National Update (March)
By now, the vat request forms will have been sent out , and hopefully we will have had plenty of replies filling all the exhibitor vats. The waiting list is very healthy with people wanting to show, so if you are on the list, just get ready for ‘that letter’, email or phone call offering you a vat if one becomes available.
I can remember 4 years ago, when I was working in Japan, when my phone rang in the early hours of the morning with Sue Ravenhill on the other end of the line. I answered the phone half asleep to hear ‘Hello, I have a vat available for the National, do you want to take it’ ? I just said ‘No thanks, I’m in Japan, its 3 o'clock in the morning,and you’ve just woke me up.’ I then went back to sleep!
In the morning I realised what I had said, and couldn’t wait till 9am UK time to phone Sue back and say ‘yes I want it !! and will catch an early flight back to England coz I had finished my work’. I arrived back in the UK on the Thursday evening quite late, the day before we had to take the koi to the show ground, I was so tired, but well pleased with being able to actually take my koi along to my first National show.
Sponsorship of the show is going amazingly well, with the main sponsors again being Evolution Aqua. Oase, and Kusuri.
Also sponsoring the event so far are, Koi magazine, Tetra, The Koi Collection, Messner, Koi media, T.A.P. and Hikari.
So as you can see, moving to the new venue has stirred up plenty of interest, and others may still yet be added to this list !
For this years show, Evolution Aqua have donated some massive prizes for a ‘Super raffle’, tickets for this will go on sale approx 4 weeks before the show. For just £1 a ticket, you could win prizes valued at well over £1000 so dig deep and buy some of these tickets. You could be going home with something very special
Koi clubs are taking up the offer of a free stand to show off what they get up to, and hopefully drum up some membership, don’t miss out on this offer as spaces will soon run out.
As you may well have heard, we were refused pet licenses for this show after all the preparation, quite a set back indeed. We fought Stafford council in every way possible to get the licenses, but in ‘their interpretation’ of the Animal welfare act stuck to their guns, so, we have no wet sales ‘This year’ !
Koi dealers will be present though, showing off their koi in a dealers show, already we have quite a few taking up this option. A koi dealer not selling other products can have a stand for just £50 and a show vat for £40 if they are BKKS trade members. [£100 if non BKKS members].
Financially it makes sense to just join the BKKS, save a few bob and get a dealer profile placed on the website as well, take a look at our existing trade member profiles to see how many clicks their pages are generating to their websites for them already!
We are taking bookings now for the dinner dance, contact Mark or Sue Chetter for booking information on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Hotels have been sorted that are local, only 4 miles away from the dinner dance venue, which is also Stafford showground, so no long coach journeys late at night. The ‘Champions’ will be announced on the evening. Something extra to celebrate!
So not long to go now till the show weekend and we can guarantee you will see some new things that were tested out at the East Midlands Winter show. We are looking at the posibilities of running the live stream of the build and the weekend as that went down very well at the EMKC show, I wonder how many txt or phone calls I will get this time, requesting ‘Giz a wave Mush, we are watching you!!!
I wonder if also, we will see The Conga being danced around the hall ?
The lighting over the exhibitor vats has been tested, and has worked very well. Something that was questioned when we moved the show indoors.
So all in all everything is going well, except for the one setback, I’m sure it will be a fantastic koi weekend.
Now,it’s someone’s birthday! Yes, the BKKS is 40 years old this year, so we invite you to come along and celebrate with us, at the New National Show.
See ya there guys
Martin Barnett [Mushio]
BKKS Show Chairman
