I won

[Lee337]

A couple of weeks ago I entered a competition to win tickets to the Malle Mile festival at Grimsthorpe castle. To be honest I'd forgotten all about it until I got an email congratulating me on winning said tickets. I'd won tickets to include event camping, Thursday evening pre-party, an exclusive 250 person event for the start of the festival, Friday - Sunday entry (including free showers!) and parking.

How could I refuse!

As I was working Thursday & Friday I chose not to go and while camping was included, it's only 15 minutes drive away from home. Mrs L decided not to go, so Itook my nephew, which p1$$ed my brother off, but he'd decided to visit his in-laws this weekend. Oh well, his loss was his son's gain.

Not knowing what to expect & keeping a close eye on the weather, we set off this morning (Saturday). It was dry although with rain forecast, I threw a couple of umberellas in the car.

So what was it all about. Without going into detail (you can look up Malle Mile on Tinterweb) it's billed as The British Inappropriate Motorcycle Race & Festival in Motion Iit was a freefor all consisting of a scramble, hill climb, sprint and other off-road racing. The 'Inappropriate' bit comes from the varying bikes being used, many being knocked up in someone's shed, including an unrecognisable frame with a Zero battery pack & motor bolted to it, a seat, handlebars and no tank.

There were monkey bikes, stripped down to save weight, old 2-strokes (lots of them) and countless other beasts that quite frankly would have been more at home in a sctrap yard.

There was also supposed to be quite a few stalls, exhibitors & events (motorcycle jousting & moto-polo.

All sounds good, but the weather closed in & by 10.00am the rain began getting quite heavy. While the 'racing' areas were relatively mud free, they were begining to get a little chewed up, entertaining but some of the races were stop/start as more riders fell.

By 1.00pm I'd had enough, as it would appear did others. by the time I'd got back to the carpark, there couldn't have been much more than 15 vehicles there.

It's now just gone 3.00pm and the rain is still torrential. Sad really as it could have been a good event if the weather had been dry. I would have stayed longer but there's only so many times you can walk around the 9 exhibitors stalls trying to keep out of the worst of the rain.

There was meant to be a concourse exhibition in the castle courtyard but this was called off.

Would I go again?

The truthful answer is not likely as each ticket, had I paid for it would have been in excess of £200.00 and even a day pass is £65, plus £20 parking.

Yes, I know the ABR festival is not too far off that price, but it's 3 times the size, with far more high profile speakers & 3 times as many trade stands & manufacturers.

Even if the weather had been hot & sunny as it was last weekend, a day at the Malle Mile would have been enough.

[ghulst]

It sounds like they are trying to copy the Dutch Zwarte Cross. Though that does not include a hillclimb, it is riding motorcycles that are wildly inappropriate for their surroundings at speeds they are not accustomed to. Though the Zwart Cross also has a huge music festival to go with it.

When you evaluate the ticket prices, you have to just go for the £65 day pass, because you would not have bought the weekend pass otherwise anyway. Plus, you would have to consider what the festival would be like if everything would have worked the way it should have. You can hardly blame the organizer for the rain.

But by the sound of it, £65 would be way too much for me as well.  

[Madruss]

The main thing is you made the effort to attend.
A saying we used to have in my youth, to many "summertime bikee's