14.10.08
Potential post
Ok folks this is a post I’ve just written that I was going to post on rec.j but now I’ve written it I’m not sure it’s worth it. What do you reckon?
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Herxheim
After a good load of years attending conventions in the UK I finally got to go to a small foreign convention.
I’ve been to EJCs before but this was a little 200 person affair in the quiet town of Herxheim in Germany. I had a grand time and met lovely people and juggled a bit.
But what’s the difference between this and your standard UK con?
First off was the length of it. It started on the Friday and finished on the Sunday. Most of the small cons in the UK are 1 day only jobs. Arrive, play, eat, show, hang around a bit, leave. This extra time allowed more of the good bits of the longer fests, namely that there’s no rush to play all in one go, and there’s more time to chat and meet people. I quite liked it. No, scratch that, I really liked it.
It wasn’t expensive at E21 and food was included too. We had 2 breakfasts and 1 evening meal included in that price. Not a bad deal.
I’ve heard of this at only 1 event in the UK and that was at the BUC. I didn’t hear good reports of that (I’m not a yiker so didn’t go) in terms of either quality of food or of flexibility of eating times. If it’s 7pm you must eat now!
It wasn’t a problem here though as breakfast went on for some time. Other food was always available through the rest of the day as well (for a small cost). Good, decent food at a cheap price. The only UK event that had that, (as I recall) was Lestival this year (plug plug - it’s looking like it’s on again next June - put it in your diaries).
Facilities were excellent. Clean and well supplied loos and showers, sizeable and bright juggling hall (although Mr Garfield would be horrified that it was very much a “shoes off” event), a place to sit and eat and chat, a seperate sleeping hall with its own showers and loos.
Beer for sale too, you really don’t get that in the UK except at the biggest event.
And I absolutely loved their tick list system. There’s a sheet with names in the rows and prices in the columns. If want something from the shop, eg a beer at E1.50 then you just go and get a beer from the fridge and put a tick on your row in the E1.50 column. At the end of the event you add your row up and pay your balance. Wonderful idea. Nice to see honesty among the community to the extent of the orgs not even a: checking that the list is right, or b: not even checking to see if you’ve added up your own tally correctly. I like the honour system and I see the juggling folk being one of the honest groups out there. It pleases me greatly that this is so.
The show was a little odd but I’m not sure that it was representative of German convention shows. They called it an Open Stage and no-one was booked and paid to perform. I was told that this isn’t too common except at the little events such as this. No theatre space just a halved gym so you could still juggle in the other half should you wish.
Is there anything that they could teach us in the UK?
I doubt that beer sales would come in due to our licensing rules but the food service really is good.
How about more events being weekends rather than one dayers? Means more organising, means more hassle re finding sleeping space. Is it doable?
How about the tick sheet system? It’s quicker than everyone paying every time and means you need fewer hands manning the tills. Would it be a goer for the UK? Orgs do you trust the UK jugglers with such a system?
Sorry if this has been a tad waffly. It’s late, I’m tired. I’ll shut up now.
Have fun.
Alan
PS Hello to everyone I met and passed with and chatted to. And ta again to Lisa and the Duves (and of course the ever lovely Jules).
fak said,
October 15, 2008 at 12:03 pm
I’d post it if I were you. Nice to hear about other conventions. Personally a lot of the UK conventions do start on a Friday and end on a Sunday, but that’s because if I have mates in the city I’ll travel up the night before, so the official day of the convention is a full day and no travelling is done during it (which can cut into convention time).
The ticklist system seems to work well at small conventions (it was used at Passout last year for the non-included items) but I’m not sure if that is as a result of most people knowing each other (compare with the first Bungay bar where I gather there was some attempted abuse of the system - well I certainly saw people try not to pay). You’re right about the licensing issuses being probably too much faff for small UK conventions where they are often held in schools (though Durham seems to work and is a weekender).
Another dynamic I’ve discovered through organising Passout this year is that comapred to the continent our costs for venue hire and very high, to add food to the ticket price would likely double that price in most cases (German venue hire is cheap, so food is a large amount of the ticket price).
I liked the Lestival approach of food on site for a fee, the only place it really fell down was shortages, a lack of hot food, and staffing (it’s a big committment to keep a stall staffed if you can’t operate an honesty system and it still needs stocking throughout the day).