Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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Heltor Chasca
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Heltor Chasca »

£75.00...?

Wowzers! That's me priced out too unless something changes. I live over four hours away in Somerset, so I've got to factor in travel expenses; a local teenager to look after my chickens and kennels or dog sitter for my spaniel.

A shame........hc

EDIT: As a comparison (so I'm not just moaning) I went to a 4 day, 3 night festival at the beginning of Summer last year and paid £40.00 for a FULL price ticket. Camping, talks, workshops and similar, day- time and night-time entertainment (live bands) all included. You could bring your own food or buy there. I bought there and for fresh, wholesome, produce it cost me £8.00/day for the 1st 3 days (3 meals) and £3.00 on the last day (breakfast). Good value and I'll go again.

The festival industry is over-saturated as you know and it's really hard to get good attendances. Apart from the whole bank-loan problem which makes life difficult for festival organisers, it's little wonder they go bust all the time.

I'll never get to see Yorkshire or Lancashire at this rate. It's expensive up North.............hc

2ND EDIT: Although kids are "welcome" there doesn't appear to be anything on the programme for them to get their teeth into. And as any parent taking kids to a festival knows, it's great to get rid of them occasionally to be stimulated by some fun activities. Who knows what tickets for a 12 and a 5 year old would cost anyhow>
Last edited by Heltor Chasca on 20 Jan 2015, 7:10pm, edited 2 times in total.
theDaveB
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by theDaveB »

Yeah too expensive for me as well.

Shame as was looking forward to meet Tim and Laura having followed them around world (via the internet).

Dave
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Vantage
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Vantage »

Never been to a festival or concert or anything else like that in my life so I did wonder if the price was fair or not. I suppose they (the organisers) might be paying a small fortune for the use of the grounds (they look a bit posh), the 3 meals, insurance (I'm guessing a hundred or so cyclists riding across the wet grass might make a mess), costs for the speakers, advertising and who knows what else.
But reading the last few posts, I guess I'm not such a tight**** after all :mrgreen:
I feel better now :lol:
Bill


“Ride as much or as little, or as long or as short as you feel. But ride.” ~ Eddy Merckx
It's a rich man whos children run to him when his pockets are empty.
pete75
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by pete75 »

By comparison the June 2015 York Rally http://www.yorkrally.org/ is £20 for 3 nights camping and the early bird was £15. OK it doesn't include 2 lunches and dinner but they ain't gonna cost much at the Wetherspoon Punchbowl pub just a 5 minutes cycle from the Knavesmire. They do a brilliant breakfast there and keep an excellent pint.
Can't remember what Mildenhall cost in 2014 but I think it was under £20.

As for comparing it to festival costs last proper one I went to was 4 quid. Headline acts were Hendrix, The Doors and the Who with the likes of Joni Mitchel, Joan Baez, Family, Free, ELP and Jethro Tull thrown in for good measure.
'Give me my bike, a bit of sunshine - and a stop-off for a lunchtime pint - and I'm a happy man.' - Reg Baker
gplhl
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Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by gplhl »

theDaveB wrote:Yeah too expensive for me as well.

Dave


I've emailed to see if they are offering an entry only ticket. £75 is 15 days on the road to me. Just bad timing with me not working. Gave up work last May to cycle across Africa.

Would have been nice to have attended as I'm unexpectedly back in the UK at that time as my sister decided to get married spoiling my plans of hopping over to South America after Cape Town.

Oh well maybe another year.

Good luck, hope it goes well.

Gary
http://www.longbikeride.co.uk
Last edited by gplhl on 20 Jan 2015, 10:03pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Sweep
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Sweep »

I feel slightly bad about posting this as i wish the event well.

I have been told that the camping component is only £4 a night.

I was interested as i have a bed in clitheroe.
Sweep
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Heltor Chasca
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Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Heltor Chasca »

Sweep wrote:I feel slightly bad about posting this as i wish the event well.

I have been told that the camping component is only £4 a night.

I was interested as i have a bed in clitheroe.


I'm with you on this. I wish the organisers well and hope their business plan has legs for future events. Festivals are a tough call.

I just feel a bit odd about the pricing as I was under the impression that this was a 'not for profit' event. I don't know how much the caterers, landowners, insurance companies etc are charging or how much the trade exhibitors are being charged but it is just WAY much more than ANY similar festival I've been to. To be a harsh critic the programme of events etc isn't particularly packed with extraordinary stuff.

What's the story guys?
PH
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by PH »

Looks like an excellent line up of speakers, I'm trying to work out if I can make it, I had other plans for that week.
I'm not put off by the price, I'd expect to spend £30-£40 on any weekends camping with a couple of meals. There's a couple of speakers that if appearing locally I'd pay to see, so already I can see how I'd get my monies worth. I'm not sure the comparisons with Mildenhall or York are fair, they're all different.
mike chadwick
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by mike chadwick »

The cost of the event is probably the right price for what's on offer, but as the majority of people attending will be cycle tourists, most of whom will be camping and suspect like myself will prefer to supply and cook their own food , you end up paying for 3 meals you do not need.
I hope the event is a success but fear the above will put a lot of people off which is a shame a I had the dates in my diary
Bicycler
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Bicycler »

Vantage wrote:Never been to a festival or concert or anything else like that in my life so I did wonder if the price was fair or not. I suppose they (the organisers) might be paying a small fortune for the use of the grounds (they look a bit posh) :

I'd hope not. Waddow Hall has been owned by the Girl Guides for the past century. Even on non-members rates Scout and Guide campsites tend to be amongst the cheapest.

But, as you say, other costs add up.
cycletouringfest
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by cycletouringfest »

Hi all,

Finally got round to sorting out my own account on here, rather than using my husband's.

Apologies if the price is higher than expected. We thought very carefully about how to price it and £75 is as low as we could get it. Some points I would make:

- It is non-profit and I am organising it on a voluntary basis. If the event fails to break even, it comes out of my own pocket. If it makes a profit, the proceeds will be used for future events. It is a very careful balancing act!

- The focus of the festival is on workshops and talks, unlike other festivals with lots of trade stands and exhibitors (which would be paying to be there) so there aren't a huge number of other sources of income. We had applied for a lottery grant but were refused it - that would have brought the ticket price down significantly. Although I think comparing it to other festivals is a bit futile, the model we were working on is the RGS 'Explore' conference. This costs £75 for the weekend or £55 for one day, with no accommodation or evening meal included.

- Costs cover speaker expenses (no one is being paid to speak but we are covering some travel costs), room hire, camping fees, insurance, catering etc. Catering and camping are actually pretty small costs in comparison to the rest and we are not offering an option without catering or camping due to the nature of the venue.

Laura
cycletouringfest
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by cycletouringfest »

One more thing now I'm at home and not surreptitiously writing on here at work...

We were really unsure what demand would be like for the festival (I think someone said something to this effect higher up, doubting how popular it would be). This means we only booked a small-ish venue - although there is a ton of camping space, space indoors (for talks etc) is not huge - so the number of tickets available is very limited. Cycle touring is still so niche, unfortunately!

Although the smaller scale will be better (I think) for building a sense of community at the event, it does mean we don't benefit from the economies of scale that other events do, nor can we attract huge numbers of exhibitors all paying to be there. 1000 people all paying £20 bring in a huge amount - far more than 100 people paying £75 - so again it isn't that helpful to compare ourselves against e.g. the York Rally which will deal with more than just touring and so undoubtedly attract more people (and I do hope to go to that event as well, it looks great!).

We'll see how this year goes and maybe next year things will work differently, but in the meantime hope to see at least some of you there.

There is still a chance we'll sell day tickets, so make sure you sign up to the mailing list so you'll be the first to know if we do.

Best wishes,
Laura
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Sweep
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Sweep »

All the best with the event laura

By the way, since it was referred go above, do the girl guides still own waddow hall? They did when i was a kid and in fact years later i worked with someone from the south coast who had been there. But i had the impression, the world being what it is, that they had sold it years ago to something a bit posher than mucky guides. Or did they sublet it?
Sweep
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by PrinterJohn »

As you are not sure what the take up of people will be, why not charge simply for the camping + say £20pp (we have attended canoeing events where this happens and a few hundred people turn up and simply pay the campsite who in turn lay on a free marquee & bar paid by from a full campsite & bar takings). Cancel the catering, groups who know each other may want to combine for meal making, otherwise we all have cooking kit so expense 1 removed. Not sure what the 1,000's of pounds are needed for, advertising costs - nil (this forum is your best advertising with also say CGOAB) and talks given by volunteers. Then from a start of the first festival you could work out exactly which direction to go in and where money would make improvements. For myself & wife to attend @ £150 + travel from south of England this would knock £250 out of my touring fund so we are now unlikely to attend and I gauge so far more negative than positive publicity has been generated. Maybe if people could see where the budget is going they could suggest or offer ways to reduce it, for example you might want to spend £300 on printed flyers which as a printer I could point you in the direction of the same thing for £65. There are probably people reading this from every occupation imaginable who could source everything you will need (insurance, A/V equipment etc ) and at much lower costs. Regards John
Bicycler
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Re: Cycle Touring Festival Clitheroe

Post by Bicycler »

Sweep wrote:By the way, since it was referred go above, do the girl guides still own waddow hall? They did when i was a kid and in fact years later i worked with someone from the south coast who had been there. But i had the impression, the world being what it is, that they had sold it years ago to something a bit posher than mucky guides. Or did they sublet it?

Their website is very much Guide branded: http://www.waddow.org.uk/about_us.aspx

As a long term member of both the Scout Association and YHA (though not the Guides for obvious reasons), I think the strength of a lot of these organisations lies in some of the wonderful places they own. Many of which were donated in the last century or sold at a discounted rate. It would be a shame to lose that.
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