when can we book , can't wait still on a high after the weekend.

Work is already underway on preparing for 2014 and pre-registration will be going live soon. Will let everyone know when it's there.

Ok thats next summer sorted then, back from africa and southern europe for june, say hi to the family and then off to eastern europe for the rest of the summer

Really enjoyed the event, even found myself looking at motorbikes, but it aint never gonna happen


By the way what was the mystery meat ?

__________________
Rich

Iveco Turbo Daily 4x4 40-10
Ex Owner LR101 300Tdi Ambi 'Tiggurr'

not long until the next hub to find out

cheers danny and fil

Good Afternoon,

I for one would be interested in seeing the results of the survey that was emailed around as, I will never return to that location.

If you're hard of hearing, or decided to drink enough booze to render you blathered then you may have a chance to get some sleep but our crowd in the Quiet Field (ha that's a bloody great name if I've ever heard it) were kept awake by the aircraft movements. And before anyone thinks I'm an anti-aviation type, I'm a PPL holder!

Many people left early because of the aircraft noise, as a did I. Three days of no sleep is not a joke, especially as we were heading directly from the meeting, for a touring holiday around France.

The food wasn't a patch on that at Ripley, the service was even worse. At least the local taxi company did a roaring trade in moving people over to The Marlborough Arms, who's curry's were a delight

The showers were a joke and failing with three seperate faults, on three days takes some believeing.

What was good was to see the exped type vehicles and the likes of CCM and Pidcocks in attendance.

I've been to 5 of the last 6 main UK HUBB events and it will be my last at that location (unless I win the lotto and can buy a sound proof Uni-Mog!).

Each to their own, I suppose. Personally, I slept rather well (I was in the 'quiet' field as well, although I was glad I'd brought my ear plugs)! For me, the food was much better; being Vegan, it's often rather difficult to eat out! What I had wasn't by any stretch of the imagination exciting, but it was better than Ripley and on a par with other places I've eaten out! That probably says more about where I live, though! The venue overall was MUCH better than before, and I found it very interesting meeting other 'types' of traveller / transport.

My only gripe is that it can't be at the same weekend next year; it was my half term, I could enjoy ALL of HUBB, as opposed to just the Saturday!

Thanks again to Ian and Sam!

Sad to hear you didn't enjoy the event Stuart. HUBB UK 2014 will be at the same location, so I guess we won't have the pleasure of your company. Genuinely sorry if that's the case.

We will indeed be publishing the stats that come out of the survey. As you'll have seen by all the other feedback given in this thread and elsewhere, and as the survey is demonstrating, while there were inevitably imperfections and niggles with holding a big event at a new venue for the first time, on the whole people seemed to a) love the venue despite the aircraft noise; and b) love the event despite the minor teething issues.

Some people did choose to leave early, though I think it would be fairer to characterise them as "a few" rather than "many", which is a shame considering how much there was going on. Also true that some folk chose to go off-site for their evening victuals - and there's nothing wrong with that if it's what best suits individual tastes. Feedback about the venue's food has been mixed. Some people were perfectly happy with it (though even the venue agrees about those sausages) and some weren't. The average rating for food in the survey so far (people are still responding to it) is "Good". We're working with DPFH to make sure lessons are learned about our expectations so that next year can be better.

Showers.... We'd invested in an extra shower block for the main camping field to make sure there was plenty of provision for the number of people attending - and were even able to keep them open all the time despite our original plan to have them as peak time only. Yes, there were some issues with temperature regulation in those ones and with power tripping occasionally with the venue's main shower block. In the latter case, the problems were always swiftly rectified by the venue staff. Some people had problems with the shower token cards not working. In every case that I'm aware of, this was due to folk bending the cards or getting them wet before use.

The aircraft noise is something we can't control. Everything else we did our best to get right and will get "righter" next year

I'll post in this thread when the survey results are online.

Hi Iain,

yeah I'm also sorry to say that I won't be there.

Yes the event had outgrown Ripley and a new location was needed.

The comments about the shower cards were not the case with mine, they were dry and un-creased and I was told by the staff that part of the problem was that if two people tried to use cards at exactly the same time, that this caused the system to crash!

I'll be looking forward to seeing the survey results, as the ony way an organisation can make inprovements is by using such information.

The HUBB is my favourite socail event of the year, so I'll keep an eye on things and see when things move elsewhere.

You can't please all of the people, all of the time eh!

Reagrds

Reggie

Sorry.. late entry.. but just had time to read 10,000 words on the interweb about biking ....and thought I'd add my tuppence worth

Didn't do the survey. Missed that. I do like to lie on those things. Just to mess with peoples heads.

Two points, if I may.

1. This is was the 2nd HUBB meet I have attended (the first left me with a bad taste in my mouth and I swore I would never do another) and Donnington was absolutely brilliant. I enjoyed it so much and would recommend it to anyone I thought would be interested. Well done all.

2. The costs need looking at perhaps. A neighbour friend attended. He's a 4X4 man and was keen to learn what he could. He did however think that £40 each for him and his partner, for the day was a little expensive. He declined to pay and left. Can't really blame him. Perhaps the day rate needs to be lower or 2 for the price of one ? He wasn't intending on camping over as we only live 90 minutes up the M1.
No idea if it was £40 each as I got a weekend pass.

3. I hate it when, having paid a fee to camp, there is an additional fee to use the facilities.. i.e. shower.
I have ridden away from campsites before that do that trick. Its wrong.
Which is why I was glad that the shower blocks with the ' Dynamically Fluid Temperature Control ' were free.


And finally .. there are those that count and those that ride. I don't count.

Thanks for the feedback Steve. Very glad to hear you enjoyed it. Hope you'll be back next year


We're not entirely sure where the confusion about day passes came from. HU has never offered them for this event, has no plans to offer them in the future, and the pricing options were always crystal clear on the website - i.e. full 4-day passes or weekend-only passes (the £40 ones). Can only assume that those who turned up expecting a day pass hadn't taken the time beforehand to find out the details of the event. Which is odd.


Nobody paid to camp at HUBB UK - both camping and parking were free (as were the extra showers paid for by HU as you mentioned). The fees were for entry to the presentations and the opportunity to take part in all the activities. Also remember that prices for 2013 were the same as 2012 (and still won't increase in 2014 either) except that there was an extra charge for camping in 2012 (charged by the old venue). The £1 for 5 minutes in the main shower blocks at Donington Park Farmhouse is charged by the venue - not HU. That's just the way they work, partly as a way of managing their very limited mains water supply.

Hope that clarifies things.

Hi Steve, sorry for not getting back to you faster but I see that Iain has been in touch in the meantime (I’ve been on off having fun at a motorcycle event while he’s been grafting at getting the pages for the HUBB UK 2014 set up).

We were asked a few times this year about doing day passes in 2014 but the decision has been a no – after lots of discussion with Grant and Susan and all the Crew Leaders. We also asked people who are long term attendees, what they thought. We’d love to have a few more people come to the HUBB UK but we are positive that that happening in the form of Day Pass entrants risks damaging the nature of the event.

Thought you’d like to know some of the thoughts that went into this.
The key for most people, and in part why the far great majority come for the full 4 days, and in fact often ask if the event can be longer, is that the atmosphere is so different to travel/overlanding shows. With the event having just had its 13th year we know that the open talk-to-anyone warmth comes from the fact that people are on site camping next to each other for days at a time. New friends are made, ideas swopped and well, you know what I mean. The flow of inspirational presentations spark ideas and then plans can be discussed over evening s and so on. Anyone who popped in for just a day wouldn’t get the benefit.

It’s also important that for everyone who knows, loves and values the event as it is and are on site for full-on learning, ideas sharing and the travel buzz that fits with those things, that they can still be sure of getting into presentations and so on. If we have lots of day visitors then… Well, the good things would start to be watered down and we would risk ending up copying other events. There’s a place for all travel events and the HUBB UK seems to work really well with the slowly grown-into-over-the-years formula. It’s also an issue of having to police things then. Just not the mood of HU.

Having said all of that, I/we really value your thoughts and the tone with which you have passed them on. No event gets better without people getting involved with helping to make it better. That’s one of the reasons why all the volunteers are so important. I’m really pleased that you are coming next year – not long until the new pages go live! And thanks again for the feedback ideas!!!

I agree wholeheartedly with the above by Sam; it's one of the reasons I love going to an HU event! Having said that, as I can't go next year until Friday evening at the earliest, personally I wouldn’t object to not paying full whack.

All the HU events I've attended have been excellent, and I continue to be grateful for all the efforts that go into organising them.

The old adage still holds true; you can't please everyone all of the time . . . .

Although we won't be doing day tickets, we will be offering weekend passes again - so you won't have to miss out

We also have a cunning plan to help all those folk with the opposite problem: not being able to make the weekend due to work.