Hi All,
I wanted to give you the heads up on the HUBB UK overland travel event from Horizons Unlimited. Right now because there are just a couple of weeks left with the heavily discounted £45 - 4-days event passes being available.
I know that many UKGSers are up to speed on the event and that a stack of you guys come to either the Midlands or the Ireland events. This heads up is for you to bring you up to date, but also for everyone who’s not been able to get to the HUBB UK before. With new people in mind, this is a long post!
This is the link to what happened at the HUBB UK 2013 and below is a short film just to give a taste of the atmosphere....
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What’s happening for 2014?
The tradition is that over the 4 days of the event – Thursday 19th to 22nd of June 2014 - there will be a mix of presentations, practical demonstrations, competitions, and a stack of overlanding equipment companies will be along too.
Many of those companies are well known to you guys and it’s the perfect opportunity to link up with them for a natter – far better to do than at a big show. Last year we had just under 200 sessions of presentations which ran through 5 presentation rooms. You really are stuck to choose which to go and see! Some of them are put on by names and authors from the world of overlanding and some are by people just returned from the road. If you’ve been before you’ll know that each of the presenters has a great story to tell and really good information to share.
And that is a key point about the HUBB UK. The aim is to Inspire, Inform and Connect. The 4 - days on site allow for plenty of that! And the real ale bar is just a bit of an encouragement!
There will be loads of other things happening such as Danny and Fil with their Roadkill Cookout. Want to know how to catch food on the road? And then learn how to prepare and cook it? The guys will show you and you can actually get involved. Kev from Woodland Ways will be doing sessions showing how to make the hedgerow your larder. There will be sessions on photography, filming, GPS use and well, you get the drift. Live music on the Friday night by the Fire Drums and it looks as if we are going to have a ride out or too as well. The Skills Course and Slow Bike race are real favourites now - there’s masses going on. And we have a stack of new ideas for 2014. Of course you could just chill, chat with mates, look at how people have their bikes set up and…
The venue is the very pretty Donington Park Farmhouse Hotel next to the Donington race circuit in the Midlands. Bring earplugs! Sometimes there’s a bit of testing happening on the circuit and we are a few miles away from the East Midlands airport. That's a huge bonus for people outside of England. We had people from 16 different countries at the HUBB UK 2103 and some of them flew in especially for it.
I want to mention that it’s an event which is not aimed just at people who are back from a big trip or are planning to head off. I reckon that a third of people are stuck – for the moment! They’d love to head off but can’t right now. They come because of the really friendly atmosphere where everyone talks to everyone else, the presentations, the bikes and expedition vehicles, and the general buzz.
Just a thought if you’ve been before - this is probably just the right time to give yourself and your mates a nudge.
Right time? As I mentioned there's just a couple of weeks left for people to snag a £45 4-day event pass before the price bumps up as usual at the end of the month. The passes are amazing value for a 4-day event. They include all of the above, camping (there’s loads of space so no one has to be crammed in) and parking if disaster strikes and you can only make it on 4 wheels. There will also be plenty to choose from in the restaurant at inexpensive prices – the portions are going to be much bigger and far better quality than last year too.
If you have mates who always say 'I keep meaning to get to that.' you might like to get them to take a squint at the HUBB UK 2014 Page.
And of course, don't you miss out either eh
If you have a look at the pages for 2014 you'll see that things are just beginning to fill up, and all the layout changes which are helping us all to make the 4 days even better. 4 days? That’s the idea and I’m sure you won’t regret booking the time out for the full event, but if you can’t get away for the whole thing then you could book in for Thursday and Friday with camping on the Thursday night. Or for the other 2-day pass which is Saturday and Sunday with camping on the Saturday night.
Day passes? We don’t do ‘em. They change the friendly get-to-know-everyone, ideas-swopping, brain-picking relaxed nature of the HUBB UK – surveys we carried out show that just a tiny percentage of people want them – everyone else doesn’t want to change what has worked well for 13 years. Yep this will be the 14th year!
One of the things we try to do each year is to support a charity. In the past we have supported the excellent Motorcycle Outreach, Prostate Cancer UK (we all raised over £4,000) and in 2014 we are going to be supporting Shelterbox - there's a link on the site to see what they do.
Fancy presenting? Please sign up - share your experience or quite simply, the fun of the road. You’ll see the link on the page.
Want to see a particular company who stocks overlanding kit exhibiting? Please show them the 2014 page. We'd be really pleased to hear from them. It’s the chance for all of us to have hands on with kit and to talk face to face with people who know what they are doing.
People sometimes ask me where the money that the event tries to earn goes. It is earned to keep the hugely helpful Horizons Unlimited site going and to underwrite new HU travellers events. It's that Inspire, Inform and Connect ambition. Many overlanders have set out with their routes, visas, paperwork, shipping etc based on what they have researched on the site.
Well I hope you’ve made it this far. Sorry – a huge post! It’s called enthusiasm! Why me posting this? After going for years, then volunteering to help on the day, I’ve now ended up with helping to organise the event. My chance to share and encourage - lots to do, but fun.