The 3rd Skylark Garden Centre Country Show was quite a different event to its predecessors, following the withdrawal of the Cambridgeshire Vintage Tractor Club after last year's event. This year's show was a much more commercial undertaking with the car-boot sale, held outside the showground itself, being the main focus of attention on both days, even to the point of the souvenir rally plaque being an advert for the car-boot sale.

That said, the site owner is fully behind the event as a whole and put on some superb entertainment in the beer tent on Saturday night, namely the Johnnie Dee Experience, who courtesy of some quick costume changes, the addition of some wigs and suitable props, gave us entertainers such as Elvis, Freddie Mercury, Stevie Wonder, Mick Jagger, Ozzy Osbourne, Austin Powers, Virgil from Hot Chocolate amongst others. Hugely enjoyable, not too loud, well recommended if you ever have the chance to see this guy perform. Good beer also with a choice of real ales, including Woodfordes Wherry, but a tad expensive @ £2.80 per pint!

Without the experience of seasoned show organisers, the layout needs a few tweaks. There was a huge main arena for a skydiving display that didn't happen due to strong winds, but virtually nothing surrounding it. Perhaps the trade stands would appreciate being around the main ring, facing the ring, to help them compete with the car-boot. Two sides were totally wasted by having both trade and commercials backed up to the ring edge.

There was no area specifically put aside for camping, which meant that part of the show field was cluttered up with tractor camping in particular. This meant that their transport of lorries and trailers was also parked up as part of the show, and the knock-on effect was that the tractors were just dumped anywhere, with straggly intermittent lines and at least three different display areas. This section would benefit from a dedicated steward next year.

This also meant that part of the stationary engine section was hidden from view. However, I don't think this stopped people finding us, as there was a definite trail around the edge of the field where we were. This section was reasonably well organised with a well respected steward, but due to site layout changes, space was tight and we would benefit from an extra metre or two of both width and depth for those with longer caravans, to ensure adequate room between draw-bar and engine, and more access points for those with limited mobility.

The commercial vehicle section was also well stewarded with two rows of vehicles facing each other, in the main motors seen regularly in Fenland but one or two surprises. The cars and most of the motorcycles were placed in the top field near the road, so were a little out of the show proper, but then something has to draw people up to the Skylark Café. However, there was additional food available on site, namely fish & chips, burgers, bacon rolls, donuts, etc.

The steam section seemed a little thinner this year, but there was one engine working the full-size threshing drum at the top end of the field, threshing corn cut by tractor and binder earlier in the week. There was a small selection of model steam supporting the Foden steam lorry, Foster showman's engine, organ & living van, and the other traction engine on display.

One rather naïve statement on the welcoming sheet was a request to take all litter home with you. Now I can understand perhaps people picnicking and not wanting rubbish left behind, but to expect both traders and campers to cart a weekends worth of rubbish, not litter, back home with them is perhaps a little unfair. I'm sure those with dogs do not want to stink their vehicle out with dog faeces after a hot weekend, and I'm sure a commercial organisation such as this could stretch to a small skip for genuine rubbish. Put it this way, I've never been anywhere yet to a rally that didn't. Suffice to say, some black bags did appear around the site on Sunday.

Several exhibitors were canvassed for comments about the show organisation and layout, and most of the above was made known to our steward on the weekend. I'm sure that he will raise most of these issues with both the show's manager and the site owner, and we hope that they take what we consider to be constructive comments on board for next year. This was basically a first event for the current team, with a few teething issues, and most of the public, reported in the local press as 10,000 strong, probably came for the widely advertised car-boot sale rather than the vintage show.