Vapefest 2013 My Experience!!

[richo71]

Just thought i would post this up as my experience and thoughts of my first Vapefest, so without further a do, here we go:

Only a short 40 min drive for me and the wife but no where near as far as some people (Roscopecotrain) but i had travelled straight off a 12 hour night shift.
On arrival which was about 90 mins before it was supposed to start i needed disabled parking, but there was none set aside which was not good in my opinion.
qued up for about 30 mins outside whilst we filtered into the building and through into the back of the hotel where the main marquee was and immediately went in to sit at one of the tables.
We were like kids in a sweet shop inside the tent with all the vendors, met some lovely people jeffc, DiscoDes, chrisjw, spikeyfridge, etc and sat with a nice lad and his family he was from the vape pit forum.(oh and on here too vapeart1)
  I have a couple of gripes about the festival apart from the lack of disability parking, the beer, drinks n food token thing was not very well thought out and a bit of a pain in the a**e and was overly expensive @ £4.00 for a token for a pint of beer and £2.50 for a token for a soft drink, we didn't have food!! 
  I envisage that they will need a far bigger venue for next year as it was absolutely rammed in the tent and the surrounding area, it lessened to a far more tolerable extent later in the day though.
The one thing that disgusted me and others was a expensive mod that one of the juice vendors had was stolen from him and he was a lovely guy too, this kind of thing is unacceptable and i was shocked to hear about it. I hope the thief was caught!!

  All in all, my wife and i had a good day especially the meet and greet, I know that alot of people put in a lot of hard work behind the scenes to get the event on, but and it is a big but, the above gripes need sorting in my opinion to make me come back again next year. This is just my honest experience after attending the event.

[Perpetua]

Sorry I didn't get to met you to say hello Rich . . . as you say the place was absolutely rammed. I'm sure the Vapefest Committee will take on board any constructive thoughts on how next year could be improved, should they decide to take on the organizing again.

I guess to a degree they are almost victims of their own success in addition to how popular vaping has now become.

The food/drink tokens were a new idea from last year, it did actually save some queuing at the bar we found.

That's awful about the stolen mod, how very sad.

But good to hear that overall your experience was a positive one.

[Balllsy]

You're going to get thieves at every large venue. It's a damn shame but it's just to be expected unfortunately. I know that Feri of Mystic vapours also had some tanks of juice stolen. I did keep my eyes peeled but couldn't see any one vaping on a labelled clearo of juice.

[triphammer]

had a great time but the venue was to small and cramped. i kept out the tent until the very end as it was just rammed. besides that. was a top top day...

[Super-Shiny]

Aug 18, 2013 12:49:44 GMT richo71 said:

The one thing that disgusted me and others was a expensive mod that one of the juice vendors had was stolen from him and he was a lovely guy too, this kind of thing is unacceptable and i was shocked to hear about it. I hope the thief was caught!!
 

Disgusting and shocking, vendors and people go there to have fun and to buy goods and sell goods and some dirty little thief takes advantage, shame on that person and you will never be able to hold your head up high when you use the stolen item

But that aside sounds like you had a real good time

[richo71]

Aug 18, 2013 14:57:24 GMT Super-Shiny said:

Aug 18, 2013 12:49:44 GMT richo71 said:

The one thing that disgusted me and others was a expensive mod that one of the juice vendors had was stolen from him and he was a lovely guy too, this kind of thing is unacceptable and i was shocked to hear about it. I hope the thief was caught!!
 

Disgusting and shocking, vendors and people go there to have fun and to buy goods and sell goods and some dirty little thief takes advantage, shame on that person and you will never be able to hold your head up high when you use the stolen item

But that aside sounds like you had a real good time

Yeah it was a good day Rom, i was torn between spending time with people or spending money   i have my Kayfun now though 

[Phoenixflame (Julie)]

Oh I am really sorry to hear that one of the vendors had a mod stolen.

I had the opposite experience - I left a bag with some of my vaping bits and pieces in it at the Tamworth Arms on Saturday night - lots of the people in there were vapers from vapefest as its only down the road.

I didn't even realise that I had left it there until I started packing my stuff up this morning; I went back to the Tamworth Arms not really even quite daring to hope that someone would have handed it in - but they had and it is now with Wayne.

Many, many thanks to wayne67 and also to whomever it was that handed it in.

[sue1952]

that sort of restores your faith in people doesn't it Julie ? but I am saddened to hear that a light fingered a...hole has ruined the atmosphere of what seemed to be a really enjoyable time. Hope the b.....d chokes on it. What goes around, comes around and I hope whoever it was gets his/her comeuppance

[chrisjw]

Yeah......I also heard about the poor guy.......a top of the range mod & atty, stolen from under his nose.......Unfortunately, being a "free, anybody can walk in" event, it could well have been some a*s*wipe who just wandered in off the street hoping to steal something........he may well have not even realised what he had lifted..........it dampened what was otherwise a great event.

[kibbster]

Aug 18, 2013 16:25:29 GMT chrisjw said:

Yeah......I also heard about the poor guy.......a top of the range mod & atty, stolen from under his nose.......Unfortunately, being a "free, anybody can walk in" event, it could well have been some a*s*wipe who just wandered in off the street hoping to steal something........he may well have not even realised what he had lifted..........it dampened what was otherwise a great event.

That's a really good point Chris, it may well have been a random crook off the street.
Very sorry to hear that someone got ripped off though

[djs]

Good post...well said.

I never got to say hello to lots of people; pushed for time and t.b.h. the main tent was too much for me.

- - -

There seems to be lots of food for thought about the whole event. Whether forums (our opinion) can take a part in the planning for another year, I don't know.

Some things are obvious.

1) This isn't some mickey mouse event and needs a new home.
2) Bigger tent, bigger sales floor - more comfort for everybody and less pilfering.

Given the seemingly ridiculous amounts of cash/CC/debit card swapping hands, it must be in everyone's interests to get things working really well.

I could go on, but it's not my place.

Pleased to go, and will go again for sure.

[Blownupdolly]

Aug 18, 2013 17:42:07 GMT djs said:

Good post...well said.

I never got to say hello to lots of people; pushed for time and t.b.h. the main tent was too much for me.

- - -

There seems to be lots of food for thought about the whole event. Whether forums (our opinion) can take a part in the planning for another year, I don't know.

Some things are obvious.

1) This isn't some mickey mouse event and needs a new home.
2) Bigger tent, bigger sales floor - more comfort for everybody and less pilfering.

Given the seemingly ridiculous amounts of cash/CC/debit card swapping hands, it must be in everyone's interests to get things working really well.

I could go on, but it's not my place.

Pleased to go, and will go again for sure.

I was so glad I met you! Enjoyed our chat. Hopefully we meet again at some point. Xxx

[djs]

Aug 18, 2013 18:33:28 GMT Blownupdolly said:

I was so glad I met you! Enjoyed our chat. Hopefully we meet again at some point. Xxx

Let's hope so. Anyone who can put up with my nonstop over-thinking deserves a medal.

[gazza]

AS I'm new to vaping I was intrigued as to what vapefest was all about so as I was only a short drive from tamworth I had to drop by and take a look, First I have to agree that the venue is just far too small and I had to park a fair distance from the venue, the marquee was jam packed (a pick pockets playground) and the queues to get to the vendors was huge, especially decadent vapours where after queuing for about 40 minutes I had only moved about 10 feet and as I had about another 20/30 feet to go I called it a day.
Beer prices was expensive but I suppose as you didn't pay a entrance fee to get in that was a small price to pay and there must be some hefty costs involved with organising such an event.
On the positive side it was still a great day and I was like a kid in a sweet shop. didn't know what to try next or pick up and admire and drool over, that is what internet shopping can never replace.
I saw some wonderful gear and some not quit so wonderful, tried out some great juices and spoke to a lot of very enthusiastic vapers and very nice people also who appeared to be having a good time too.
I do hope that there will be a vapefest 2014 but in a much, much bigger venue.

[Blownupdolly]

Aug 18, 2013 19:00:51 GMT djs said:

Aug 18, 2013 18:33:28 GMT Blownupdolly said:

I was so glad I met you! Enjoyed our chat. Hopefully we meet again at some point. Xxx

Let's hope so. Anyone who can put up with my nonstop over-thinking deserves a medal.

Hey, you are a nice guy! We are all different and have our own foibles.
I happen to talk loudly sometimes due to having a partially deaf husband who makes me yell just to hear what I have said!