Afterthoughts on the Belfast Motor Show 2014 at Kings Hall
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Darren91
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Thank *** i didn't book the day off work to visit this pile of 5h1t, especially as sundays are double time.
Booking a Sunday off isn't heard of in there!!
I hope lots of angry punters DO show up.
Sounds a bit like the festival of speed then….
Isn't it pretty crap though?
big_pete
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Imagine how it felt to be an exhibitor. People are mad about the money they lost we paid a huge amount to have a pitch.
Couldn't believe it when we turned up to be greeted with that. We had one of the biggest stands lol we really couldn't believe it.
I really did fear that this was going to have a negative impact on my business aswell as 50cal so I put my point across on their Facebook page last night. Thankfully no one seems to be holding the exhibitors responsible and I have even seen a few articles and done a few interviews where we were praised for our effort so that's a good thing. Definitely the single worst organised event I have ever attended
Couldn't believe it when we turned up to be greeted with that. We had one of the biggest stands lol we really couldn't believe it.
I really did fear that this was going to have a negative impact on my business aswell as 50cal so I put my point across on their Facebook page last night. Thankfully no one seems to be holding the exhibitors responsible and I have even seen a few articles and done a few interviews where we were praised for our effort so that's a good thing. Definitely the single worst organised event I have ever attended
hippyross
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Aye let's get them to shut that one down also lol
Pumesta
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Boooooo I was going to make those that got tax disc holders jealous with a picture of my Capri club clock
I had won a ticket for the Sunday, and after watching Liam Neeson punch a lot of people on a plane on Saturday night, I logged onto Facebook and read all the bad feedback on the BMS's official page. Some of it was hilarious, you have to hand it to Northern Ireland people, then can be very funny when pissed off.
The plan was for our whole family to go on Sunday, but that meant my wife would have had to buy a ticket as well. After reading the reports she didn't want to, but I still wanted to see if it was as bad as it looked, as I had a ticket and lived close by in Lisburn I decided to go with my son who would get in free.
So, arrived about 11:30, paid my £4 parking and walked to the entrance at the side of the hall, not the usual front entrance. This was because as it turned out, they were only using about 25% of the hall. If you have been to the Holiday Show or Motorcycle show, basically where the cafeteria is. Titan the Robot came out then and we followed him outside, my son loved him and I have to admit it was a good show he put on. My son then spotted the bouncy castles so went down there. Now the buildup to the show it was promised free children's entertainment, but you had to pay £2. Only plus side it was £2 unlimited goes on one firms slides/castles and he was there for 30 minutes so that was fine. Chatted to the guy running the castles and he said Saturday was full of really angry people. Usually he charged £2 per slide/castle but he felt so sorry for people getting ripped off he changed it to £2 for unlimited rides.
Had a look around the "show your cars", reckon there was 30 cars there, most of them Rovers. The Abarth 500 was very nice, and I had a nice chat to a couple who are taking part in a "Mongol type" rally to Poland in an FSO.
Plug for them - http://www.pl-ie.pl
Slowly walked back to the hall, Dexter spent some time looking at the army vehicles as he's 6 and a boy so such things excite him. There was a "display" of new cars, all were locked and really spaced out to try and fill the space. Cars where from Donnelly's, Hursts and Mervyn Stewart if I recall.
OK, into the hall, from what I remember this is what was there in no particular order.
50Cal/PMG Autocare
FOXY Lady Drivers Club
PSNI
W5
Some woman selling cupcakes
Speed Camera Partnership
Halfords (selling bikes)
Nutts Corner Karting
IAM
There was a cancer charity with an Orange Golf
Deloreans
Make up people
Solar panel salesmen
Emerald Road Racing
AMG Safety Car
A Robin Hood kit car
Ironman
Batman & Robin walking around.
Guy selling motorsport t-shirts
Free face-painting
The Noble
And that was it. If I have missed anyone please feel free to correct me.
I felt sorry for most of the exhibitors, I think most of them knew they were in a middle of a disaster and all I talked to were nice and chatty, a big shout out to the W5 uys who were brilliant with the kids and the IAM guys who let Dexter play with their remote control cars. The cupcake girl looked really depressed.
Waited for Titan to come out again at 1:30, he did and then went straight back again as it was raining, so that was that.
Ironically we had a good day out, because I knew what I was walking into and it only cost me £4 for parking and £2 for a bouncy castle. But I fully understand why people are so
angry, if I had spent £30 on a family ticket expecting a car show I would have been furious.
And of course... it wasn't a Motor Show.
I suspect what Kerri had in mind was something like the Holiday Show, filling up 1/2 the hall with small exhibitors and with local dealers having cars on display at the back, where the caravans go in the holiday show. And you know that would have been fine, baby steps, its the first show for 10 years after all.
Obviously this must have started falling apart months ago, but instead of admitting this it looks to me like the organisers tried to bluff it. And I think the Belfast Telegraph must share some blame for this, if you look at their coverage up to the event they were really typing it as something special, like the old days.
And of course instead of holding their hands up and admitting to it on Saturday night, they deleted the Facebook posts and started again like nothing bad had happened.
That is unacceptable. Some would say that is fraud.
Jonathan
The plan was for our whole family to go on Sunday, but that meant my wife would have had to buy a ticket as well. After reading the reports she didn't want to, but I still wanted to see if it was as bad as it looked, as I had a ticket and lived close by in Lisburn I decided to go with my son who would get in free.
So, arrived about 11:30, paid my £4 parking and walked to the entrance at the side of the hall, not the usual front entrance. This was because as it turned out, they were only using about 25% of the hall. If you have been to the Holiday Show or Motorcycle show, basically where the cafeteria is. Titan the Robot came out then and we followed him outside, my son loved him and I have to admit it was a good show he put on. My son then spotted the bouncy castles so went down there. Now the buildup to the show it was promised free children's entertainment, but you had to pay £2. Only plus side it was £2 unlimited goes on one firms slides/castles and he was there for 30 minutes so that was fine. Chatted to the guy running the castles and he said Saturday was full of really angry people. Usually he charged £2 per slide/castle but he felt so sorry for people getting ripped off he changed it to £2 for unlimited rides.
Had a look around the "show your cars", reckon there was 30 cars there, most of them Rovers. The Abarth 500 was very nice, and I had a nice chat to a couple who are taking part in a "Mongol type" rally to Poland in an FSO.
Plug for them - http://www.pl-ie.pl
Slowly walked back to the hall, Dexter spent some time looking at the army vehicles as he's 6 and a boy so such things excite him. There was a "display" of new cars, all were locked and really spaced out to try and fill the space. Cars where from Donnelly's, Hursts and Mervyn Stewart if I recall.
OK, into the hall, from what I remember this is what was there in no particular order.
50Cal/PMG Autocare
FOXY Lady Drivers Club
PSNI
W5
Some woman selling cupcakes
Speed Camera Partnership
Halfords (selling bikes)
Nutts Corner Karting
IAM
There was a cancer charity with an Orange Golf
Deloreans
Make up people
Solar panel salesmen
Emerald Road Racing
AMG Safety Car
A Robin Hood kit car
Ironman
Batman & Robin walking around.
Guy selling motorsport t-shirts
Free face-painting
The Noble
And that was it. If I have missed anyone please feel free to correct me.
I felt sorry for most of the exhibitors, I think most of them knew they were in a middle of a disaster and all I talked to were nice and chatty, a big shout out to the W5 uys who were brilliant with the kids and the IAM guys who let Dexter play with their remote control cars. The cupcake girl looked really depressed.
Waited for Titan to come out again at 1:30, he did and then went straight back again as it was raining, so that was that.
Ironically we had a good day out, because I knew what I was walking into and it only cost me £4 for parking and £2 for a bouncy castle. But I fully understand why people are so
angry, if I had spent £30 on a family ticket expecting a car show I would have been furious.
And of course... it wasn't a Motor Show.
I suspect what Kerri had in mind was something like the Holiday Show, filling up 1/2 the hall with small exhibitors and with local dealers having cars on display at the back, where the caravans go in the holiday show. And you know that would have been fine, baby steps, its the first show for 10 years after all.
Obviously this must have started falling apart months ago, but instead of admitting this it looks to me like the organisers tried to bluff it. And I think the Belfast Telegraph must share some blame for this, if you look at their coverage up to the event they were really typing it as something special, like the old days.
And of course instead of holding their hands up and admitting to it on Saturday night, they deleted the Facebook posts and started again like nothing bad had happened.
That is unacceptable. Some would say that is fraud.
Jonathan
O.C.D
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Yo D thought you and your da would have been there.........maybe not on a Sunday rite nuff.
Paddy_R
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it certainly had room for improvement but knowing the organisers I would say they will come back bigger and better this year.
BobSpounge
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Yes they do but wouldnt it be even better if it was all part of one big festival, we need the manufacturers/main dealers etc involved too. They didn't get involved with this joke at Kings Hall because they knew it would be crap. Plus that stupid wee girl Kerrie would not take on board any suggestions or help from anyone that might have have made her show even the slightest bit interesting or even successful.
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I've never attended it. Think I was away the first year it ran and the next year it just didn't appeal to me. Would be nice to see an annual, huge two day show established here
I went along today as I already had tickets. On the way in a fella leaving asked us if we were going to pay in and if so, don't bother. Dandered on in to the car display, or rather the area where there was supposed to be a car display. Dreadful is being kind. Sorry if these are anybodies cars on here but what looked like a standard vectra, an orange vectra, a silver R32.. maybe a few others but none IMO qualify as cars worthy of showing. There were a few others but i CBA wheeling the pram over gravel and puddles to get closer. Inside the shed was sparse and mostly crap. @big_pete display looked good and there were always plenty people around his and @Morgan@50cal stand so i didn't interrupt to say hello. The 50/50 Beemer though confused me. I could see that half of it had been washed but the clean paint didn't look anything special IMO though perhaps I've missed the point. To me, having the car clean and then half of it detailed might have shown me more of what you are no doubt capable of.
Crap show.
Crap show.
I didn't realise how long it took to plan this show... the first post on RMS about it is Jan 10th 2014. I didn't go to the show myself after hearing how terrible it was but by the looks of what was there it could have been organised in a few hours before it happened.
With the amount of political hoops needing jumped through. All the MSA licensing. Organising and what was actually there to see it was a superb first attempt.
This year will be a massive improvement again. But this is Northern Ireland and just look at the gurning that went on about the Lisburn and Ards special stages for the circuit. It doesn't matter what gets put on someone will find a reason to whinge.
I personally thought the first one was great. MotoX, Rallying (inc Group B cars), 4x4's in both slow and fast modes, auto testing and autosolo and car show all in one event in one place and the weather was good too.
This year there is drifting and a few more things to see. The layout is vastly improved and the entire event is set to be pretty epic compared to anything else seen here.
From what I see the other similar events are just drifting and diffing with a car show attached.
What was displayed at the kings hall this weekend was an abortion of an event. It would be great to see all those complaining loudly go and support other events about the country and if they are happy with them then leave positive feedback instead of nitpicking
On a big plus note. Those running the Festival of Speed at Balmoral Park are genuine Motorsport enthusiasts who regularly run and compete in events across the UK and Ireland.
Pumesta
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I have never heard of a show that you have the option of pre booking tickets, as an exhibitor yes as a spectator no, then it would appear they gave 100's of them away for free, look at how many on here won some FFS. I think the whole idea of it was so they could go to manufactures, dealers and go 'look we have already pre sold x amount of tickets' in the hope it would encourage them into signing up for a stand
www.belfastmotorshow.co.uk has also gone now too...
Right I'm getting mixed up here lol. Wasn't the festival of speed originally held in Ards? Or was that something different?
PhilGT_2008
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Complete fraud this now.
Sorry. Yes. There was the Ards Festival of Speed.
I was referring to what was the Festival of Speed Maze Long Kesh, now Festival of Speed NI
http://www.festivalofspeedni.com/
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