Campers abused by the ACO in 2007!

[Topcatz]

Camping - a message to the ACO for 2008 - DON'T ABUSE YOUR SUPPORTERS!

Anyone who camped on Beausejour in 07 will know what I mean, the ACO buggered it up in just about EVERY way they could.

Gone was the pleasant 'please pitch your camp here' or as we have had, a free choice of where we go because we got there very early in the week, now it was an officious 'YOU VILL PITCH HERE' despite pointing out that the aisles between pitches were TOO SMALL for us (AND just about everyone else it seemed!) to swing onto the pitch without 'trespassing' onto the pitches opposite (knocking down posts/tape markers into the bargain!). Fair enough, keeping greedy land grabbers under control is not unreasonable, but the pitches have to be useable AND accessible, we only had a Landy, not a bloody great yanky motorhome! - we'd bought 6 pitches, so we weren't being mean, but we had to use 2 for parking just to be able to swing the Landy in!

Access! GRRRRR! What MORON decided to force EVERYBODY to drive AND walk through a gateway only wide enough for one vehicle AND with a 90 degree corner on one side - the big camper vans couldn't do it in one swing, they used BOTH sides of the road AND the now boggy verge for a back & forth shunting exercise - this stopped ALL other traffic and pedestrians in both directions! The ACO saw fit to abuse everyone else by creating a Danes only enclosure at the front of the site which pretty much isolated the rest of the site from the main road.

I know it was exceptionally wet, but was it really beyond the wit and the will of the ACO to anticipate this and make the more heavily used bits of 'road' durably enough so they didn't turn into impenetrable BOGS, we dragged a number of cars out of the bog at the end of our aisle and we waded through mud wherever we walked. We witnessed endless cars being 'rescued' out of bogs all over the site!

Whatever happened to the cheery French peeps that sat outside the toilet/shower blocks and kept them spotlessly clean - they got replaced by some sloppy company who OCCASIONALLY came around and did the bare minimum - one loo was blocked for DAYS, and the place was rarely clean.

Where the shuttle bus pulled in appeared to be awash with raw sewage from overflowing drains/tanks (it has an unmistakable look/smell!), I really don't appreciate standing in that whilst queuing for the bus!

Having walked around a lot of the track, it was very clear that the ACO had abused campers all over the place, many pitches should never have been considered, let alone allocated.

In 2007 the ACO demonstrated wanton greed (more pitches = more money) and utter contempt for a great many long standing supporters. There may well be more people willing to come than can be accommodated, but that is no excused for abusing the ones who are there!

We will be back in 2008 for our 10th year, but we are unlikely to return again if the ACO abuse us as much as they did in 07!

[Paddy_NL]

In '08 the pitches will be numbered, so the mess is probably gonna increase

[Gordonwr]

I'll be marshaling in 2008 so will have loads of room to pitch and no queues for the bogs !!

[Paddy_NL]

Good on you! Have a good n safe time on "that side" of the track

[Lord Pig-Pen]

In '08 the pitches will be numbered, so the mess is probably gonna increase

)08 will be my 20th anniversary LM and will be with The Brethren and DFH. Numbered pitches is a far cry from 87 when we (my dad and his piss head mate took me and a school friend) turned up on friday morning to a near empty field in what is now probably far south end of HA.
We found a nice shady pitch, set up camp and made friends with the neighbours. All got hammered on cheap plonk and beer (myself and mate were nearing 15 at the time!)
When we awoke on sat morning we were totally jammed in, no roads in or out, whole site solid with partying dudes of all nationalities.... and 2 plastic portaloo's to handle over at least 500 campers in our little area.
We dealt ok as there were loads of food places back then and we had loaded up on beer and wine and water before parking up.
Showers! None to be seen... I have a photo of one of the portaloos somewhere, Pyramids in France! Foul!
The essence of my drunken ramblings is LM changes a little bit every year, some good, some bad.... where has the "most dangerous and untested fairground in Europe" gone.... the strip shows... fab for a 14yr old lad and his mate to see a bit of France you won't see elsewhere.... clay shooting with real cartridges at things in trees.... oh and finally... cars that make noise that hurts your ears.... I remember the Aston in '87 that was white, green and red? making my lungs shake when it went past and you could hear it all the way round when it was quiet at nite. Oh the good old days...  Bollocks. LM is what we make it and every year seems to be getting better. The more they restrict, the more the teams improvise and adapt. Roll on 08!

[wishy]

Very few of us like change.........we were horrified at the attitude of the Gestapo who were running the pitches,inasmuch as we arrived at Monday lunchtime and proceeded to mark off 4 pitches which we had 4 passes for........well we had 3 x d's and a c at that time.
The Gestapo came ove and questioned us why where we displaying only 2 passes.We explained that the other members of our team were still in the UK and would be down later inh the week.
He then annonced that if they had not arrived by Wednesday then we would have to relinquish the pitches........Yeah right!!!!!

Anyway at the end of the day,everything turned out OK and they left us alone.......mind you DfH did suggest a little bribing  with ale and plonk to the guards,which seemed to help.

I am looking forward to 2008 as all the pitches are supposed to be numbered,so we can turn up on whatever day we arrive and pitch without any worries ....hopefully.

The only probelms in the future I can see ,is large groups coming onto site and taking reseved pitches and refusing to move....like one group on  MB this year.That will really cause the gestapo problems!!!!!!!

[Topcatz]

Perhaps my biggest gripe about the camp site was the change in attitude towards the campers.

I've always held the ACO in fairly high esteem, anyone who can successfully, and repeatable, shut down half a town and turn over the public roads to a motor race, deserves recognition and appreciation. I live in the shadow of Wembley stadium and I've been to Silverstone, so I know all too well that it is possible to repeatedly make a complete pigs ear out of event planning!

The consensus amongst our group was that the ACO had handed over the management of Beausejour to an 'event management company', rather than organising it themselves. Undoubtedly the place had an air about it of doing as little as possible for the minimum cost, whilst maximising the income.

I've camped in a farmers field with no 'facilities' for a couple of quid, and it was a bit of a free for all, that's no more or less than you expect, but Beausejour was promoted by the ACO as a 'proper' camp site with full facilities and we had been charged a not insubstantial £200 for the privilege - I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the ACO to honour their side of the agreement with a little more effort.

The 'Gestapo' were very good (and plentiful!) at ordering people into pitch spaces, but they were pretty non-existent when it came to security and traffic management - cram 'em in and abandon them seemed to be the policy!

In previous years, we always felt that we were 'co-operating' WITH the ACO, they provided the race and supporting facilities, and we paid our money and justified their investment, both done with passion for the event - a very happy status quo. This year had a different feel to it, more of a 'how much can we fleece the mugs for' hard nosed business attitude. Lot's of little things, like charging for the web cams, it all adds up to a less symbiotic relationship. Maybe the ACO has been taken over by f***ing accountants, displacing those passionate about motor racing!

Change is inevitable, it's in effect what I do for a living as a designer, so I'm no Luddite, but change should only be undertaken for beneficial reasons. It's 12 years ago since my first '24 hour' and there have been many changes in that time, most were certainly for the better, but it remains to be seen what 2008 and allocated numbered pitches brings!

[knetter]

The guys who organized the camping this year, where from the same organisation that does the Tour de France, so I heard. They did a pretty good job of harrasing the crap out of everyone, but in the end we had a good time. They won't get us down that easy! Otherwise, we'll just create anarchy

[Lorry]

Security was a joke.  They just made people's lives difficult untill they realised thet they were outnumbered.

And where were they during the race when kit was being nicked.

[Leftie]

Security was a joke.  They just made people's lives difficult untill they realised thet they were outnumbered.

And where were they during the race when kit was being nicked.

Who do you think was doing the 'nicking'?

On Expo we caught a few 'searching' the dutch and danish enclaves.  We let those campers know and summary justice was administered within 24hrs! These guys arrived by coach and therefore valuables etc were in tent or being carried.

Inviting them in for a beer gives them a better look. DON'T DO IT.

Leftie

[mal]

If managed properly the marked out pitched will work. However my worry is that large groups wont get their pitches together ruining the communal setups that are so important.

Perhaps there will be a pitch trading session going on so that people can try and sort themselves out.

[Topcatz]

I presume the camping passes will have your pitch number printed on (I don't know, I've never used a site with allocated pitches before!), and consecutive numbers if booking multiple pitches.

OK, first problem, we need our multiple pitches to be a 'square' plot rather than a long strip to accommodate our camping equipment. This year Beausejour was laid out with back to back plots, so this was easy, you could just occupy as many pitches as you had passes for, but will we have the opportunity to specify HOW we want the pitches when we order the passes?

I can't see the 'Gestapo' being very accommodating with people trying to set up on a particular shape/size pitch and then swapping passes to make it all 'legit'. What happens if your neighbours don't turn up till later in the week, you can't swap passes with people if they aren't there.

Maybe you folks who used some of the other sites with allocated pitches can shed some light on this one.

One of the great joys of going to France was the rather more laid back attitude than the UK, but there has definitely been a trend in recent years for the French to become as uptight and officious as the UK! Bloody control freaks are taking over the world!

We had a good time this year (but I suspect not quite as good as previous years!), but with all this 'officiousness' nibbling away at the edges, how long till you stop and suddenly think, 'hey this USED to be really good fun, but now it's  just OK', and how long before you actually aren't allowed to enjoy yourself at all!

I quite like the idea of a bit of anarchy if things aren't to our liking, but I don't fancy coming home full of French bullet holes, and I'd like my head to be still firmly attached to my shoulders!

[Andy Zarse]

Change is inevitable, it's in effect what I do for a living as a designer, so I'm no Luddite, but change should only be undertaken for beneficial reasons.

The camping "Gestapo" were totally gormless on MB. Not a brain cell between them.

I'm no Luddite but I really do think we should smash those looms.

[Fisherman]

Are the ACO saying all sites will have numbered pitches? I've only seen it mentioned before in relation to Maison Blanche. It won't be the same at all if we don't get our usual track-view pitch on Tertre Rouge.

[DelBoy]

Are the ACO saying all sites will have numbered pitches? I've only seen it mentioned before in relation to Maison Blanche. It won't be the same at all if we don't get our usual track-view pitch on Tertre Rouge.

I thought it was for MB, Bleu Sud and Bleu Nord only.  But if BSJ was marked out in pitches this year, it would appear that they will be numbered next year.

What about the other sites??  KN?? Expo??  Were they marked out in pitches this year??

Del