Quote:
Originally Posted by Radhew
...after thinking about this for a bit I am not sure anything particulary "kills" a rally, but I get bored when I see the same engines/exhibits, in the same locations, year-in-year-out. And when I am bored, I don't go back again.
Some blokes/rally committees have worked hard to get this right, such as prior events at Cerney, but for the ones I attend in Kent its mainly the same old stuff. Having trudged through the mud in Dorset this year, I got the same feeling so may give it a miss for a year or two (sure, I know Gigantic was there, and the trenches and everything... but it all felt very familiar).
So Tom, familiarity breeds contempt....
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There is a similar problem down here in as much as you can see the same engines year after year at different rallies during the season. However, we are at the end of the UK and the likes of Cornwall only shares it's border with Devon!!
However, rally organisers down here do a fantastic job by spending large amounts of money encouraging engines from outside the area to attend local rallies. We have had over the past 5 seasons an amazing number of engines which are not native to Devon and Cornwall. We should take our hats off to both the organisers who invest heavily in attracting new engines and to the owners for being prepared to travel to this end of the country to exhibit their engines.
I may be wrong, but I feel that the killer down here is the cost of transporting engines. It is great to be able to road your engine but some of the roads down here are just not suitable for doing so. Look at the A382 which passes through Bovey Tracey and Moretonhampstead, in several places it is single track with passing places and it is treacherous in October most years when timber is felled in the area and it is transported on large articulated lorries from the Moretonhampstead direction down though Bovey Tracey and then presumably onto the A38 Devon Expressway. The only advantage of these large lorries is that if you follow one you have a relatively speedy journey as oncoming traffic tends to keep out of their way!
I think that the only way to turn around attendances at rallies is not to try and make as much money as possible. Instead, charge reasonable admission fees and provide attractions which are of interest to all of the family. For example, out of the four of us in my household, my 17 year old grandson and myself are interested in the Traction Engines both full size and miniatures at rallies. My 15 year old grandaughter enjoys the vintage fairgrounds. My wife is not interested in any of the above and does not attend any rallies at all. She has been to two in the twenty two years that we have been together. If rally organisers provided an attraction that was of interest to her, she would attend and that would be one more admission fee for the organiser!