Hi everyone
Thank you for attending Vapefest this year, I hope you enjoyed your time there.
For us it really was a step into the unknown. From a back garden in a pub to 53 acres requires lots of planning, and even then things can and do go wrong. So I feel it’d be best to share some before we get bogged down.
Arrival - What the vendors saw
Every year The Pony Club holds a week of… well, whatever it is they do. As far as I was told, they were only using part of the venue. In fact they had all of it, and a formal agreement from the venue manager. So when I received a phone call en route from a very distressed Pony Club organiser who was closing the gates on those who had arrived early it was not the best start. Recieving panicked calls from vendors which were relayed whilst I was driving wasn’t great either.
Queued through the CarFest traffic and ended up arriving at 13:10 rather than 11:30. Pushed for time I spent 10 minutes reassuring the Pony Club organisers and agreeing a plan of action.
I also discovered the venue manager I had been dealing with for 6 months was on holiday and one of the trustees was taking the reigns.
With that done I moved the vendors in as quickly as I could. I was still moving them in and running about when it was time to let campers in.
The Layout - The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men…
I had planned the layout differently. I had to base it around the vendors who wanted electricity running to their tents and those who had pre-ordered marquees from a company the venue reccommended.
Unfortunately when the venue read my plan they set it up on the wrong field entirely and the first I heard was “I had to move some tents around as there were trees in the way”. There were no trees on the field I had planned and everyone had more space. Phoned a few vendors. Not much to do about it.
The Raffle
“Called it too early” “Called it too late” “It went on too long” “The waiting time was poor”
Had to call it some time. We ran a little late as the venue had locked up the tannoy system I was hoping to use in the office, again something I wanted to plan with the venue manager and couldn’t with the trustee as he’d left the site by the time I had the oppertunity to think about it.
As a result DV very kindly offered us the use of their PA system with the proviso of “break it, buy it”. This took about 15 minutes to set up. When the rain did come, we needed to get it in as quickly as possible. Sorry if you felt it wasn’t communicated effectively that the raffle had ended.
I stuck to the 5 minute wait as if I dropped it and then a claim was made there’d have been hell on as it was printed on the tickets. In hindsight 1 or 2 minutes would have been better. Also the pre allocation of prizes, in previous years having the winner pick a ticket to see what prize they’d get worked, this year it didn’t.
Sorry if you felt that the comparing wasn’t jovial too. It’s really not my thing but I didn’t have the time to arrange someone else to do it. Unfortunately reading out the raffle prizes would have taken a long time so it was decided we wouldn’t read them.
The food.
I’m as annoyed about the food as you all are. I was told prices would be reasonable, they weren’t. The quality of the offering wasn’t that great either. Also because they are used to people overestimating attendance they didn’t believe our number expectations, neither did the venue, which is why there was also a queue.
But the bit that really grinds is there was no vegetarian option. There’s simply no excuse for them to not have offered this. I wasn’t told about it until Sunday or I would have approached them. I had asked for it when planning with the venue. 2 of the staff members are vegetarian.
The food was tied to the venue, written in the contract of hire. I’d have rather had none and said to bring your own than the shambles it became. I’ve fed some of this back to the venue in a quick chat I had with the trustee, but there will be a further more comprehensive breakdown being sent on.
Bins
Because there was no break between the Pony Club leaving and us arriving the bins that were there weren’t emptied ready for us. There also weren’t enough of them.
Camping conditions
When I did the handover of the keys with the venue I explained what the deal was with the camping conditions and as we were up against it (time wise) I could do with not having to check, was a digital copy now ok, explained that it was posted up on the website and anyone could access it. Trustee said ok, sorted, one less thing to check as everyone can access a copy anyway. So, sorry to those who went to the extra trouble. We’ll know for next year and I’ll be asking the venue to update their conditions.
JuiceFest & Vendor opening times
It’s been suggested that there was only juice and not enough ecig gear was available at the event.
There were plenty of gear vendors that attended. Perhaps you missed them. Unfortunately with being behind schedule we didn’t have time to publish the interactive map which we were going to update put up on Friday as well as print out create a board somewhere showing each placement.
Some vendors also didn’t turn up and we only found out on the day. We tried to get a full spectrum but if people don’t turn up on the day there’s nothing we can do. This could be a reason you didn’t see a full range of gear available.
As for opening times, it’s a tiring day for all and we can’t say to vendors that they must stay open. They open and close whenever they like within the opening times of Vapefest.
Disabled access
Vendors present were asked to ensure disabled access was catered for. The team on the day recieved no complaints.
It saddens me that having received no request for help on the day, we have received complaints after the event when we can do nothing about them. There is a time and a place for this to be dealt with, that’s at the venue as a reasonable adjustment. All you had to do was ask and we would have been happy to help.
We provided a whole field for disabled parking. It didn’t fill up so there was plenty of space.
The state of the venue
I was told the venue are awaiting sponsor to remedy the roads, unfortunately this didn’t come through in time for VF or their own County Show. So when the rain came, and came, and came some vendors looked like they’d hired a moat for the day. Nowt can be done, except maybe a drawbridge. As a result things got a little muddy.
Toilets at most festival venues are a bit crap. However I don’t think it was helped in this case by there being no break for cleaning between The Pony Club and Vapefest.
Rubbish
Campers, this doesn’t concern you, you were brilliant and responsible, skip to the next bit 
Vendors. The state some of you left your pitches in was atrocious. It wasn’t just noted by the staff, but also by marquee companies and people posting reviews.
Clean up took from 6am Sunday morning until 6:30pm. 12 hours worth of cleaning up, the majority for people who should know better. Shame.
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If the committee decides to take on Vapefest next year we can say lessons were learned and plan accordingly. For a first year, with the issues faced I think it went rather well though.
I hope that explains enough, we did our best.
Thanks for being so upfront and honest with what went wrong.
For all the things that went wrong though it was more than made up for by the positives. Was an awesome event and awesome day that couldn’t be ruined by the few things that went wrong or even the weather.
I’m sure everyone who attendees will attest to what a great job you guys did so please do not be too disheartened by the odd mishap.
Thanks again for all your hard work and for a great Vapefest 2014.
We have written up our thoughts on our site if you get a moment to take a read. Thanks. http://www.vapeable.co.uk
This was my first Vapefest and I must admit, I thought the entire day was absolutely great. I got a chance to see different gear for real, try all sorts of liquids that I would otherwise have to buy and got some incredible discounts on the tons of stuff that I purchased.
I, for one, am very very grateful to everyone who took the trouble to put on a show like this. If there were problems, I personally was not aware of them as a visitor except perhaps the queue for overpriced food. But that wasn’t your fault. There is a degree of third party racketeering apparent at every outdoor event. I was on my own all day having traveled from the north of Scotland and everybody that I spoke to, without exception, was friendly, helpful and made the entire event seem like a gathering of friends. I was impressed. Sure, it is possible to find fault with anything but for a free event, this surpassed my expectations by far. I do hope this annual gathering is here to stay and gets even bigger.
Thank you very much indeed for all your time and effort. It really is appreciated by us humble visitors.
Great respect for all the team achived in such a short time..with an event of this type there are so many things to take into account and no matter how hard you try you’ll never get it perfect..any negatives that come your way DON’T take them to heart just use them as pointers for next time..if this was a first attempt then OMG what will u achieve next time if this was a showcase of what you can do on short notice what could you do with 12 months
Looking forward too it
Whilst there have been a few niggles mentioned I think VF 2014 was a resounding success. If some things were not perfect in every way, it only goes to show how good everything else was when you consider how many people have enjoyed the day and have said they want to do it all again.
I for one want to give thanks to all the people who gave up their time, money and energy to put in place a great day of ogling at goodies, tasting the great and the not so great, meeting new people, making new friends, meeting even more people I have only spoken to on a computer and finally for giving the Vaping community the opportunity to come together in a 53 acre field and make it feel like a large friendly family gathering. I did not witness a single incident or argument and after speaking to a number of people who expressed a fear they would struggle with the crowds, every one of them has stated they enjoyed the day and felt welcome everywhere.
That is damned impressive considering how many people attended.
My first VF too, and it was a very pleasurable experience. Mixing with other vapers, seeing the goodies on sale,in what was a perfectly sized venue for the numbers attending. The British weather notwithstanding!
I thoroughly enjoyed this years vape fest, and as a relatively new vaper I found it informative and exciting. I didnt think it was badly organised,in fact i thought it was brilliantly organised and wanted to shake the hand of the organiser(s). yes the food was a bit naff and expensive but arent they always dear at these kind of events. The rain and mud go hand in hand with any festival so added to the fun. it was awesome mixing and talking to other vapers (pro and newbies) and there was such a lovely atmosphere, even in the queues everyone was lovely. I will look forward to next years event and I hope the venue work with you a lot better.
Hats off to the organisers, from where I was it looked like a great success. The general feeling was of smiley happy people having fun. I only got to wander about late on, but apart from a couple of grumbles about the price of burgers, I didn’t hear many complaints. There were a lot of juice vendors, but a lot of them also had mods and accessories on offer. I certainly had a lot of customers looking for batteries to fit their new purchases.
You guys and gals did a brilliant job
Not much to add - other than a massive thanks to everyone who assisted bringing this together
I have no complaints at all, lots of improvements over last years (apart from me not winning the raffle this year)
being a veggie myself I brought my own nibbles - but did buy a couple of brews to wash it down with and I didn’t have to que too long or re mortgage the house to do so
It’s Britain, so its going to get wet n muddy - I anticipated this and clothed myself appropriately
Met up with old faces from the forums, saw LOTS of happy smiling faces
For a ‘free’ event it really was unbelievably well put together, congrats
Looking forward to VF2015 already!!
This was my second vape fest & I really enjoyed it compared to last
it was much bigger & had a lot more space to move round 
My only issue was well due to late arrival because of the day from hell there was allot of people sort of starting to shut up. My fault for arriving when I did yeah but when an events running till x time there’s an expectation that stuff will be going on. Not a dig at all and I managed to find what I wanted and had an amazing time.
Food and bar prices did take the piss to be honest four pound for a pint and 2 quid for a soft drink….
Plus if the event is doors open/gates shut at ten and the bar shuts at around 730 that’s not brilliant I didn’t even see the food place open at all when I wandered round the site. Being locked into using their vendors is probably part of the issue as that means there’s no computing on and leads to half arsed offerings.
Disabled access I thought was pretty good other than shrewsbury having rock all in terms of accessible cabs but that’s not a vapefest fail that’s more a shrewsbury fail.
The comittee woman I spoke to was awesome I am really sorry your name has slipped my mind and
Am definitely going to contact the comittee about helping in the future to make the next one even better.
I can only echo what others - particularly Bill - said above, but would also add that it was really fabulous to be able to park for free, close to the action, and not struggle to get a space.
The marquees were great too I had expected it to be a bit more like a car boot, but the tents were genius, and there were sufficient marquees which had seating to rest my legs!
I was only going to pop in for an hour, but ended up staying for four. I wore wedge heels and didn’t find it too muddy, and thought there was a good mix of gear/liquid - it felt like the right ratio to me anyway. I bought plenty of both!
The food prices were not unexpected (though by the time I got to the other end of the festival I considered offering one of the vendors a quid for a bottle of their Costco 25p water!), but that’s down to my own poor planning.
Of course there are always going to be lots of ideas for improvement - if there weren’t, it’d get old, but the whole team did a fantastic job and overall, it seems you’re your own harshest critics!
With the number of people who attended, there are always going to be some gripes with specific issues, and those could have been dealt with individually and you probably didn’t need to explain - anyone who has organised a work night out or a family meal knows what a nightmare it can be, let alone organising location, vendors, events etc for several thousand people!
You’ve done a sterling job, and I the location was great. Perhaps you could hit up the forums next year and ask for litter picker support - I’m sure you could sort a few goody bags out for any volunteers.
Please do try not to let any negative feedback get to you. Individuals may have (valid) criticism, but there will be hundreds of people for each of those who just enjoyed a great day out, with a great atmosphere. Thankyou.
Loved vapefest 2013. Enjoyed vapefest 2014. Food was over priced shite. Beer was overpriced pony piss. Had to walk in to town to get food. On the funny side, that was also overpriced shite. Met a few people from 2013 fest and made new friends from this years. Yup. It was OK.