I’m very conscious that it’s gone very quiet on this front, largely after all the previous threads which were collating interest levels etc were wiped out by Jon’s fat finger of doom. To be quite honest I just plain lost interest at that point and couldn’t be arsed to start all over again, also how many times are you guys gonna be asked the same questions about exhibiting and helping out?!
It telling that there’s been little pick up and enquiry after this so maybe its not a bad thing to put things on hold for a while. Anyway, lets see how Scalford goes and who exhibits, who attends and what they make of it. My sense is there’s only a demand for another event of some kind if Scalford '17 is very unsatisfactory and has lost a significant amount of its original spirit and charm.
1 - I have enjoyed Scalford primarily as a social event with some hi-fi angle.
2 - I’m not sure that the world needs another amateur hi-fi show, most of us are fairly or completely post hi-fi, so who exactly are we doing this for? It’s always been a lot of work to exhibit, even as part of a team.
3 - I simply can’t see how a show run by a forum as small as this could come close to breaking even. It’s not cheap to exhibit at Scalford, and having to add venue hire on would make it even worse.
For me, what would be interesting would be:
hire a couple of good rooms (fairly large, solid floor etc) for a weekend in a hotel that sells beer and muffins.
have people here put on some systems that are interesting: exotic cartridges, digital active vs passive, open baffle vs horn, quads with and without subs, Bowie through the ages, this kind of thing. Team efforts all, no more than four total. Possibly even one.
drink beer and chat. Eat curry.
This would cost just a hotel room out of season plus a few quid, and would be, for me, the best of Scalford without the grief of visitors.
I think regional soirees could be fun. The self supporting angle holds weight with me. Having £ risk and £ targets makes for a dry hump.
I like the idea of finding strange / interesting venues that could be taken over for a social. Of course there are costs and it would be no more complicated than ‘splitting the bill’. To this end and in the Butchers spirit I’d like to take over a curry house for the day / night. Food on tap - with a combination system from the hosting region could be a laugh.