Onslow

[Mine Explorer]

Originally Posted by International Steam

The family next to me outside the beer tent had taken two and a half hours to get in, presumably that was a common experience for those arriving at the same time as them.

I'm afraid I couldn't comment on the delays for visitors to get on site, but from what I've heard nothing would surprise me. The queues have been horrendous for years, but I'm afraid reports of queues of over 3 hours for exhibitors to leave the site on the Monday night are just plain rubbish - I do have experience of that. The rally doesn't finish until 5pm, so clearly no exhibitors would dream of trying to leave before then, and the queues had all vanished before 8pm - I drove out myself at 7:30pm with nothing in front of me at all.

THE WEBSITE IS PATHETIC, I can't even find the rally opening and closing times on it, I found 09.30 on a general visitor attraction site using Google. It looks to me as if all that has been done to it this year apart from adding the online ticketing is change the dates. No mention of special attractions like the Tanner Reunion.

I'm slightly surprised by this comment, the website was totally redone at the end of July and although I accept the point that the Tanner Reunion wasn't mentioned (at the point I was involved in giving feedback on it I wasn't aware of the reunion myself - a bit of a vicious circle that one I suppose! lol). However, rally opening times were readily available on there.

The front home page only gives the rally dates, the gate opening time is shown on both the "About the rally" page and "The Society" pages (in the column on the right hand side). I can't remember if it was also shown on the "Buy Tickets" page as that has now expired and doesn't bring up anything.

Here it is on the right hand side: "Gates Open - 9.15am":




The website even has a copy of the arena timetable to view as well, so visitors can plan when they want to arrive/depart based on arena activities:



The "Where's the rally" page gives a text description of how to get to it, a SatNav postcode location for it, and the obligitory Google Maps map pin view as well.




When I go looking for an event website the only points I'm interested in are

• What date is it?
• Where is the showground located?
• What time does the gate open?
• How much is admission?

All of those key points of information can be found on the Onslow website, if not on the front page then just one click away, and when the site only has 5 pages none of which are nested, it shouldn't take many seconds to tour the whole thing.

Unfortunately there are some events who fail to say when the gate opens or how much the admission is, then have seemingly thousands of pages to wade through before you can say for certain that this key information ain't there!

I assume lack of volunteers is the reason why more ticket selling points are not added.

Is it the same reason why the event is not run over three days like Welland and South Cerney who got good crowds on a Friday this year? Or is the Bank Holiday Saturday traffic even worse?

Personally I have no idea about those details, but I can't see it being a particularly popular suggestion to make the Saturday a rally day as well. The current situation allows exhibitors chance to arrive on site and set up without necessarily needing to book annual holiday entitlement from work, or rush around on the Friday night - especially important if they're coming some distance. The traffic situation into Mid-Wales isn't good all weekend, so adding an extra day wouldn't avoid that. The queues on the A458 further along at Newtown were already backing up a couple of miles at lunch time on Bank Holiday Friday.

[International Steam]

I'm slightly surprised by this comment, the website was totally redone at the end of July and although I accept the point that the Tanner Reunion wasn't mentioned (at the point I was involved in giving feedback on it I wasn't aware of the reunion myself - a bit of a vicious circle that one I suppose! lol). However, rally opening times were readily available on there.

The front home page only gives the rally dates, the gate opening time is shown on both the "About the rally" page and "The Society" pages (in the column on the right hand side). I can't remember if it was also shown on the "Buy Tickets" page as that has now expired and doesn't bring up anything.

Here it is on the right hand side: "Gates Open - 9.15am":



Apologies for this, a classic case of not seeing what is in front of me. Either that or I assumed that where there was a 'drop down' menu which appeared when the mouse hovered over the top item, clicking the top would not produce a new page.

And as I said before, including a note about the exit arrangements would have been a very good idea. Last year we went on both days, on the second day we did a huge circuit of the back (south) of the car park away from the main road and coming along the west fence to get into the Welshpool Lane. That worked well. We saw the writing on the wall this year and made sure we left just after 14.30 because it's a long drive to and fro as we live in deepest Gloucestershire.

[8_10 Brass Cleaner]

Originally Posted by International Steam

And as I said before, including a note about the exit arrangements would have been a very good idea. Last year we went on both days, on the second day we did a huge circuit of the back (south) of the car park away from the main road and coming along the west fence to get into the Welshpool Lane. That worked well. We saw the writing on the wall this year and made sure we left just after 14.30 because it's a long drive to and fro as we live in deepest Gloucestershire.

Now, come on.

Given that all the punters who entered the car park will have come in through the same gate that they were heading for to get out, they will have known that on he way out they will have been confronted with the choice of turning left or turning right.

Now given that it is conventional in all known parts of the world with any form of traffic rules that to turn right you go in the right lane, to turn left you go in the left, It seems that your arguing that the punters were too stupid to work that out for themselves. If so I fail to see how signs will help. You cannot argue with ignorance.

What you are really saying is that there were a load of pricks in the wrong lane, either because they were to stupid, or because they thought they would overtake everyone and push to the front. Sadly thats life .

[Mine Explorer]

Originally Posted by International Steam

Apologies for this, a classic case of not seeing what is in front of me. Either that or I assumed that where there was a 'drop down' menu which appeared when the mouse hovered over the top item, clicking the top would not produce a new page.

I guess if it was possible to add the "gates open 9:15" in small letters under the date on the front page then it might make things even clearer, but then if you get too carried away with adding such details then all you end up with is a very cluttered and distracting page.

And as I said before, including a note about the exit arrangements would have been a very good idea. Last year we went on both days, on the second day we did a huge circuit of the back (south) of the car park away from the main road and coming along the west fence to get into the Welshpool Lane. That worked well. We saw the writing on the wall this year and made sure we left just after 14.30 because it's a long drive to and fro as we live in deepest Gloucestershire.

I guess better signage in the car park (perhaps by the pedestrian exit back into the car park?) might be the answer rather than adding something to the programme - not everyone buys one of those, and even those that do don't necessary read it all.

If the traffic is starting the back up on the main road towards Shrewsbury then I'd personally always turn left out of the gate and cut round. Any of the left hand turns in Ford (village just down the hill from the showground) will get you across to the B4386, or else you could follow the more official alternative and carry on the 6 miles to Halfway House before turning left to Westbury and join the B4386 there, then turn left and return to Shrewsbury at the next traffic island along on the dual carriageway. It might well be further distance, but I dare say it'll be quicker than shuffling in a queue along the A458.

Originally Posted by Gaudin98

Wasn't impressed with £12.00 entry and really wasn't impressed with the woman shouting and balling at the paying public to get in line outside the payboxs. This was on Saturday. It gave a very poor impression, the more she shouted the more people ignored her.

I guess different people have differing views about what constitutes value for money. If there has been an admission increase for Onslow this year, then it certainly isn't as much as the gate increase for 'Dorset this year.

(...but if visitors were already starting to queue to get in on Saturday, then no wonder tempers were wearing thin and the queue was huge by the time the gate opened on Sunday)

Originally Posted by 8_10 Brass Cleaner

Now, come on....

...What you are really saying is that there were a load of pricks in the wrong lane, either because they were to stupid, or because they thought they would overtake everyone and push to the front. Sadly thats life .

With tact and diplomacy like that I'm sure you could go far with a job in the Foreign Office...

[SimonT]

Much has been said, but I hope I might add a few words as a fair-paying punter:

The ticketting might be improved for having a look at it. I know there are (in theory) advance tickets, but assume such website funtionality is removed by common anti-spyware script blockers. Maybe a low tech solution to the website might improve advance ticket sales. Alternatively, a simple form that can be printed by post would work if it had to.

When there are very large queues outside, there is a need for more stewards there than inside. If that means nothing can move for an hour or so, I don't see a problem if it improves the welcoming face of the show. Given them money belts and they can at least sell programmes in advance. If the punters have something to fiddle with it's better than nothing.

The current system of paper tickets to walk 30 feet on entry slows the queues too much. Could there also be preferencial treatment for 'exact fares' to reduce the time fiddling with money and tickets?

We had a real emergency on the Monday, though thankfully not a serious one. The toilet door lock failed and the missus was left stuck in there whilst I called for assistance. Given that there was a risk of an expensive bill if a crow bar was applied to the aluminium doorframe, I wanted some official approval before breaking down the door. In addition to calming the missus, I had to keep a pair of autistic kids calm too. There is a real need for a clearer steward's uniform as it took a disconcerting amount of time to find a 'suitable someone' in a yellow jacket. Enginemen had them. Fairground folk had them. It seemed everyone had one. Something distinctive that can been seen from a few feet away would help reduce the confusion in a greater emergency than ours.

The problem with the exit gate lanes isn't signage. It's the application of said signage As we drove out on Monday, I saw a pile of yellow signs in the corner of the field. If they had been nailed to the posts the one-off visitors would have a fighting chance with interpreting the 3 lanes as having changed from 2-in and 1-out in the morning to 2-out and 1-in later in the day.

Finally, despite battling the Birmingham traffic on the M1 & M6, the Shrewsbury traffic, ticket queues, the loo issue and damp weather on Monday, we'll be back. It's a highlight of the year and we're looking forward to coming back in 2015 already.

Simon.

[Mine Explorer]

Originally Posted by SimonT

....We had a real emergency on the Monday, though thankfully not a serious one. The toilet door lock failed and the missus was left stuck in there whilst I called for assistance. Given that there was a risk of an expensive bill if a crow bar was applied to the aluminium doorframe, I wanted some official approval before breaking down the door. In addition to calming the missus, I had to keep a pair of autistic kids calm too. There is a real need for a clearer steward's uniform as it took a disconcerting amount of time to find a 'suitable someone' in a yellow jacket. Enginemen had them. Fairground folk had them. It seemed everyone had one. Something distinctive that can been seen from a few feet away would help reduce the confusion in a greater emergency than ours...

The rally office is the big white trailer positioned at the side of the arena alongside the commentator's booth - that's permanently manned during the rally open hours and someone there would have been able to call for assitance and arrange help. Alternatively if you're looking out for a roving steward then the best bet would have been one of those in a jacket with their name and rally job written on the back - they're likely to be carrying radios to be able to summon assistance. With one or two exceptions any other 'marshall' you might encounter would probably have to either direct you to one of the first two sources, or else have to volunteer to go themselves seeing as they don't all carry radios or toolkits to release locks.

Hopefully despite the problems of tracking down the right person, the problem got sorted and you were all reunited again before too long.

[SimonT]

We had no real problem, but it got me thinking about the number of official-looking non-officials on site. I headed towards the office and found folk before too long but was surprised how many hi-vis jackets I passed. I hadn't seen anything like as many at other rallies.

The lock needed more than just 'releasing' - there was a fair sized chunk missing from the door frame when the door opened...

Simon.

[Gaudin98]

All the ticket set up needs is a walk through ticket tent with 4 lanes. The present system is a complete balls up. 4 widows at the end of long queues. Tell me this, where do you expect the people who have paid in the inner two rows to go, just vanish into thin air ?. No they have to fight there way out in front of the people who are trying to pay, result big delays and a total grid lock. Compound this with a rather over enthusiastic steward hounding people into 4 lanes at the top of her voice then getting mad when the queues don't move ( well they wont if they cant get out when they have paid ). Come on this is simple stuff done at other rallies with very little fuss stop trying to reinvent the wheel.