Cla 2015

Hunting Solutions

Well-Known Member
Highly amusing to read in Gun Trade News that the CLA Game Fair have 'dropped' 100 trade stands this year as they were not good enough 'quality". Really?....nothing to do with the fact that exhibitors are dropping out in droves due to being charged in excess of £1000 FOR A 3 METRE PIECE OF GRASS???!!! :rolleyes:
 
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I like plenty of stands, then I can choose the quality to match my pocket. Shows used to be places to pick up a bargain, traders won't have many cut price items trying to regain fees on top of expenses. Tom
 
The last couple of times I've gone, bargains have been thin on the ground. A good day out of course and a chance to see stuff before you buy it, not always possible at your local emporium. There's always a good choice of what you want, too. But to go there expecting good clobber cheap is, it appears, a thing of the past.
 
Game Fairs USED to be about a good couple of days out where you could sample a vast variety of goods from the local one man band making crooks sticks etc to the top end fancy stalls, that most liked too view but very few could afford, along with the usual competitions in fly casting etc ,now its ALL about making money on the day for the organisers, if the price of £1000 for 3mt of grass is correct, no wonder the small guys have been forced out, the only way it will change is for people to send feedback to organisers and complain,, or do what I do, just dont bother going
 
I wanted to buy one of those child's snap-cap shotguns last year. We were struggling to find one so I found Fur Feather and Fins website on my phone, saw that they stocked them and then located their stand in the program. The gun was DEARER on their stand than their website by £20!! I asked them if they'd match their own price and they said "No- order it online!"
Seems a bit ridiculous to me.
 
All of the game fairs are not like they use to be, seems the organiser are more about making greater profits. Last year the local game fair was £25 each to get in and had all of about 50 stands, took 30 minutes to walk round, took longer to get a coffee than it did to go round the show ground. Has steadily got worse and worse every year!
 
Highly amusing to read in Gun Trade News that the CLA Game Fair have 'dropped' 100 trade stands this year as they were not good enough 'quality". Really?....nothing to do with the fact that exhibitors are dropping out in droves due to being charged in excess of £1000 FOR A 3 METRE PIECE OF GRASS???!!! :rolleyes:

The NGO has publicly stated that it won't be going because of the cost:

The request by the CLA for more money this year was a factor in the NGO National Committee's decision to review our attendance at the game fair



Here's the link in full: http://www.nationalgamekeepers.org.uk/news/cla-game-fair-2015
 
It has been going downhill in the last few years, with less stands. The cheaper 'bargain' stands are fewer and farther in between. I especially noticed how the fishing area has shrunk to half the size it used to be. We would normally have bought tickets by now but are probably not going this year. The camping also go stupidly expensive a couple of years ago & they backed down a bit on that.
 
keeps us from going near it ,robbing hood n his merry men at work.our local show is a tenner to get in and chatsworth is a giant shop but theres still bargins there .like the gamekeepers at catton hall as well a local show for local people .they havent got that its easier to make ten quid a hundred times than a thousand quid once.when the organisers are set looking at the piddly little amount of revenue they might have a price review but im not holding my breath
 
Yet they still get thousands of visitors, so that all the roads around are choked up and you have to walk yourself to a standstill just getting from your car to the gate!
 
people have high expectations for the CLA but every year more n more are saying its getting worse/expensive /crowded and carp.so its the law of deminishing returns .its going to slide .theres too many negative posts about it .bargin hunting for no bargins will get boring for some?
 
Well it's the first time in 10 years the my father will not be exhibiting. He owns the Cotswood Gun Room and over the years we have accepted that the cost of exhibiting in no way is returned on the sales revenue generated over the weekend but more of a PR activity which rewarded us with future customers. However we have noticed that over the last couple of years the foot print of prospective buyers has dropped and we just dont get the number of international clients attending any more and secondly as this post mentions the costs of a stand for small businesses has become prohibitive. Very sad really as I used to love going for the weekend helping my father and exploring what else the shooting community had to offer.
 
I have been going to the Game Fair off and on since my first at Shotover just near Oxford in the late 1960s and the differences between then and now are substantial, which is no great surprise. The most marked difference is probably in the perceived target market, until relatively recent times it was a fair for landowners, shooters, stalkers, anglers, dog people and associated activities, but now it seems more pitched at giving those who don't participate a taste of country life and there's nothing fundamentally wrong with that as long as the core market is not overlooked.

Some things are better, the traffic management and parking is much improved and the use of a limited number of venues in rotation helps this. For me the event started to lose its appeal when the smaller traders in Fisherman's Row started to get priced out and it's now a shadow of what it used to be. Even the big traders have trouble in shifting enough stock to make it viable as the value of goods is much less than for gunmakers. The largest group of traders seem to be food outlets now.

I have an interest across all the activities but the last few times I've been I seem to have less to look at and pay more for the privilege. I have left the Fair wondering why I had bothered and concluded that I won't anymore. It seems I'm not the only one and falling attendance will soon force the issue with the organisers. Prices will go up further and with still over 100,000 visitors over three days, it will take some time before the penny drops and they realise that they have a problem with falling numbers of exhibitors and numbers through the gate.

What they do then will determine whether the CLA Game Fair survives as the other change is that there is now much more competition with more specialist and/or cheaper alternatives like the Midland Game Fair, the Kelso Stalking Fair, the British Fly Fair and the Gamekeepers Fair which are all offering a better value and more customer focussed package.

i personally think that the Game Fair is in trouble.
 
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I'll not be there it becoming a fair ground.

Not sure I'll be at the Midland or British Shooting Show either as prices excessive.
 
It is also worth noting that the CLA put a COMPLETE BAN on the use of personal, silent 'suitcase' type generators.

You can however, rent a SINGLE 13amp socket for the princely sum of just THREE HUNDRED POUNDS!!

http://excellelectrical.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CLA-GAME-FAIR-EXHIBITOR-ORDER-15.pdf

I helped out on a stand there once with a typically forthright Scotsman. The company hadn't paid for electric but obviously the guys on the ground didn't know that. So we rocked up with the trailer unit, unfolded it, found a young helper, got him to show us the plug and plugged straight in :D Nobody ever twigged!
 
I helped out on a stand there once with a typically forthright Scotsman. The company hadn't paid for electric but obviously the guys on the ground didn't know that. So we rocked up with the trailer unit, unfolded it, found a young helper, got him to show us the plug and plugged straight in :D Nobody ever twigged!

Its a good idea providing you don't get caught! :D

We just ignore the genny ban and run one of these in the back of the van:

http://www.honda.co.uk/energy/generators/EU10I/

:D:cool:
 
Highly amusing to read in Gun Trade News that the CLA Game Fair have 'dropped' 100 trade stands this year as they were not good enough 'quality". Really?....nothing to do with the fact that exhibitors are dropping out in droves due to being charged in excess of £1000 FOR A 3 METRE PIECE OF GRASS???!!! :rolleyes:


I went last year ,thought it was over priced for what was there.Glad I had A free ticket.
 
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