Boland Bonsai Kai #show2018 "from a slow start to the best show in 20 years"
It's almost a week later and I am still getting feedback letters form the club members. Most of the feedback is positive and with everything in life there needs to be a few odd ones out that ask the unexpected questions.
The set up for the show started at 08:00 on the 23rd of November 2018. It was a slow start as the doors to the venue opened late. We started with the tables and put up the structures just to get the big items out of the way first. Once that was done the set up was a breeze. Some of the plinths need to be painted and so too the white room dividers. I then moved on to the finer detail and started to throwing over the table cloths. To my surprise some of the table cloths where damaged and some of them had iron marks or burns straight through them. I had to make a decision to rent in extra table cloths right there and then. I rented in white table cloths with light brown runners.
In the photo below you can see the lay out of the table cloths. This was the Suiseki and Kusamono area.
At 11:45 the trees started arriving one after the other. I knew that there were 93 trees entered into the show, but some how I could not picture how much space 93 trees were going need to be displayed. After the first few trees started pouring through the door I soon after realized that I did not have enough tables for the amount of trees. I made a plan and got extra tables for my parents house. Soon after that the next thing hit me. I did not have table cloths for the extra tables.
At this point I could not handle any more situations. But once more there it was the last obstacle for me to cross. Curtain senior members decided to bring along extra trees 💆 . As if there was no deadline (19 November 2018 that is). So there were not enough score cards for the judges...
Anyway enough about that. Lets get to the trees that was on display as there were plenty amazing trees. The club in Worcester had some of the best trees on the show and they even took home a few of the trophies. Here are a few of the trees that was on display:
And here are the trees that I entered:
As you can see I only had one tree that received a merit award for 70%. I spend so much time planning the show I did not have a lot of time to prepare my own trees. Next year I will be in charge of the arrangements for the show once more. Hopefully that will be my last as well as this felt like a second job but there was no extra income. There are a few things that I will improve on and I will also not be entering any trees into the show as I really feel that I did not prep them well.
It was not all doom and gloom. We had over 153 people attended the show over the two days. We have received a number of positive complements for the public. Even had a family that wanted to start bonsai as a family project. I was very happy with the show and every thing on display.
Thank you to everyone that attended the show.
Till next time stay bonsai'ing. My next blog will be more practical. I know the last few were more about me mumbling about my prep and the show.
Please feel free to leave your comments below.
Congrats on a successful show, despite the last minute obstacles! It looks great !
Thank you. I would have liked to have shown more photos of the event but I was so busy that I did not have time to take photos of all the trees.
If anyone that attended posts pictures, link them here please :)