Our advance party arrived at the site at 09:00am to set up our MAG stand, in the same prominent spot as we have used for a good number of years: an elevated slightly sloping plot above the main arena, highly visible from the entire site, and conveniently next to the access road.
We quickly erected our stand and our new sail flag and populated the stand with lots of MAG promotional material, leaflets, posters, copies of the Road magazine, and a few Wakefield MAG products for sale.
We also set out our fund raising game, raffling prizes most of the branch had donated. Finally, we had a 1-90 raffle where the winner will get £50, with £40 to the MAG coffers (once we have sold all 90 numbers)
So, with our stand all set up, we then waited for the show entrants to start rolling in. And roll in they did from about 10:30 onwards, lots of coming and goings throughout the day and at one point we counted over 40 bikes in attendance.
At the time of the judging we had 15 odd bikes, 3 motorcycle combinations and a trike to choose from. An absolute guaranteed best in show, a mint 1970's Suzuki two stroke had left early, so unfortunately couldn't be judged - if the owner is reading this, stay until 14:30 next year ;-)
The bike show judging started around 1:45pm and we had 6 show winners and an Overall Best in Show to find. We had a panel of 2 judges this year, but as always, the judges decisions were difficult (downright impossible !!) as there was some quality machinery on display, but we eventually came up with a consensus. With the winners decided, it was time for the prize giving .... cue drum roll:
Seven well deserved show winners !!!
The game and 1-90 raffle raised £85, all of which goes towards the MAG fighting fund. MAG Product sales raised a further £6.50 and donations totalled £12.43. We also signed up 4 new MAG members. Not bad for a days work. Last years tombola raised £134.17 but we did have less 'non-biker' visitors to our stand this year - the burger van which always brings a lot of people up to the top part of the arena (as it has the smallest queues) was noticibly absent this year, and we believe that kept people in the main arena.
Another highly successful Wakefield MAG May Day Bike Show at the Wakefield Gala. A huge thanks to everyone who brought along their bikes / trikes / combinations to show, visited the stand, spent lots of money on the games and products, made donations, joined MAG and of course, a huge thanks to all our volunteer marshals who were there early, stayed late, and helped make the show the great success it was - you are all heroes !!!!
And to everyone we spoke to and invited along to our meetings, we meet in the Thatched House on Aberford Road, Stanley, Wakefield, every Tuesday at 8:00pm ... hope to see you all down at a meeting soon.
We will be hosting another show at the Wakefield Gala next year, so hope to see you in 2024.