Crick Boat Show 2012
Reviewed by Angela Davis
At Crick Boat Show it’s possible to buy anything from a cupcake to a boat. There was plenty to keep the whole family occupied for a good day out, even if you’re not particularly interested in the boats, with a play area & small funfair for the children if they got tired of walking round the stalls. There were of course lots of stalls with displays of boating equipment, as well as both narrow beam & wide beam boats on land & water, for looking round. Listening to people’s conversations as we went round the boats there were plenty of people who had never been on a boat before, so this show has come a long way from the early days when it attracted an audience almost solely from the boating community. There were also plenty of food stalls and a good variety, although there were a few of the ubiquitous burger/hotdog vans, there was also a good variety from Chinese food to fish & chips. The large marquee that served as the entertainment stage also housed a well-stocked bar with lots of tables to sit and eat or drink or just enjoy the wide range of music.
The car park was well managed and they had put steel roads down, which on the day we visited were excellent for keeping the traffic moving, as the day before it had rained heavily & the main entrance/exit & through-route would have been completely bogged down without them. They had also been laid along the main routes through the show with straw covering them to stop them being slippery & we saw extra straw being laid down though the day to help with the mud.
Toilet facilities were plentiful, clean and tidy despite the mud, and there were no queues even for the ladies toilet, which is often the case. There was however quite a long queue to buy tickets in the morning when we arrived, but that’s probably inevitable when there’s only a single entrance with people being able to pay by card as well as cash.
This was a great fun show for anyone wanting a good day out with a slightly different slant on the usual country show.