BHPC @ BLITZ Festival 2013

Hello all, nice to meet you.

My name is Phil Wildman and I am the organiser of a sports festival that is coming up this August bank holiday.

This is our website (it's a work in progress!) and facebook page.
http://www.blitzfestival.co.uk - http://www.blitzfestival.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/BlitzFestivalUK - http://www.facebook.com/BlitzFestivalUK

BLITZ Action Sports festival will be a 3-day event, held over the bank holiday weekend in August (Sat/Sun/Mon), at the Gravesend Cyclopark                http://www.cyclopark.com - www.cyclopark.com

Camping will be available on-site, with live bands and rollerdiscos in the evenings

These are the events/sports/features we will be covering/hosting

• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402076 - BMX
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402077 - Skateboard
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402078 - In-Line
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402079 - Skate Cross & Assault Course
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402082 - Circus Skills
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402083 - Street Art & Graffiti
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402084 - Wheels & Wheelchairs
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402085 - Learn-To-Skate
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402086 - Roller Marathon
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402087 - Scooter
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402089 - Slackline
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402090 - Ultimate and Freestyle Frisbee
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402091 - Roll-Ball
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402092 - Roller Hockey
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402095 - Evening Live Band + Disco
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402096 - Roller Disco
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402097 - Big Screens + Film Festival
• http://forum.bhpc.org.uk/RTE_.asp?mode=new&ID=0&CACHE=1506#_Toc351402098 - Barbecue + Hog Roast

Each event will be elaborated more on our website (if our web guy is keeping up with all the updates i keep sending him!). We do have other things planned such as fire shows, highwire acts, but they are budget dependant so may get axed, everything else is confirmed.

The Cyclopark was built only in May 2012, to a budget of £8mil, and boasts top notch facilities.

During a busy summer weekend they achieve a natural footfall of around 1,000, however we expect Blitz Festival should draw in numbers in the region of 8,000 - 12,000 participants & spectators, depending on the budget we achieve, over 3 days. We are pushing for World Series status on some of our events which will dramatically boost the profile of the festival and will have people flying in from all corners of the world to take part and compete.

The organisation of each of the individual events will be handled by independent teams. One team will handle the SkateLondon slalom competition, one team will handle the Skate-Cross, another team for the BMX and so on.

We are not a big corporate entity, this whole thing has literally spawned from a dream of mine last year after organising an In-line skate event (SkateLondon) and seeing yet another small turnout because because it was such a niche event catering only to those people that were already involved in the sport and not for any newcomers. I've got together with some friends and the whole thing has snowballed. We have a team of around 20 people now pulling the strings and an army of volunteers who are all doing this for the love of their sports.

Each event (where possible) will have 3 main aspects to it, a Workshop element, a demonstration element, and a competition element. This gives existing hobbyists an outlet for their competitive side, and also through the workshops and demonstrations from world class skaters, riders, artists, we will hopefully draw new people in and get some fresh blood interested.

We are hoping to get wide coverage of this event, to showcase each sport and the people that love it, and are in talks with Channel 4 who are interested in even coming down to do some filming which is hugely exciting if it happens! We are also being backed by Factory Media who publish 25 separate sporting magazines through a mutual deal with ourselves and Cyclopark.

 

This will be a charity event, we are looking to raise money for the London Wheels & Wheelchairs group (check them our http://www.wawc.org.uk - www.wawc.org.uk) and Rolladome. Both brilliant charities who are really excited about things and we are hoping we can really help them both out.

 

We would love to get you guys involved with the festival, I think there would be fantastic synergy between what you all do and all the other fun things that will be happening that weekend. We are encouraging families to come down, there is a vast kids playground on site, with great picnic areas and hog roasts and barbecues. Plus, we recently got confirmation that the Cyclopark has had a temporary alcohol license approved for the weekend.  So overall it is shaping up to be a great weekend.

 

I just got off the phone with Alan Goodman (super nice guy!) who loves the idea, and I'd like to get you all on board, we would love to include your event in our promotions and encourage people to get involved. Potentially (and this is the whole point of the event) we would expose your sport to a massive audience and get you some good exposure and fresh interest.

 

However there does seem to be an issue looming which I'd like to address.

 

When we originally approached the Cyclopark, they advised us of a long standing booking with you guys on the Saturday. We took that on board and have organised the entire festival around you having unrestricted access to the track for the entire day (our other events would be happening in the fields, skatepark, basketball court etc etc and the back loops of the track).

Having spoken to Alan, it would appear that you had in actuality made the booking for Sunday.

I've left a message for the manager of the Cyclopark to call me urgently tomorrow to confirm what they have booked for you, but it looks like there has been some misscomunication as we have booked the entire park for 3 days, bar the main track on the Saturday which was reserved for you guys.

 

Sunday is planned as our main event day, we will be using the central track loop for an assault course, among other things. We will be constructing an obstacle course on it, and this is our biggest feature event and is what we will be getting World Series status for, which would mean international competitors will be flying in, plus results would count towards their international rankings. The only day we can have this is the Sunday due to people arriving throughout the day on Saturday and leaving throughout the day on Monday as competitors often come from as far afield as Asia to compete. Also, we have a lot of other stuff planned on and around the track as that is our main event day.

This would mean that your event would have to take place on the eastern loop of the track. This is still a significant size and still an adequate track to use, however it is not as ideal as you would be a little further from the main complex, and would miss out on the western loop.

As our events are still a way off, how hard would it be for you guys to rearrange your race to the Saturday? I appreciate you have advertised it as being on the Sunday, but it would mean that you would have full unrestricted access to the entire track for the whole day. You would have easy access to the main facilities. Also, since you would be using the main loop, you would not have to worry about people walking across the track to get access to the camping area (people would take the bridge and go down the middle). Plus you would be there with our full blessing and support and would get to take part in any of the other events that are happening that weekend. Also, from us as a way of saying thanks for this compromise, we will happily include your event on our page, on our facebook, and all our promotions. We will help promote your club and your sport. We would also include your logo and a link to your homepage on our website, and list you as a partner.

 

I appreciate this is a hugely awkward situation, but I’m glad I at least picked up the phone to Alan tonight and did not wait until the week before to get in touch, so we can hopefully come to some kind of compromise before people have booked time off and made travel plans.

I hope Alan you do not mind that I have posted this on your open forum, but I wanted to hear what people's thoughts were.

Below is a picture of the track layout, so you can see what I mean about east and west loops.

http://sphotos-d.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/313309_105491626303806_1268591573_n.jpg

Hi Alan,

Most of our dealings with Cyclopark have been done verbally, directly with David Rossmaur who is in charge there. So it's quite possible he mis-spoke in our early conversations and (as much our fault) we never questioned it. It could have been our screw up, but Sunday was always intended to be our main event day.

Anyway, I've been on the phone to my compadre who is the #2 on BLITZ (though he would say I was #2 ;) ) and he says that if you guys can't move to the Saturday, there are ways we can make it work for both of us on the Sunday. It won't be ideal but he is confident the way the logistics are working out it should still be possible.

Re the insurance, I've got a proposal document that outlines everything we are planning, I could email you a copy to run past your insurers if you like?

Many thanks to Andrew for his efforts to resolve this.

Edited by AlanGoodman - 18 April 2013 at 9:02pm