Fighting The Flab

Let me start this post by saying my friends, family and I had a wonderful time. This was the best family day out we have had in a long time, and it was on our doorstep! The day was long but we had prepared, the kids loved every moment of it, from the live music, to the wall of death show, to paint balling even to the bouncy area and fairground rides.

It was however, amazingly expensive, not the entrance fee, although advertised at £10, there was an additional £1 and some pence added to each ticket price if you purchased on line. Which to be fair for the set up and bands was quite acceptable, but everything else once you got inside was horrendously expensive!

The fairground rides were between £2.50 and £4 a go, which is expensive for rides, especially with 6 children with us for the day. The food was astronomical! £2.50 for a portion of chips, £1 for a fruit shoot drink £5 for a burger... It just went on and on. Where ever you turned there was more expense.
Now, don't get me wrong I am not complaining, we are quite lucky in the fact that both of us work and we could afford a day out like this once in a while. But between the group of us 6 adults and 6 children it is no exaggeration to say we spent over £700 in the grounds.
This is especially galling when you read the FAQ page of www.thebigbbq.co.uk section 4 which reads:

4. How much is it?
The Big BBQ costs £10 in advance (£15 on the door) for adults and free for under 10's.
Food, drink and some entertainment inside will have small costs, but this is a family event and we will make sure all prices are kept fair.

Now I don't know in which world these traders lived or how they paid for there spots, but the prices certainly were not fair, in fact I have been to full on festivals (Reading, Glastonbury etc) where the food is a lot cheaper!

The entertainment was good, but again a little disappointing, not only the price, having paid to get in but also the lack of it. I expected a lot bigger rides and more of them. The field appeared almost baron on first inspection. I know the organiser Nick Hart personally and went and found him to ask about it. A lot of the rides that were supposed to be there had not managed the journey down to us due to bad weather. A lot were stuck in floods and mud 'up North' and this had left a big hole in the amusements and rides.

The 3 beer tents, were actually 2 beer tents and they ran out of champagne by the evening, which was a little disappointing as it seemed the best priced drink available, £25 a bottle as opposed to £5.25 we were getting charged for shorts and mixers.

Another disappointment was the lack of BBQ competition, now don't get me wrong those that were there were amazing! The food was glorious, yet there was only a dozen teams cooking, and I had been expecting more, again, Nick was informed 30-40 teams would be competing, and this was down on expectations.

The music acts were good, well most of them, some were distinctly average, but the overall show of the stages and lights was good. The sound system was not too bad, although quality seemed to be exchanged for noise levels, which when you consider it was equipped for 20,000 bodies to be stood in front of it was probably why, the 400 that actually turned up were slightly deafened, and to be fair 3 days later my ears are still ringing.

The last thing I was disappointed in was the 'huge' firework display, there was indeed fireworks, there timing was superb with the music of Bon Giovi, the display itself was also pretty good. But unfortunately, again it seemed a little lack lustre, maybe it was tiredness after being drinking and stood in a field for 12 hours, maybe it was the expectations of a 'huge' firework display as advertised, but it really did only last about 3 minutes at the most.

There seems to be a lot of negative points here,  and that is not what I took away from the day, as previously stated overall I had a great day. I got to listen to some good music, spend some time with close friends and family and see the kids really enjoy themselves. As a family day out it was brilliant and the people of Castle Point (especially Canvey) should feel slightly gutted that they did not turn out in greater numbers as they missed a good day, to be fair, they should feel slightly embarrassed as well. Seeing all the negative reactions people have had, the day took a lot of organising, a lot of hard work to put on and cost a lot of money, thanks in no small part to Nick himself. People are all so quick to put things down without looking deeper into what has actually happened. They are also so quick to say there is nothing to do, no one ever does anything, but then, why would they? A years worth of planning went into putting on an amazing day. Yet only 400 or so people came and took part.

How many other days out can you go to with a 12 month old baby, and children ranging from 3 to 14, plus adults of 2 generations and everyone have a truly great time? I can tell you from experience, none. There is always someone or something that causes a day out to be tolerable rather than enjoyable. This was a first for our family.

I personally would like to thank Nick Hart and his team and look forward to next years event (if there is one, and I truly hope there is). I know it was not perfect and there is lots of lessons to be learnt from this event, but somehow I get the feeling the points will be taken on board and with Nicks drive and tenacity, I am sure he will find a way of fixing all the problems and host more Big BBQ events. I know my family and I will be there to support it if he does.

Thank you Nick, don't listen to all the people willing to put your efforts down, I can speak for 20 or so people that you made smile on the day.