Reading Warfare Show parking

[flatpack]

What happened ?
Went to the show this morning.
Got there for 10.05, so 5 minutes after the doors opened.
Tried to get in the sports centre car park, only to be told the portion that we normally fit into, was now owned by a garden centre and that we could no longer park there.
Ended up parking on the industrial estate over the road.
Tip for if you are going tomorrow....start out now, so that you get a parking space.

[Captain Blood]

I got there at 9.30am. Got one of the last spaces. Thought - ‘oh, there are no pay and display machines, it must be free’. Walked up to the entrance to the building to find someone taking car registration numbers on a handheld device, with a flunky collecting the money’. Do I need a ticket from a machine?’ I asked. ‘No’ said the young lady, ‘you can pay me. It’s £5 to park all day’. ‘Okay’ I said, handing over my fiver and my car registration number.

A little while later, inside the show, I bumped into Eric the Shed. ‘Oh’ he told me ‘It’s only a pound to park for three hours’. Three hours is more than I ever spend at Warfare. It was then that I realised I’d been had. Not by a blagger, I hasten to add, but by the people operating the parking at the leisure centre who had implied it was a fiver or nothing...
For the sake of four quid I wasn’t going to go back out and argue about it, but it leaves a nasty taste, that’s for sure.

Still, at least I got into the car park. For the last two years I’ve had to park several minutes walk away round the back of the shithole industrial estate opposite.

The show is a large trade fair, a very large competition gaming event, and yes, they even have a handful of display / participation games. They really need to find a venue with much better parking because over the last few years it’s got worse and worse and is now totally inadequate for the scale of the convention.

[Phil Robinson]

Looks like another show I will be crossing off the list, getting to old for this sort of hassle.

[Captain Blood]

It's a pity because it's a good show - especially for wargames shopping and catching up with people. It's one of only two shows I regularly go to. And clearly for the several hundred competition players that attend, it's a big event. So I'm not dissing the show or the hard work that goes into organising it. But the car parking, dear God, the car parking...

[Sterling Moose]

I haven't been since I emigrated but always used to park across the road in the industrial estate.  The car park was always full and it's free across the road so more money for lead.

[flatpack]

Great plan, but as you’ve emigrated, you might have forgotten that it rains a lot in this country.
Bet you can’t guess what the weather was like yesterday ?
Yes you guessed it....RAIN.

[has.been]

A visitor (many times with Flatpack & I have the badges to prove it) He is right, the parking gets worse every year,
also the bring & buy is long overdue a revamp, this time I gave up trying to get close enough to see anything. The
room might be big enough, but putting several traders in as well means it is too cramped.

[Overrevdsquat]

We got there about 10 past 10, and were similarly turned away from the garden centre car parking. Not knowing the industrial estate at all I ended up at the far end of it. It took us less than 10 mins to walk to the show, during which I had fantastic conversations with those I had gone with. I didn't buy much but my son bought 6-7 large hardback rule books, and managed not to have a problem carrying them back to the car. We had more good conversations. We missed the rain (but being British we were prepared with raincoats), I upped my exercise for the day, got nice messages from my step counter, and I saved £5 parking.

All seems fine to me.

Perhaps best would be for the club to see if they could negotiate with one of the closer businesses who are closed on a weekend to use their parking, and reserve plenty in the sports centre carpark for disabled users but even if they did maybe there are some who would moan.

[Overrevdsquat]

Fully agree on the B&B, athough the biggest issue this year was the prices some folks were asking  way over priced. Thought the traders hall was very busy in the morning too - with less of interest to me with a slight change in who was there this year. As I suggested, not a great year at Reading for me, but not enough for me to give up on it, having had several very good years.

Would be interested in why the resellers (Simple Miniature games and Wargames emporium) were absent this year. It was good to see some new independent traders (Blott and Hysterical games spring to mind). I did decide I was getting very stingy in my old age - best show offer seemed to be Bad Squiddo selling off her Reaper minis, but I still struggled to pay £4 for a single dwarf.

I don't know Reading well, for those who do, how easy would it be to get a bigger venue with plenty of parking, at a sensible price?

[Dr DeAth]

Personally I didn't have a problem with the parking on Saturday, but I did have a problem with a couple of things:

1.  Rucksacks - why do people insist on wearing them inside the venue? Constantly being buffeted by some tosser's person's rucksack as they turned round got to be really tedious.
2.  Body Odour - c'mon people, wash, it's not that difficult.

[Phil Robinson]

Well given the OP, I did not get up at silly o clock to get there for opening time, I rolled up at ten past eleven and parked with no problem in our usual place near the road. The show was very quiet when I got in, so the car parking issue is more a Saturday thing perhaps?

[Captain Blood]

Glad you had a good day Phil. I always go on the Saturday. Yes, I think it is probably a lot quieter on the Sunday. Must admit I do wonder how much stock some of the traders have left by Sunday. There were two different things I was after that two different traders told me they had already sold out of by Midday on the Saturday, so I shudder to think how little stock some of them must have left if you arrive at Midday on the Sunday!

Yes, have to agree on the rucksacks. I take mine with me, but carry it in my hand like a bag once I’ve got a few purchases inside it. One chap managed to swipe me twice at two different stands yesterday. Completely oblivious to (or uncaring about) everyone else around him. He had what looked like a bloody bergen strapped to his back and it was packed full and sticking out about two feet behind him. 

[flatpack]

Hold on hold on.
I was caught twice by a chap that had a soddin pull along rucksack on wheels, what’s that all about ?
It was like a minesweeper.

[uti long smile]

Glad you had a good day Phil. I always go on the Saturday.

Sorry I missed you!

[Captain Blood]

Sorry I missed you!

Every time I walked past your stand Karl, you were surrounded by eager buyers. I didn’t want to interrupt just to say hi 
Looks like it was a good show for you on the saturday morning