Me and Johncl may attend this event.
We will be travelling from Bergen, Norway into Stansted, Gatwick or Heathrow and are very interested in travelling arrangements with others to and from the event.
Vintage Computer Festival UK 2010
Travelling arrangements depends a lot on when flights arrive. If you're going by Ryanair, please note their timetables may get revised past Sunday, March 28. In some cases the changes can affect your planning by whole days! In my case it seems the only two options is to depart on Friday afternoon (one extra night at the hotel) or take the flight from Skavsta instead of Västerås. 
Fortunately Ryanair only sells single way tickets, so I can combine my round-trips to different airports if required.
Fortunately Ryanair only sells single way tickets, so I can combine my round-trips to different airports if required.Anders Carlsson
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English Invader
- Vic 20 Scientist
- Posts: 1193
- Joined: Tue Apr 28, 2009 3:51 pm
For those who arrive at Stanstead and choose to travel by train to Bletchley, I have to get the train from Euston myself and am happy to meet people at Liverpool Street where the arrival times are roughly the same.
Another point of interest is that Bletchley Park was the home of the famous Enigma computer that was used during WWII to decode cipher messages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park
Another point of interest is that Bletchley Park was the home of the famous Enigma computer that was used during WWII to decode cipher messages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bletchley_Park
Thanks. We may actually take you up on that offerEnglish Invader wrote:For those who arrive at Stanstead and choose to travel by train to Bletchley, I have to get the train from Euston myself and am happy to meet people at Liverpool Street where the arrival times are roughly the same.
Its early days yet, but we definitely want to attend at least one event in the UK this year.
vic20tapes.org - preservation of vic20 tapes.
I happen to live just next to a "cheap" airport (*) and no matter how much one may dislike Ryanair, on this particular trip their flight tickets are 1/3 of the regular flight companies. One could argue if you're anyway going on a long weekend to the UK, spending $300 or $500 is no difference. In the end it is just money. 
(*) For the last 5-10 years, the airport has yearly suffered financial loss of a couple million dollars. Since it is owned by the city, politicians have granted tax money to cover for the loss, but now recently less and less of the politicians want to feed a bleeding airport so in a year or two we may see it close permanently unless they miraculously can turn it into profit.
(*) For the last 5-10 years, the airport has yearly suffered financial loss of a couple million dollars. Since it is owned by the city, politicians have granted tax money to cover for the loss, but now recently less and less of the politicians want to feed a bleeding airport so in a year or two we may see it close permanently unless they miraculously can turn it into profit.
Anders Carlsson
So far there are two events in Gothenburg that I'm aware of.
The first one is Datastorm, Feb 5-7. It is an international C64/Amiga demo party which has been sold out for months but who may take individual visitors at the door.
The second one is Retrospelmässan (April 24). It will be a video game trade with some elements of competition, possibly some speaker and so on. From what I gather no details have been made public yet. I am not sure what kind of VIC-20 content you could expect, if e.g. Fanta or e5frog will go there. I've not decided to go or not, depends a little what to expect.
Of course we're planning for Retrogathering 2010 too, but we don't have any dates or location yet. Expect some time in September-October in the Stockholm area.
Speaking of the VCF GB, I've asked some of my friends if they want to go but they're extremely reluctant.
It is likely they will remember two days prior to the event that it would've been cool to go to if they had arranged for tickets, but by then it is too late. I will nag them a few more times but I believe it is a good idea to plan your flight tickets and hotel at least a few months in advance. Perhaps January-February is a bit too soon but by April I would like to have details sorted if I'm going at all.
The first one is Datastorm, Feb 5-7. It is an international C64/Amiga demo party which has been sold out for months but who may take individual visitors at the door.
The second one is Retrospelmässan (April 24). It will be a video game trade with some elements of competition, possibly some speaker and so on. From what I gather no details have been made public yet. I am not sure what kind of VIC-20 content you could expect, if e.g. Fanta or e5frog will go there. I've not decided to go or not, depends a little what to expect.
Of course we're planning for Retrogathering 2010 too, but we don't have any dates or location yet. Expect some time in September-October in the Stockholm area.
Speaking of the VCF GB, I've asked some of my friends if they want to go but they're extremely reluctant.
It is likely they will remember two days prior to the event that it would've been cool to go to if they had arranged for tickets, but by then it is too late. I will nag them a few more times but I believe it is a good idea to plan your flight tickets and hotel at least a few months in advance. Perhaps January-February is a bit too soon but by April I would like to have details sorted if I'm going at all.Anders Carlsson
hey this is ticking some boxes - i put on music gigs about 4 times a week so i got my promoter head on and so i'm adopting a few rules about putting on a show !
- location. very appropriate ! the first national computer festival being held at the national museum of computing. good call.
- transport. everyone anywhere can get to london. and then you got one train for 40 mins to bletchley. and the place is only down the road ? piece of cake.
- admission fee ? they could be clearer with this. i've had to click a couple of links off site to find out it is £ 10 admission to bletchley park and am led to assume therefore that once in the park, the computer side of things is bought and paid for (with the exception of some of their talks and limited space things). so a tenner per day is fine. best bet however - you can buy a years pass for £ 8.50. so save yourself 11 and a half quid.
- cost. their hotel offer seems the best. i checked the 2 travelodge hotels in their area and they were double the price just about. and travelodge are the cheapest anywhere ! (quite shocked about the travelodge prices actually i've stayed somewhere for 20 quid before... anyway..) fingers crossed you get breakfast... i didnt check that
for me, i'm looking at :
£ 15 to london and tube stuff
£ 15 to bletchley
£ 8.50 admission for the weekend
£ 120 ish for 2 nights sleep
thats cool. i think i'm good for this - but...
- timing ! gaaaah ! it finishes just a couple of days before glastonbury festival opens ! money schmoney. plus ! there are world cup games on ! they lose points for timing, this should have been in october... plus it is the 3rd week of the month - always a terrible time to put on a show... the timing is shit
- advertising. they win big here. i guess they are going around every speccy and 64 and amstrad and arcade and vectrex and everything everywhere site about this. which is a good thing. coz theres a good potential mix of interest here which always makes for a smash of a gig ! so i reckon it will be packed. timing aside, the rest of it works out.
i'm gonna dart off and have a look at saving a few quid on accommodation...
- location. very appropriate ! the first national computer festival being held at the national museum of computing. good call.
- transport. everyone anywhere can get to london. and then you got one train for 40 mins to bletchley. and the place is only down the road ? piece of cake.
- admission fee ? they could be clearer with this. i've had to click a couple of links off site to find out it is £ 10 admission to bletchley park and am led to assume therefore that once in the park, the computer side of things is bought and paid for (with the exception of some of their talks and limited space things). so a tenner per day is fine. best bet however - you can buy a years pass for £ 8.50. so save yourself 11 and a half quid.
- cost. their hotel offer seems the best. i checked the 2 travelodge hotels in their area and they were double the price just about. and travelodge are the cheapest anywhere ! (quite shocked about the travelodge prices actually i've stayed somewhere for 20 quid before... anyway..) fingers crossed you get breakfast... i didnt check that
for me, i'm looking at :
£ 15 to london and tube stuff
£ 15 to bletchley
£ 8.50 admission for the weekend
£ 120 ish for 2 nights sleep
thats cool. i think i'm good for this - but...
- timing ! gaaaah ! it finishes just a couple of days before glastonbury festival opens ! money schmoney. plus ! there are world cup games on ! they lose points for timing, this should have been in october... plus it is the 3rd week of the month - always a terrible time to put on a show... the timing is shit
- advertising. they win big here. i guess they are going around every speccy and 64 and amstrad and arcade and vectrex and everything everywhere site about this. which is a good thing. coz theres a good potential mix of interest here which always makes for a smash of a gig ! so i reckon it will be packed. timing aside, the rest of it works out.
i'm gonna dart off and have a look at saving a few quid on accommodation...
oi oi saveloy
there are a couple of campsite options - also b&b options. but when you factor in taxis and time and hassle - their hotel thing seems the best bet
£ 60 a night seems shit mind you, i kinda begrudge paying more than 30 notes a night - i only want a bed !
gonna have a look at the pubs now... ps - i reckon the tottie attendance on this one is gonna be pretty much zero ! not very gig rock n roll but hey ho ! i could happily lose myself in spectrums and laserdiscs for a few days...
world cup games :
19th - Ghana vs Australia
19th - Netherlands vs Japan
19th - Cameroon vs Denmark
20th - Slovakia vs Paraguay
20th - Italy vs New Zealand
20th - Brazil vs Cote d'Ivorie
no big loss ? i wonder if they are having the football on anywhere close ?
£ 60 a night seems shit mind you, i kinda begrudge paying more than 30 notes a night - i only want a bed !
gonna have a look at the pubs now... ps - i reckon the tottie attendance on this one is gonna be pretty much zero ! not very gig rock n roll but hey ho ! i could happily lose myself in spectrums and laserdiscs for a few days...
world cup games :
19th - Ghana vs Australia
19th - Netherlands vs Japan
19th - Cameroon vs Denmark
20th - Slovakia vs Paraguay
20th - Italy vs New Zealand
20th - Brazil vs Cote d'Ivorie
no big loss ? i wonder if they are having the football on anywhere close ?
oi oi saveloy