lfgss tour du Latitude Festival 20-16

the 20-12 tour du Latitude was much fun,

the tour (essentially a ride to the festival!) happened again in '13, but is not officially happening this year..

.. how about an unofficial (or official, were Festival Republic to give their backing, and possible budget/sponsors) TdL for 20-15?

recall from '12 extensive discussions around the campsite that edmundo would recommend (and possibly be able to arrange / sort out) bicycles being stored securely in shipping containers..

maybe ask M&S (or somebody else?!) to sponsor the event like last time - via there being lots of food at the stop-off locations,

a truck / van would be needed to transport all the kit over to the festival site..

.. what else is there to do??!

.. anybody fancy this?!

.

:-)

well that's two of us, :-)

I have thoughts, will go into detail later

Right then.
Latitude 2012 left me with 2 main thoughts.

1. The guys who organised it were complete muffins.
   
2. The coming together of forumengers saved the day.
   
   

To elaborate on each point.

1. Muffins:
   At the planning meeting I attended I raised the question of 1 van being enough for all the transport requirements required of me for my part in the event. It really wasn't, not by a long shot. I rolled into the campsite scraping the arse of the van on everything in my path. Naturally as people didn't have to carry their own camping kit/beer they went crazy and packed everything. Along with the water and other tat I was carrying it was easily 1.5-2ton in the back, putting me over the legal weight in the van by a few hundred kg. Not cool. I suggested 2 vans or a container truck for next time.
   Then, storage on site. The scaffold rack with no security(initially) and a pathetic cable lock was a fucking joke. I'll speak no more of it. Bikes were damaged and misdirected on the return journey. This also sucked.

2. Forumengers:
   We helped find peoples bikes who were concerned about them(I remember tracking Scobles tokyo fixed down piled under a ton of bikes in the van) and helped secure them better. All of this could have been done better if they'd understood how people who lock their bikes in London feel about bike security.
   We also had a fucking rad weekend, which certainly helped.

To solve this? Simple answer is a fucking professional removals firm to rock up with two geezers who understand how to handle valuable things and a big truck with room enough for all the camping things and 100+ bikes. Get them tickets for the festival for the lads. Bikes stored in van for the weekend with removal guys sleeping in the cab right next to them. Security, sorted. Inventory all bikes with owner properly so they can be checked in and out better than last time. Collection of bikes on the return? Removals guys have big yards, time and place agreed, pick your bike up on time or they'll charge you.

As for other vehicles we'd need a broom wagon with mechanic and a lead van for water drops/signage. Probably another car or two for buzzing around duties.

tl/dr Get some pros on board for transport, kick back and enjoy ride.

Big props to Claira et al who single handedly saved the day 100x a day over the whole weekend dealing with the organisers and everyone who came to them with concerns. Can't emphasize enough how important the other volunteers were in all this. I just drove the truck and tried to stop them from being mean to the bikes.

Same people who do the Dunwich coach for the return?*

*I know nothing of such things having never ridden it :(

M&S did lots of sponsorship around the tour in Yorkshire too with associate ride to work and bike bus campaigns where they gave out free breakfasts, they're well up for sustainable moves like that. Grab em. This is a Brilliant idea- set one up for Bestival that's a well fun ride*.

*especially if you could somehow encourage the hovercraft company to give free rides, I want to emphasise the importance of this hoverkraft, focus on the hovercraft please.

Also Festival Number6 - portmerion is B-E-A-utiful.

We took the kids to latitude this year
.. id be up for cycling next year.

i have my eye closely glued to this thread

I'd be in for another marshalling stint.

update: have proposed that we could collectively lead a ride over to the festival for #11, 20-16, via partnerships@livenation.co.uk,

Latitude Festival takes place Thursday 14th July - Sunday 17th July 2016