in the last three months, we would be happy to share any insight and contacts we have gained with you should you ever revisit the idea. General feedback for the festival has been overwhelmingly positive and we are determined not to disappoint and to make it a great weekend for everyone.
Benny