I was very lucky to have won my tickets from the competition on this website - we went on Saturday costing us just £1.00 for the children's tickets admin fee. We were also quite disappointed with the lack of Camping Equipment but as it only takes us approx. 40 mins to get to Excel, the main reason we went was for the Airbeam demo which didn't happen!! The guy from PJ Camping did deflate a pole and allowed my Son to re-inflate it but that was it!! Was hoping for a full demo as it was advertised on the website of the show! Thought it a bit cheeky that it wasn't signed anywhere about the free parking - I wonder how many people paid for the car park and then found the barriers up??!! Don't think we'll bother again but it was a good almost free day out!
To be honest, we did actually witness the airbeam demo. It seems each tent is supplied with a footpump and 4 depresses of said footpump should inflate each airbeam. A 'Full demo' lasted about 10 minutes. If you missed it just go and watch somebody pumping up a flat tyre on their car. Pretty much covers it. The Airbeam tents on display seemed quite small.
We went to decide on a new cooker, as we thought they would have all the different ones on display, so we could compare them all. After a lot of searching we found one!. The accessory retailers obviously did not think that unlike a caravan or motorhome, a tent does not have one built in! Back to Go Outdoors then!