Water super concept...

!Who would have thought it – especially in these days of elf and safety madness – when most authorities can dream up far more ways of why you can't do exciting things rather than encouraging people to get out and enjoy themselves.

 

It actually turned out to be a very interesting day and I reckon it was way more successful than anyone dared hope. What happened way exceeded my own personal guesstimate. 

 

I suspect that most of us thought that your average Saturday afternoon shopper would maybe pause just to see what was going on, possibly spend five minutes watching from the sidewalk, before moving on to the Mall or into Starbucks and  doing the things that (some) folks do on a normal Saturday.

 

What actually happened was that people stopped, quickly cottoned on to what was happening – thanks mainly to the informative commentary by Roger Warren – and then got really involved in the show.

 

When I say that there were hundreds of people rushing between the sections, like some kind of huge, living rugby scrum, I am not joking. 

 

The riders were finding it tough to actually get their bikes  into the sections to ride them

 

The shows proved to be such a draw that the afternoon's schedule had to be brought forward – simply because so many people wanted to see the team races featuring Adam and Dougie Lampkin. They simply sat down and virtually refused to go away until the show started!

 

The short version is that it really was a genuinely successful event for all concerned.

 

I have long thought that the only way to get the public involved in a sport is to take it right to them.

 

You can't get them to come to you – but take a trial, a motocross or a supermoto into town and the public will take an interest. 

 

Stage your event five minutes away and you will be playing to a crowd of one. You!

 

Now, knowing this is one thing, actually getting it to happen is another thing entirely.

 

Conventional trials is a particularly difficult concept to get your head round. But simply turning the contest into an easily identifiable ‘race'  allowed even the casual onlooker to instantly understand what was going on.

 

The rest, as I said, took everyone by surprise. 

 

Manchester proved that you could take this idea and make it work in any city in the world. It didn't happen just by good fortune, it took a really good team to hit the nail right on the head first time.

 

But after this – the sky's the limit...