There are some key elements in the events world that you learn pretty quickly. My previous experience in this field has always been local car meetings based. To say the least, this was something totally new. But first more about how I became positioned next to an arena at the Oxted & Edenbridge Country Show.

A Champagne importer/dealer/friend of mine had caught wind of my routemaster bus bar build antics and contacted me about a certain show he has a bar at every year. He fancied the idea of having the bus at this particular event to beef up his sales. We discussed all sorts of ways of working out my involvement but in the end he agreed to pay me a fee for the hire of my mobile bus bar and he’d run the bar itself. I offered him a substantial discount and offered to work the event for free just so I could see if it actually worked. I also arranged some staff for him and before I knew it I was getting in the bus to take it out for it’s first official outing.

As some of you might know I own several classic cars (it’s an obsession, don’t ask!) I simply enjoy nothing more than a leisurely drive on a sunny day in an old car. On the odd occasion that a car has broken down, I make the necessary arrangements to get picked up and the car towed if it can’t be fixed on the side of the road. A few years ago I was asked to use one of my cars for a wedding.  I was to be fully paid. On the day EVERYTHING changed! Gone was the nice leisurely drive. I was now relying on an extremely old car to perform perfectly or someones day was going to be ruined! This is the exact feeling I had the morning I fired the bus up to go to it’s first commercial outing. Pure anxiety! As time has gone on and I have done many events this worry about the reliability has got less. It’s still there though and on delivery days I’m best to be left alone ;)

Thank fully the delivery of our newly completed Routemaster Mobile Bus Bar went without a hitch. Once placed in it’s spot and loaded up I was ready to see her in full action for the first time.

England, the place where it never stops raining. Well, that might be a bit of an exaggeration but you know what I mean. So, How did she do!? Well, she did good! Everything worked according to plan and the pimms flowed all day on the first day and a little on the second. The general feedback was very positive. From a commercial point of view it was not so good. My poor friends that had rented it pretty much broke even on our side. Their bar on the other end of the event (which was indoors) raked it in. I do feel the weather had quite a serious impact on the take.

Personally the instant knowledge taken from all of this was outing was:

• Waterproofing all the custom hatches.
• Music system to reach downstairs (the staff want to enjoy it too)
• Provide external seating
• bring a kettle

The other bit of vital information was that (as many of you know) running a bar is hard work. Renting a bus out is not!! So with that valid information in mind I made it my mission to improve the last bits on the bus and chase every dry hire gig going in this part of the world. Find out next time how I get on!