Leander
Western Thunderer
I’m sorry to be the bearer of the bad news, but following discussions this morning between our Chairman, Steve Flint, and myself, we took the decision to cancel the forthcoming expoEM show in Wakefield over the weekend of 22nd & 23rd August.
We were informed yesterday morning that Kettlethorpe High School has commenced significant repair work at the premises deemed to be ‘emergency’. The letting agency were only notified of this one day prior to the work starting. They contacted me by phone initially, and then also by email to inform me of this.. Firstly they offered the sports hall as an alternative, however we had previously discounted (c.2022) the sports hall as being unsuitable due to inadequate mains electricity provision. Edu-Lettings also implied in that email that they may be able to find alternative premises.
Hence I phoned Edu-Lettings this morning to see what options they could provide. They were unable to;
a) advise if the electrical provision in the Sports Hall had been increased since 2022
b) offer an alternative venue in the city/locality for the same weekend
c) offer the Kettlethorpe Venue for the weekend of 30 Oct/1 Nov (end of half term week) - because their booking system only runs from 1Sept-31Aug each year! So if we wanted to change our dates we couldn’t book it until after the 1st September.
Steve Flint and I considered that attempting to find an alternative venue or different weekend dates ourselves this late in the day was impractical: given our volunteer resources and limited local knowledge, and/or exhibitors and traders not be able to commit to an alternative weekend. Cancellation was the only option open to us.
I wish to apologise for the disappointment this will cause our regular attendees, but I hope that you will understand our predicament under these most trying circumstances. We will of course seek to hold a Summer (or Autumn) expo in 2027.
Peter Rigby
EMGS expoEM Summer Manager
We were informed yesterday morning that Kettlethorpe High School has commenced significant repair work at the premises deemed to be ‘emergency’. The letting agency were only notified of this one day prior to the work starting. They contacted me by phone initially, and then also by email to inform me of this.. Firstly they offered the sports hall as an alternative, however we had previously discounted (c.2022) the sports hall as being unsuitable due to inadequate mains electricity provision. Edu-Lettings also implied in that email that they may be able to find alternative premises.
Hence I phoned Edu-Lettings this morning to see what options they could provide. They were unable to;
a) advise if the electrical provision in the Sports Hall had been increased since 2022
b) offer an alternative venue in the city/locality for the same weekend
c) offer the Kettlethorpe Venue for the weekend of 30 Oct/1 Nov (end of half term week) - because their booking system only runs from 1Sept-31Aug each year! So if we wanted to change our dates we couldn’t book it until after the 1st September.
Steve Flint and I considered that attempting to find an alternative venue or different weekend dates ourselves this late in the day was impractical: given our volunteer resources and limited local knowledge, and/or exhibitors and traders not be able to commit to an alternative weekend. Cancellation was the only option open to us.
I wish to apologise for the disappointment this will cause our regular attendees, but I hope that you will understand our predicament under these most trying circumstances. We will of course seek to hold a Summer (or Autumn) expo in 2027.
Peter Rigby
EMGS expoEM Summer Manager
