The impact of Foot & Mouth Disease on our 2001 national rally 'You've Been Nabbed 10' left us with a bitter taste. Due to the last minute change of venue to Santa Pod Raceway we saw the attendance drop to just under 1,000 people and we experienced a loss for the first time in the history of the event (nearly £2,000).
What we needed on our return to York Dragway this year was a major success (on a much tighter budget). 
Each year I try to make some small changes to the event, in a bid to avoid the 'sameness' suffered by so many other rallies. This year I decided to give the event a thorough overhaul.

The first consideration was the siteing of the arena. Over the past 3 years many of those attending the rally have been unhappy with the layout and the use of the 'hard-standing' areas. So this year the main arena was put back on the grass in a similar layout to our early rallies at Capesthorne Hall.
The large (and very expensive) outdoor stage was scrapped in favour of putting the stage inside the main marquee. An additional bar was set-up in the smaller disco marquee so people no longer had to keep going back to the main marquee to get their drinks. Entry for the 'Run What Y'brung' on the drag strip was made free of charge. And the Saturday evening comedy club was brought into the main marquee.
With all these changes put in place it only remained to see how it would all work.

By 7.30pm Friday evening we had about 1,000 people on site and both marquees were filling up nicely as Killer Instinct took to the stage. These guys have been staunch supporters of the NABD for many years and it was a real pleasure to see them back at the national rally, their laid back rock style was just the thing to get people into party mode.
As they got toward the end of their set we had our first major problem. The damned generator began playing up. After much swearing and kicking (and some delicate adjustment by Ronnie of the Natural born Swillers) the damn thing seemed to settle down.

Later in the evening (with 1,300 people on site) 'Natural Born Swillers' began to entertain us all with some really gutsy rock covers when the generator went tits-up once again. As we frantically tried to get it working again Jim Meredith appeared with a smaller generator so we could at least get the lights and the disco running again. Luckily our DJ in the main marquee this year was consummate professional Russ Page, and he soon got the party going again. Natural Born Swillers eventually managed to complete their set (albeit with a reduced sound system) and did three encores (to rapturous applause).

Throughout the evening another party had been proceeding without generator problems in the small marquee where Russ Arden and his team (from the Leeds Lions Mcc) were providing the entertainment.
It was almost 5am when we finally shut the main bar and began to prepare for Saturday's activities.

On Saturday morning I became aware of another major problem. We just didn't have enough toilets.

Having been tied to a very tight budget, and having misunderstood the capacity of the toilets already on site, I had cut back on the amount of extra toilets we usually bring in. To exacerbate the problem only one of the three additional disabled access units had been delivered and there was no answer from the supplier's office. 
Steve Murty (the site owner) was to spend a very unpleasant weekend constantly servicing the toilets as they coped (just about) with the demand. (After the event he said to me "Who'd have believed that 1,600 bikers could produce so much sh*t". Earthy but honest, that's Steve).
With the sun shining (probably thanks to the CMA being in attendance) and free entry o the 'Run What Y'brung' the drag strip was doing a roaring trade as every sort of bike and trike was hurled along at speeds normally only seen on the Cat & Fiddle road over near Buxton.
At 1.00pm (1,600 people on site by now) the drag racing was temporarily curtailed as Sonnie Ferguson took to the strip to show why he is generally accepted as one of the best stunt riders in the world. This was followed by the awe inspiring spectacle of the Firestorm Jet Car giving us a flame and thunder show followed by a textbook perfect run up the strip hitting 172 mph. 
As the drag racing started up again I took my traditional wander around the arena chatting to all and sundry to see what they thought of the event. Nobody seemed to have been too upset by the generator problems of the previous night, and everybody I spoke to said the return to an oval arena on grass was a great move.
Later a brew and a chat in the Holy Joe's (CMA) tent, only to find that it was raining in there. Now I have been known to say that one of the reasons I always invite the CMA to put on a Holy Joe's is that they can probably pull some strings to get us good weather. But I think them having it raining inside their tent when it was lovely and sunny outside is just showing off. (They did try to convince me that it was condensation from the two tea urns but I prefer to believe they actually control the weather).
Throughout the afternoon the Bike/Trike show was drawing a lot of attention in the arena, and I didn't envy the guys from Yorkshire MAG and 100% Biker who had the job of judging it.
At 3 pm we had another show from Sonnie on the drag strip followed by another perfect show from FireStorm. Then the drag racing continued until about 5 pm.
At 7 pm we were treated to another short set by Killer Instinct who had offered to do a 'free' set as they had been cut short the previous night by the generator problems.
One of the most popular aspects of our national rally over the past few years has been the comedy show. Once again the Frog & Bucket Comedy Club in Manchester had sorted out three fine comics and yours truly was compere.
The first poor bugger had only been doing stand-up comedy for a few months, I had seen him a couple of times and he was very very funny. But his inexperience showed through early in his set when he let a couple of hecklers get the better of him. Unfortunately he made the mistake of showing fear, so the crowd gleefully tore him to shreds (metaphorically speaking). Luckily our other two comics were much more experienced and soon the crowd were settled into fits of laughter. Once again I think it fair to say the comedy show was a major success.
This was followed by an outstanding set by The Hogz. I have rarely seen a band get such immediate rapport with an audience and by 1.00 am I thought the roof was coming off. 

So did we get the success we needed? Yes I think we did. The only problem to really mar the event was the toilets (my abject apologies to all concerned, this problem will not occur again), the attendance numbers had come back on track 1,600 - 1,700, and the event turned a profit of over £7,000.
Of course this just means we have to try even harder next year.