UKC

Well anything that is named after a dire, second rate, Stallone movie and organised by Sheffield City Council is bound to be a bit suspect. What's outrageous is that this event cost £5 to get in. Around 80%-90% of the stalls were making money on top of this. It's part shopping mall and part fairground and part beginner's/non-climbers climbing wall (this is included in the entrance fee).

However the inept security actually pointed me to a free way in yesterday morning. Since they couldn't even decide amongst themselves where the entrance to the event was I asked about going to the animal farm in Graves park instead - which is still free. Once in it was an easy stroll out the other end into the main event. I dare say it's not to hard to climb the fence in various places also.

If you feel guilty doing this don't. Once in you'll soon be able to part with the £5 you've just saved either by paying for overpriced food (the normal Graves Park cafe is probably the best bet) or overpriced fairground rides (one kiddies bouncy tramperline cost £4 for 5 mins).

After this I went to the community organised Sharrow festival just down the road which seemed a lot more lively and had no entry fee, which is the way Cliffhanger should have been.

In reply to stp:

Hi stp,
As an event manager, it's always useful to get some feedback, but I must admit to being a little taken aback at the affrontery of your post. Consider for a second that I and others invoved in Cliffhanger make our livings from organising such events.

I can assure you that 80-90% of the exhibitors were not making money. There was a massive onus on providing free things for people to do once in the event. We collected a lot of feedback forms and the response was about 99.9% positive. The beer festival was very disappointing. A 70m by 50m footprint had been planned for, but a mixture of poor ground conditions after the recent flooding and the beer festival company losing a staggering amount of money this summer because of the unprecedented rains all over the country, and it had to be scaled back dramatically. Such is life.

You must have had a bad food experience - all the food I had was far superior to and more intersting than the Graves Park caf!

Anyway, just thought I'd respond to let you know that as an organiser of an event of this scale for the first time I do watch these forums for comment.

If you fancy phoning for a chat to discuss how we can make the event better in future I'd be pleased to talk to you. And if you fancy donating the fiver that you didn't pay to St Luke's hospice, the Edale Mountain Rescue Team, The BMC, Challenge Cancer or the Archer Project, all bodies who were there raising funds for good causes, then I am sure they would be glad of it.

MattH
0114 2969114

In reply to stp: cheapskate put your hand in your deep pocket are you really that desperate for a fiver??

In reply to MattH: judging from the post of the gentlemen the £5 price tag seems alot, considering the example of the bouncy castle he gives.

In reply to MattH:
Hi Matt -

I for one thought it was a good and well organised event, and I'd have paid at least double the £5 entry fee if you could have arrnaged better weather!

Good work anyway - D

In reply to MattH:
I dont know about paying double entrance fee but the OP's comments were a little shortsighted. If i had any comments to make regarding how it could be improved for next year, maybe being a little more prepared for bad weather would have been a good idea. There were a few fairground rides and climbing walls but they were closed/sodden due to the rain. Would it have been possible to have a marquee for things such as this (even one on standby?) Also, although there were a number of shops, what i was looking for was a bouldering mat and a childs harness but there was nothing but rails and rails of old (adult) stock.
A good idea but definitely a no-goer in the rain!

In reply to stp:
>Around 80%-90% of the stalls were making money on top of this.

What world do you live in? Ff course they expect to make money - most of the stalls were local businesses or outdoor-related businesses.
Once in it was an easy stroll out the other end into the main event. I dare say it's not to hard to climb the fence in various places also.

Perhaps the organisers were relying on honesty and good will from people attending - qualities USUALLY present in MOST outdoor types (but obviously not in you).

Once again - most of the stalls were taken by commercial operations - and for the record, I thought that most of the prices were reasonable.