Glasgow Show Report

[Leon]

This weekend was the Wappinshaw show in Glasgow.  We weren't quite sure what to expect at this one, as the show was moving to a new venue in the centre of the city.  The club had expanded the team behind the organising, and the step to the Royal Concert Hall is a very positive one.  We set off at a sleep-inducing 3:30 am, which wasn't so good, but saw an owl and a fox within the first 5 minutes, so it wasn't so bad...

After avoiding several dozen dopey rabbits, a Gypsy fair, and some low-lying clouds, we struggled our way through the one-way system to arrive at the venue at 7am.  We'd arranged to meet Forum member Maenoferran at this one, and he was already warming a park bench over the road from the venue.  The venue security wouldn't allow us through into the unloading area until the show organisers were on site, so we killed time chatting with Maenoferran about life on the Shetlands.  Club members started arriving at 7:45, and we managed to get the van in just before 8.  Unloading was very quick with the 3 of us, and the organisers were very helpful with sorting out some extra space for us in this new hall.

Once the stand was up, Maeno popped out, and returned with an assortment of Gregg's pasties!  Very nice!  The venue's food wasn't available until 10am, which is something for the club to consider looking at for next year, but once it did start, the standard was excellent, but more on that later.




The show opened at 10am, and people started drifting in.  The show was held in a single hall, just inside the main entrance.




The numbers through the door seemed to be good, and business was brisk.  As always, there were a few Forum members about, Derek H, Mexican Dave, black knight, and of course Maenoferran.  There were a couple of others whose names escape me though!

Maeno had to disappear at 11:30 to get the train back up to Aberdeen, ready for his 12 hour ferry trip back home!  That's some travelling to get to a wargames show!  He's a thoroughly nice chap (although we found out he's a Geordie...  ), with some great stories from up on the Islands, and it was good to meet him.  I'll be waiting for some pics of his new palm trees making an appearance in his next Dino-Hunt!

One of our customers popped by with some painted figures, so we grabbed a couple of pics.  It's probably worth mentioning that I was using the backup camera this weekend, which doesn't have the best macro function in the world.  It's definitely not my shaky hands...






As mentioned earlier, the food on offer was fantastic, mostly reasonable priced, with polite friendly staff.  Although £1.45 for a can of Coke was a bit pricey!  It was actually the first time I've had a ham and cheese baguette, where the grated cheese was wrapped up inside each slice of ham!  I had to take a picture...



There were a handful of games in the middle of the hall:

'My Kingdom for a Norse' participation game, which was busy all day.


































I think with the show being limited to the one hall, people had been round everything by midday, and the numbers started to really drop by 1-2pm ish.  We started packing up at around 3, and started getting things out to the van.  The venue security staff had very helpfully allowed us to keep the van in the loading area, as the parking options for high-roofed vans were severely limited, the nearest one being around a 1.5 mile walk.

Overall, a good day, and a good start in this new venue.  Things to look at for next year would be allowing trader access before 8am, sorting some local parking for big vans, and maybe getting some food available to the traders before 10am.  Other than that, all good, and I hope this one grows in it's new home.

[Derek H]

That's some dedication by Maenoferran.  I think I'd have been a bit disappointed if I'd come all the way from Shetland.

He should have saved himself up for Claymore, the next show in the Scottish calendar.

http://seswc.co.uk/claymore/

[Leon]

I forgot the single recruit into the Pendraken Auxiliaries!

[Maenoferren]

I came down for a meeting on the Friday and was able to stay over on the Friday night.the one thing I would say is for those putting on games to possibly start playing them ASAP. The pulp game looked really interesting but didn't start for ages and as for the Korean war game I never saw any movement at all. And as for the sealed knot table, big pile of kit and a photo album and that's it. It does make one wonder if they got any new recruits?