Newport Edition

British Volks Fest 2007 - Sunshine after rain

Beer, barbecues and banging music.. oh, and some sweet rides as well.. what a weekend!

The first weekend of July means only 1 thing, BVF time, alcohol and lots of it. After the dodgy weather the past few weeks, BVF was in doubt this year and the organisers were even going to pull the plug as late as last Monday. But as I kept telling everyone, the weather at BVF never lets you down! BVF weather is as reliable as Nick is Ginger and I ain’t got wet there in 3 years. Anyway, I have been working away a lot lately and was not expecting to make BVF on the Friday, but knowing it’s probably the best show on the calendar I raced back (on private roads) from Telford on Friday afternoon to collect some things and shoot off to Raglan to meet the others.

We (GazB, Nick, Clarkee, Jenny, Monkey, Dom, George, Rich, Susannah, Dan and not forgetting little Jack) travelled up in Convoy on the Friday to Ross to meet Velly. From there it was off to the 3 counties showground, via Somerfield to grab some beer - Standard. We all arrived together shortly followed by Ewan and his travelling gourmet kitchen. After borrowing (read robbing) some space from next doors plot as we were going to need it with this years club turn out. Apologies to Club Ratlook?! or something.

With the BBQ’s in full burn mod and the beers endlessly flowing, it didn’t take long that Friday night for the shenanigans to pursue and soon the music was pumping out the back of Nicks VRS. As the night drew in and the temperature plummeted we kept warm with aid of a makeshift fire with flames liking 8 foot into the air. It seemed sensible enough until we realised the gazebo we where under was only 6 foot high!!
Over popped some BVF officials for a quiet word..

“Don’t you think that fire is dangerous?”
“Yes” we replied.
“Don’t you think it may set the tents on fire?”
“Uhh.. Yes” we replied again, snigger.
“Do you think you should put it out then?”

It was keeping us warm losers! But we put it out anyway. So we ended up freezing all night. Mean while, Jack rang a builder..
Next in the Entertainment list was to give a builder friend ‘Jah Rule Construction’ a call and see if he was up for a job. Sadly, Jah was not home, he was probably out liberating d’people so we just left him an answer phone message (or 2). He never did return our calls!
Well done to Monkey too, who managed to drink a whole half bottle of wine, before retiring to bed to smash his hoop in.

On Saturday Morning, Robin, Anne, Gary, Stacey and little Ewen joined the love parade. They arrived around 09:15 and we had all started drinking again already, I went off to get my face painted and when I came back to show Velly and told him the Woman who did it was flashing her tits, he was not far behind. The beer kept flowing although we did manage a wander around the show where the quality of vehicles on display was of the usual high standard. There is so much money and effort put into the cars, vans and buses at BVF. It’s an outstanding show where all the people are so laid back, friendly and always eager to chat for hours about gearboxes, engines, rust… you get the idea.

After a few hours taking in the dub talent and some general abuse to the face painter, telling her we were gonna smash her hoop etc, we drank some more and had another BBQ, before setting out to the Dodgems. The fact that they let us on the dodgems with cans of Fosters (other lagers are available) was funny in itself, in fact it was so good we had to go back to get some more people and go on again. I think the second time the whole NE crew were on there, smashing hell out of everyone, throwing lager everywhere and generally just being pissed. After a few more rides to really mix up the burgers and booze it was off to the Severn Hall to check out the evenings entertainment. Dancing and more drinking all night until they kicked us out and we went back to base camp to drink some more until it was just too cold to sit up any more.

Sunday saw the busiest day of the show with even more people turning up to be with NE.. Guy, Donna, Chris, Ceri, Dan, Jason and the Zuesmiester, who lost his exhaust on the way. The rest of the crew who had now been here for 2 days were a little worse for wear today, but the Welsh don’t fall that easily so we managed to last the day. After yet another wander and a catch up with a few fellow dub friends from the other clubs, Me and Velly went off for a nice big cooked breakfast, which I’m still not sure whether it did us any good?!

The biggest event of the weekend was yet to come, and to everyone’s surprise we managed to win the best club display. Yes, of all the other clubs there keeping out of trouble, no ragging fires and in bed by 11, it was NewportEdition that had the best variety of quality rides. It couldn’t have come at a better time with the club celebrating its first birthday!

That really finished off another top weekend. The weather came good as it was jeffing boiling again, we came home with a win and got generally pissed all weekend - standard.

Thanks once again to all that made the effort, everyone looked tops in their newportedition shirts and the cars looked good too with matching plates. Well done to Jack too for putting up with loads of crap and for just being hilarious for most of the weekend.
Thanks to Ewan for taking all the pics in this article, thanks to the BVF organisers for another top show, thanks to God for the weather and thanks to my mum for letting me go.  Nearly forgot, thanks to Jah for being such a d!@k.

More hilarious pix in the gallery >>

Until next year

GazB