Camp Sparkle - European popslash gathering

[nopseud]

Yo! This is half of the coordinating committee for a potential popslash gathering, to be held in the UK this November. The other half of the committee is pensnest.

So far, everything is very tentative, and we're planning a low-key event -- basically, a version of a sparkly-weekend-at-our-houses, only allowing for more people. Our current idea is for something between a general get-together and a proper con -- footage, food and drink, but also some panels, competitions, fandom pimping, and other more con-like things if people are interested. The focus would be Nsync/BSB, but other popslash or bandslash fans would be very welcome. Bring footage! Pimp to everyone!

Our favoured (for price) option at the moment it to rent a Youth Hostel Association hostel for our exclusive use for a weekend in November this year, possibly this place, which is in central England near Milton Keynes. It's only a mile and a half from MK train station, and it has a couple of pubs nearby. Hiring the hostel for two nights at a weekend would cost somewhere around £600 -- this is a fixed price, regardless of how many people come. So for 20-30 people, the cost for accommodation only for the whole weekend would be approximately £30-20. On top of that would be food. A YHA place is likely to be pretty basic, but by doing the catering ourselves and just charging cost for food and drink, this is the cheapest way we've come up with to hold the gathering. There maybe be other options available for food (such as a meal at a pub, or having some meals catered by the YHA staff), but we haven't priced those yet.

THIS PLAN IS NOT FINAL. It's just a starting point. Any final plan would depend primarily on how many people would like to take part. The Milton Keynes YA would be good for numbers between 20 and 30 -- for more or less, we'd need to rethink the venue. To get a rough idea of interest and the kind of thing we can plan for, we'd be grateful if people could fill in the poll below, and also pimp the gathering to other potentially interested folks.

[Poll #707551]

Any other suggestions or comments would be very welcome.

Thanks to turps33 for letting us hijack her comm.

Comments

[turps33.livejournal.com]

You're most welcome :)

Btw, I made you and Pen co mods for the comm so you can edit user info and stuff like that. I know you two will be doing all the planning so it seems silly for you not to have mod powers here. If you didn't want that, just say and I'll take you off.

I'm so glad this is happening!

[nopseud]

Btw, I made you and Pen co mods for the comm

Oh, thank you!

I'm so glad this is happening!/i>

Me too :-)

[pensnest]

Excellent. (Moohahaha.)

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

I don't know exactly when I'll be moving to the US or when I'll be coming back over, so I can't confirm one way or the other as to attendance yet.

Depending on when it is, I'll be clearing out my house and packing up my stuff with an eye towards renting the place out anyway, so again depending on when it is, we could possily approximately treat my house like a free youth hostel. (Since once it's cleared up and packed up, there'd be loads of space.)

Regardless of whether or not I can attend, I have a number of large pots and pans which I am NOT moving to the US with me, so if someone else is willing to take possession and keep them in the loft or something, you're welcome to borrow them. (They'll just be living in the loft here anyway. :) )Similarly, I have a large screen tv and a PS2 which are unlikely to get moved. (I suppose they might wander over to Nephparents, but I daresay they could still be borrowed for a sparkly weekend.)

[nopseud]

we could possily approximately treat my house like a free youth hostel.

Oh, that has definite potential! Although, if you're planning to rent, then I wouldn't want the gathering to interfere with that -- we'd probably not be able to switch to alternative accomodation at short notice.

The pots and pans would probably be very useful, as might the TV, especially with Pen handily nearby.

[quiet000001.livejournal.com]

I'd keep investigating other options for housing, for sure. :) (Also, Milton Keynes has the advantage of plenty of stuff to do, which, Hemel, not so much. :) ) It is a possibility, though. :) (A lot depends on how long it actually takes to get various bits of work done around the place, which I won't know until I've packed up things and started calling around for quotes. I know plumbers and the like can get wierdly busy and have long waiting lists. We could certainly have the gathering here while there are leaky taps and what have you, but I want to get all the little problems fixed before I rent so they don't end up becoming BIG problems. :) )

It'd be a good idea to ask how large the ovens are at places you're considering- my oven is extra wide, so I have some pans that wouldn't fit in a normal sized oven. (I also have large normal oven pans- we hosted Christmas every year for several years, y'see. :) )

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

I might be able to borrow a Karaoke machine/dance mat thingy. I'll let you know!

[ephemera.livejournal.com]

Ohh - good thought - I can definately contribute a PS2 and dancemats.

Um - inless spending both the first weekends in November in Spain turns out to clash. Which isn't confirmed yet, but might happen. *shame face*

[clear-my-eyes.livejournal.com]

This is a great idea! I'm off to work abroad for a couple of months later on in the year so fingers crossed that won't clash with this.

[nopseud]

We'll post more details and firm dates later, if we get the idea off the ground.

[turlough]

I would really love to attend, but how much I can spend - and in a way also if I actually can attend - will be determined by when or if I'm going to move to another town. It might not happen until next spring, but it might be earlier, in any case I should know more in a couple of months. So until then I'm saying "Squeeeeee!!! Sparkly meet!!!! YES!!!!!11!!"

[nopseud]

I hope you'll be able to come :-)

[trumpeterofdoom.livejournal.com]

OH YES. Way to kick off my last year doing my BA. Yay November! And ooh, I was just looking at that place while searching for accommodation in MK for the Bon Jovi show. And when this happens, of course I'll bring my harddrives of DOOM and many NSYNCland DVDs.

[nopseud]

Your harddrives of doom were sorely missed at the weekend. Luckily I had the 'smells of cheese' interview, and Pen had some BSB making of the video footage, so we got our ration of BSB :-)

[clear-my-eyes.livejournal.com]

Hope it's okay to pimp this to some of my sparkly LJ friends over in Europe?

[nopseud]

Sure, go ahead!

[stellamira]

I don't think money is going to be a (big) issue, but it depends on the flight how much I'd be able to spend on food and accommodation. I'd definitely love to come!

[nopseud]

Excellent!

Another good thing about the MK youth hostel is that it should be reasonably good for public transport access to various airports.

[pensnest]

And if we can get a date booked up reasonably well in advance, people coming from outside the UK will have a chance to get cheap flights.

[stellamira]

Yes, please. ;) I'm looking at flights right now (ahem), and at the moment, most are 0,01Euro (+ taxes), but that will change.

[nopseud]

Pen, do you want to give the hostel a call tomorrow and check available dates, get a firmer price, and maybe an idea of how much they would charge extra for meals? I'd do it myself, but I think I might put them off letting us use the place, as all I can do at the moment is whisper menacingly. :-)

[pensnest]

I will do that very thing. We don't want you arrested for lewd phone calls...