Beer & Food Festival: the post-mortem
Well, whichever way interpret it, we were there to show some Spirit - mainly, in the event, the Dunkirk spirit. When we found that the event was still due to go ahead, with nothing organised with less than a month to go, we thought we had better help. Clearly there would be chaos and confusion, which is an area in which we have ample experience. Having ascertained that the entertainment had been booked, and that there would be at least some beer and food, we set about letting a few more people know about it. Before going any further, let me apologise for promising a pig roast which failed to materialise, having been firmly booked; that was a particular disappointment to many people, not least me.
Setting up the main hall before the event
Setting up the games room before the event
It came as no surprise that that numbers through the door were negligible during the day, nor that the people manning the door had been given no change, so that was the first bit of helping out as I'd brought plenty. With plenty of games laid out - Jaques had done us proud lending us a full selection of pub games, and we'd also brought along a popular selection from our board games library - we were mainly helping to fill some space at first, and were free to forage for food. This consisted of a choice between home-made cookies and crisps, the main caterers having failed to turn up. As they are proud of their five star cleanliness rating, things were starting to remind me of the Python cheeses sketch - the kitchen was very clean, certainly uncontaminated by food. Fortunately the cookie stall also did tea, coffee and orange juice, but after three or four hours the need for something more substantial was getting urgent. Just as a trip to a local sandwich bar was being mooted, it was discovered that the vodka cocktail bar which had volunteered to fill in the space in the other back hall also did West Indian food. Saved! Except that the pre-prepared food had to be brought up to temperature and the electrics tripped out as soon as they plugged their equipment in. They would have cooked the food in the kitchen but had not been allowed access as it was booked for the non-existent caterers. They were now allowed in the kitchen but the cookers are gas and you have to pre-book a CORGI registered expert to turn the cooker on or some such latest regulation, so they were back to using their own equipment on minimum power and I was able to shovel down a very fine mutton curry in the nick of time to avoid passing out for lack of nourishment. I modified one of our "games this way" signs to mention food too to spread the word. The cocktail bar chap and I took on the job of morale maintenance and kept smiling while we all waited for punters to arrive.
People starting to show an interest
The good news is that Friday evening achieved critical mass; nothing like the numbers at a CAMRA beer festival but enough to get an atmosphere, and both Burton Bridge and Freedom breweries were happy with the amount of beer they sold, which is very probably the case with Derventio and Castle Rock too as they looked similarly busy. I did my bit to support all of them, and would have joined the throng listening to the band but things were hotting up in the games area too. As more beer was consumed people were emboldened to make use of the giant tumble tower, bar skittles, shuffleboard and bagatelle, while the Friday Night Magic players had a tournament at the far end of the hall and four of us played Kingsburg in between teaching people to play Marrakech, Rumis, Pylos and Inside (a recent addition to the Gigamic range). The kitchen had finally opened and the Caribbean food was still going too in the cocktail bar, where the trance music was being kept at a low level so that the area acted as a quiet room too.
On Saturday the expected lunchtime crowd failed to materialise, and when the Gresley Colliery Brass Band came on we went into the main hall to get the audience into double figures, leaving the young offspring of one of the musicians in charge of our area and playing giant dominoes. Two problems then arose, the first being the lack of cider as that was only available from the Wetmore Whistle bar which was only open in the evenings. The other was that, having had our lunchtime pints, and with one of our regulars who had been playing games with us needing something non-alcoholic as he was due to drive home soon when his pass out from the wife expired, we found that while the kitchen was open, they had no tea or coffee - they had hot water, could maybe rustle up the ingredients, but no mugs or even paper cups! The posh tea and coffee stall we had used the day before had legged it. We hastily transferred the beverage facilities from the shop to keep ourselves going - a choice of only beer or vodka over a 12 hour period just wasn't going to work.
One of the bands in the main hall
Come the evening, we had thought that the 4,500 Facebook friends of the trance music DJ might put in an appearance (a slightly scary thought), but then realised that they would not be going out clubbing until our closing time of 11.00 p.m, and were unlikely to pay six quid to come in for their pre-loading when it could be done in a pub, or at home at supermarket prices. What was a surprise was that numbers out front seemed down on the night before - we were quite busy again and only dived out to get more beer (suitably frequently). We played Ascension with some new people as well as the popular games of the previous evening; finally, as chucking out time approached we swiftly packed everything up to catch a much appreciated lift to the shop in the Burton Bridge van.
The giant Jenga was very popular
Conclusions? We enjoyed ourselves, which is what we had planned to do, and sold a couple of games, which was all that we had expected. Having a games hall was definitely a good move - overall, as a proof-of-concept exercise, I would rate it a success for us, but as a fund-raiser for the scanner appeal it was pretty poor. The bands, having given their services free, were none too pleased to be playing to meagre crowds, and Jaques having donated a £70 game to the raffle it would have been nice to have had more tickets sold. As a replacement for the late, lamented CAMRA beer festival, the event has a very long way to go. But if the Council decides to give it another go next year, and can work out how to market it to make it worthwhile for food purveyors to attend, we'll be pleased to help out again