I had a great day looking , buying , testing , and watching.
I left home at about 05:30 and travelled the 3 hour 15 min journey, and a little while more for stops.As it was on and off raining ( and I wasn't desperate to be in the first people in and just grab all the feebies ) I sat in my van in the dry and watched the world go by.Then as the queue started to move in I got ready and followed in.
Just as I was getting out of my van I recognised 3 people that were parked just behind me , it was DiscoDes and Perpetua and Neil from Valley Vapes , unfortunately they were the only AAEC members a saw all day.I kept going back to the bar area ( NO, I wasn't drinking , had to drive back the same day ) to find seniorphil for his generous offerings of batts and grommets, but couldn't find him , perhaps I'm not very good at recognising people.I also was looking for people with AAEC badges to but didn't see any but I was wearing mine all day.
I went round the entire site first and saw who and what were there, some vendors that I wanted to go back to ( some multiple times , lol ) and other I was curious about and one that I wanted to see their prices.Regarding the one with prices first , now , I wanted to get a mod and a couple of other things so went round asking about the prices of this mod and the one vendor in question ( I won't say the name but it's in north London next to a large stadium ! ) had , according to the guy I spoke to had gone up in price for the show.I asked him how much, he told me , I asked if that price was for the kit and he said no, just the mod, so when I got home I checked their website expecting the prices to have changed but they hadn't , so it would have been cheaper to order it over the internet , wtf is that about !!! A price hike of 16+ % , very naughty.So, after a couple of hours of just wandering about getting absorbed in one tent looking at the Helix mod and the beautiful wooden mods next to Helix ( I can't remember the name of the wooden mods , not remembering names will be a running theme through this post ) , I started to queue for things that I wanted to get.First off the freebies , I got one of the new juices from T-Juice , being the Gold 'n' Brown as the others I wasn't so interested in.Then off to Celtic Vapours to get a couple of juices there, I plumped for Peanut Butter and Celtic Tobacco , I got a small bag from iFancyon.com which had a Toot'in Juice Bubblegum liquid in it ( not my kind of juice but I will try it, it would be rude not to ).Last but not least I queued for AGES at the DV Mix your flavour and got three , these were Caramel Tobacco , Apple pie and Rich Pipe.At the same time I put my contact details down for them, I can't remember if it was for a competition or something else ( bad memory) got 3 bottles of DV Vapefest Original.
Then I went off to other vendors , trying their exclusives and well known flavours , I tried Snake Oil, and still don't know if it was great or yuk , very different type of flavour and next to them were Digby's and I tried Oriental Plunder and Dr Jekyll both of which I really enjoyed.Others that I tried and enjoyed were Phoenix Vapours - Tobacco Medium , Halcyon Haze - Earth Brother , Spiritus Vapes - Fraho and Craft Vapes - Leprechaun.
Now I was off to buy some things , first was the Easy Coil , I was in a vendors tent when I saw this man T-Shirt and he was holding ( NO rude comments please ) so bought this there and then , then he decided ( even though I have seen review videos ) to give an impromptu demo , which very soon drew a small crowd , this was definitely one of my highlights of the day.I thanked him at the time but I want to thank him again , but I can't remember his name or site that I can contact him on, can anyone help ? ( I told you I was bad at remembering names ).
I then got a cheapish Zenith V2 clone for dripping so I can have adjustable air flow and some fun in a few days time with all the flavours I've got.
I didn't mention it earlier but I had gone to Mrs Lords to try some of their Juices and fell in love with the Seville Marmalade so I bought a 50ml glass bottle for only £15 an absolute bargain , I could have stood there all day with that juice quite happily.Going on from that , Mrs Lord & Co , Helix Mods and the lovely wooden mods ( which I still can't remember ) were all next to each other in a corner of a smallish tent and ALL 3 of them were jam packed all day, which is testament to the quality and popularity of their products and hopefully they will go again next year ( cross fingers for a 2015 Vapefest , I know it's early , but I had a really good time ) and get a lot more room which they really deserve.
Last on the shopping list, but certainly not the least was ( in size and amount ) was a VTR, 2 batts, charger and 4 juices.I got these from Tan and the lovely girls from Vapor-Z .We have been sending messages to and fro for a while on different things and it was a pleasure to meet them.The juices I got were 3 bottles of the Pop-I Pipe Tobacco ( note to Tan remember September please , lol ) and a bottle of their Vapefest launch of Clyde , which was one of two of Vapefest lauches , Bonnie and Clyde.Again I could have stayed there all day and talked to them and their friends they had there, but they had work to do.This is the vendor where I met the maker of the Easy Coil ( Nope, still can't remember his name or link , lol ).Highlight number two.
The last highlight of the day for me was the back at the main DV tent and the mixing tutorial , it taught me so much, but was funny and entertaining at the same time.After I have tried and used the freebies and bought juices I will be mixing my own ( there will be posts from me in time about vendors on this subject as well as DV of course ).They showed us mixing a juice, then a member of the audience made one , THEN came the really funny bit ( for me anyway ).The man leading the tutorial asked the audience what flavours he should use , someone called out Diablo Poco, so that went in followed by Sarsaparilla and I think the last one was blackcurrant, the last two flavours were chosen the marketing guy from DV ( and , no I can't remember either of the guys names ) , after a quick shake and a clearo was filled, they invited people to try.There was a really big , tough looking guy at the back that said he would and I thought he's going to be fine , after he took just one toot of that he was coughing and spluttering for 5 mins, they then offered it to anyone else, so me, being me, had to try.Normally I double toot when I'm vaping and I did the same with this, after the first toot and half way through the second I thought "what was that guy coughing so hard for" , then the chilli hit like a sledgehammer at the back of my throat, WOW that was strong.The juice was then auctioned off for charity, I don't think that juice will be for using somehow , lol.At the end of the tutorial there was a Q & A and we all asked questions, I asked a few more afterwards too and both guys were so good at answering everything and couldn't really be any more helpful, a real big thumbs up.
I sat down and wasted nearly an hour and three quarters to see if I'd won anything on the raffle ( the nearest number to mine was over 400 away , LOL ) , which of course I didn't.Then grabbed a bite to eat and went home and eventually got indoors at 21:10 , so a really long day, but WELL worth it.
So looking back it was a fantastic day, even if I didn't meet up with people I wanted to and the Highlights being Mrs Lord & Co , DV and Vapor-Z.
Andy
I'd not strapped him in and its a good job he was swaddled in blankets... 
It was a long day but worth every minute and I wouldn't have missed it for anything! 
