Vapefest 2018

[Jimmydids]

Chilled evening sat outside the premier inn finished off with beers in the Vaults

 

[TartanSpartan]

Good day in the tent, better than the poor show of vendors in the rest of the show
Got to catch up with lots of great apes
Special mention to @hol for the custard, cheers [emoji1303]
Great to catch up again everyone

 

[hol]

Was great to meet you today mate, sorry the dog kept harrasing you!

Chris, I love dogs, I have 4 so I've always time to make a fuss, especially friendly dogs [emoji106]

 

[hol]

Miffed I missed Hol. A genuine disapointment.

Yes you did, bugger [emoji852]

 

[hol]

Good day in the tent, better than the poor show of vendors in the rest of the show
Got to catch up with lots of great apes
Special mention to @hol for the custard, cheers [emoji1303]
Great to catch up again everyone

You're very welcome sir [emoji106]

 

[twisel]

With the poor show from the vendors the friends that I meet up with at VF either didn't go or left early.... When I got back from a short walk into shrewsbury on saturday afternoon the last of them was packing up their tents... so rather than camp alone I to abandoned ship and came home last night.... This may have been my last vape fest.... Who knows?

 

[Mawsley]

With the poor show from the vendors the friends that I meet up with at VF either didn't go or left early.... When I got back from a short walk into shrewsbury on saturday afternoon the last of them was packing up their tents... so rather than camp alone I to abandoned ship and came home last night.... This may have been my last vape fest.... Who knows?

I’d be amazed if it’s on next year.

Forty vendors down, by all accounts, and a huge amount of grumblings. Noticeable absences compounded the matter - and I was amazed that the weather failed to attract anywhere near the crowds of old. I’d say attendance was in the low hundreds, compared to a 2015 high of ten times that.

I think it’s time is up. Whatever happens, I’m not going again.

 

[Rob]

Which slightly takes the sting out of not being able to attend this year. I am hearing terrible disappointment from many who were there, which is a great shame. The disappointment was aimed purely at the Vendors........ or lack of............ Obviously The Liquid Companies did OK, but the Hardware Guys were marked by their increasing absences. Oh well, time will tell no doubt?

 

[SirLugg]

Hardware wise it was all high end squonker related. Which is great, if that’s your thing. Not so much if it’s not. And the couple of vendors that were there selling hardware that wasn’t categorised as squonk related didn’t have any great deals. £25 for a Drop Dead? At a Vape event? No wonder you were quiet. Big players like Evo were missed imo, and lots of the remaining vendors scaled things down and shared tents with one another to save costs.

I can’t help but think VF have done this to themselves though. You spend X amount of years making the event ‘invite only’ for vendors to then have a shit year attendance wise, (2017), then quite literally go begging for Vendors in 2018 to boost attendance by asking they same people to vend who you told to do one in 2016. Proof, if any were needed, that elitism is not and never will be good business.

However, whilst the vendors weren’t what they used to be numbers wise the vast majority that were there were great. @ZT looked chipper (sorry I didn’t say hello man. You were busy every time I poked my head round), Chefs were great with some stunning deals and the likes of The E cig shop and TMB notes were nice additions. But it was all juice.

Then you’ve got the theft. Due to word getting around that there was hardware for sale in our tent there was a constant influx of foot traffic, much moreso than normal. The fact something was stolen is proof, if any were needed, that the infection of unsociables in our community is spreading. But it’ll catch up with them...

Plus, and I really do mean this, it’s genuinely nice to catch up with some of the folks off here. I spent most of Saturday afternoon laughing my head off chatting to the guys that went and for the most part it goes to show what a nice bunch of folk we have here. The social side, for me at least, was the best it’s ever been. I’ve got some genuinely great mates on here, and I cherish that.

But do we need Vapefest to have a social ? I dunno. We were talking about that yesterday too..... but we need to talk a lot more about that I think.

TL;DR regardless of the vendor status, if my mates who I don’t see very often are going to Vf then I’ll go. [emoji4]

 

[Lord Grim]

Hardware wise it was all high end squonker related. Which is great, if that’s your thing. Not so much if it’s not. And the couple of vendors that were there selling hardware that wasn’t categorised as squonk related didn’t have any great deals. £25 for a Drop Dead? At a Vape event? No wonder you were quiet. Big players like Evo were missed imo, and lots of the remaining vendors scaled things down and shared tents with one another to save costs.

I can’t help but think VF have done this to themselves though. You spend X amount of years making the event ‘invite only’ for vendors to then have a shit year attendance wise, (2017), then quite literally go begging for Vendors in 2018 to boost attendance by asking they same people to vend who you told to do one in 2016. Proof, if any were needed, that elitism is not and never will be good business.

However, whilst the vendors weren’t what they used to be numbers wise the vast majority that were there were great. @ZT looked chipper (sorry I didn’t say hello man. You were busy every time I poked my head round), Chefs were great with some stunning deals and the likes of The E cig shop and TMB notes were nice additions. But it was all juice.

Then you’ve got the theft. Due to word getting around that there was hardware for sale in our tent there was a constant influx of foot traffic, much moreso than normal. The fact something was stolen is proof, if any were needed, that the infection of unsociables in our community is spreading. But it’ll catch up with them...

Plus, and I really do mean this, it’s genuinely nice to catch up with some of the folks off here. I spent most of Saturday afternoon laughing my head off chatting to the guys that went and for the most part it goes to show what a nice bunch of folk we have here. The social side, for me at least, was the best it’s ever been. I’ve got some genuinely great mates on here, and I cherish that.

But do we need Vapefest to have a social ? I dunno. We were talking about that yesterday too..... but we need to talk a lot more about that I think.

TL;DR regardless of the vendor status if my mates who I don’t see very often are going to Vf then I’ll go. [emoji4]

Such a shame.
A shame about VF spoiling it for themselves, a real shame about Tubby’s mod, and a shame that after never having made it, I’d decided that next year was going to be my year!
Vapejam it is then.