The Farmyard Party
HISTORY
This is the entire history of the Famyard Party, where it came from and how it got to where it is today. Its a long story but then it did take 23 years in the making.
I suppose you could say the Farmyard Party really started in 1981, when East Yorkshire MAG, under the reign of founder Rob Glenton, decided to have a demonstration in protest of the helmet law, around the City of Hull. He thought that he could encourage the other MAG groups in the region to come and support it, especially if he put on a bit of a do afterwards. For that he found a farmers field at Dunswell, just outside of Hull and with nothing more than a small marquee, a tiny generator that screamed its nuts off trying to cope with the disco and a van full of cans for sale, the template was set for the very first East Yorkshire MAG rally. This continued on an ad-hoc basis, sometimes missing a year if no one at East Yorkshire MAG could be arsed to do it.
Then in 1987, with a demo and camping planned for the middle of June, the farmer who owned the field backed out with three weeks to go. Bugger! Out of the blue a chap called Mick Kelly said, "I know a place, it's a bit far from Hull but I am sure it will do you fine. It's called Cat Babbleton Farm and it's near the village of Foxholes, just over the border in North Yorkshire.
The name ‘Farmyard Party' just came naturally as all of the entertainment was held in an enclosed stockyard that was half covered with a Dutch barn roof. The camping was at the bottom of a dale and getting there was a bit of a white-knuckle ride as the only way down was a one in five slope on a loose chalk track! Once down there though the campsite was dotted with lots of individual campfires creating a fantastic atmosphere. This set the scene for what has since become one of the Farmyard Party's traditions.
The first Farmyard had a mere 300 revellers but the news of this idyllic site and lively entertainment soon spread. With little or no effort the rally doubled in attendance the next year, and then doubled again the year after that. Every year another thing has made the Farmyard Party special and that is the rule; No Cars, No Vans, No Pedestrians, No Excuses. This rule has made today's Farmyard Party by far the largest motorcycle only event in the UK if not Europe.
The demo run was the sole reason behind the Farmyard Party in the early days and I don't think any of the people involved with East Yorkshire MAG at that time would have stood for anything else. But as the rally got bigger year after year, the hundreds became thousands and shepherding them all down to Hull for the demo, as well as putting the event on, became a bit of a challenge. In 1989 we had to rethink. We needed more manpower. It was decided to move the demo run to the nearer town of Scarborough and enlist the help of Scarborough MAG to take over organising and marshalling the demo.
The original organiser Rob stayed at the helm until 1990 but then decided to bugger off and live in Australia. The very able Tim Ollett succeeded him for 4 years. Tim not only gave the rally his heart and sole but also two toes as well. While we were building a permanent toilet block for the event he dropped a large piece of insulated walling on his foot!
Next up to bat in the organising team was Judith Rouse who in 1994 and after a very traumatic and turbulent year in the history of East Yorkshire MAG managed to run the rally with about a dozen people helping and marshalling. A tremendous effort by was put in by Judith and all of those involved that year but with East Yorkshire MAG pretty much blown apart with infighting the future of the Farmyard Party looked doubtful.
Then, Magic Action Promotions Ltd (MAP), a company that was formed to organise and run MAG's 21st birthday party approached East Yorkshire MAG and offered to help by taking over the organising of the event for 1995. Our customers were unaware of this change in management because they managed to keep the rally looking and feeling the same as before. The only real change that MAP made was to put the event onto a solid legal footing. It still would be around 7 more years before it was a 100% right, but that was the start of the long road to make the company, the event, the volunteers and the customers safe whilst still retaining its traditional ‘put together on Friday afternoon feel'. Now the management problems were finally sorted out, MAP was running the event with a team from all over Yorkshire. There were fresh faces and a fresh approach that bred fresh enthusiasm.
Over one hurdle and straight up to another one! As you probably know, the Farmyard Party made some money and all of that money was donated to MAG UK. The farmer saw the event making money and did what landowners seem to do best. He got greedy. Even though we pay for the use of the land for one week it's always left in the condition that we found it. We may disturb their sleep for a couple of nights but as they also had the rights to the bar and most of their mates get a free invite to a piss up. It's a good deal! But somehow, even after all that they believe that they should be entitled to have around eighty percent of the profit. Sadly the Cat Babbleton farmer turned out to be no exception, but I suppose you could say we had out grown the site anyway, so we left the original Farmyard for good.
So off to the beautiful Duncombe Park Estate in Helmsley we went. An idyllic wide valley edged with steep sided densely wooded hills with the babbling river Rye meandering through one side of the valley floor. Bonuses for us were that we could still allow campfires and we now had unlimited space to expand. 1996 looked like it would be a good year and it was. The introduction of Dick Stapley's Blues tent and custom show was a welcome addition and proved very popular indeed. The run into Scarborough was a longer ride now but still do-able and with the Helmsley town centre pubs within walking distance of the site there was more than ever to do on Saturday afternoon. The revellers loved the whole thing.
All too good to be true once again! Some local residents didn't like the village being under attack of bikers and gave the estate owners such a load of grief that they said that we couldn't do it again there. We were starting to understand how travellers feel. With very few other places available we approached Lord Howard with a proposal to use Castle Howard near York for 1997. To our amazement he said yes! Things were on the up once again!
With almost unlimited space once again and on the back of the success of the new Blues tent, Pete Squire badgered us to have a dance tent, insisting, quite rightly, that the Farmyard Party had to evolve if we were to attract new people. Younger bikers had to start coming to keep the rally alive. It was a good point but it didn't half cause some rows. It was agreed to see if it went down well. It may have caused some confusion for a while when the guitar riffs were replaced by a strange repetitive beat compelling those in earshot to shuffle their feet a little but they soon caught on and danced the weekend away! It seemed it was another successful addition to the events entertainment. 1997 was also the year of the rain! This was the wettest Farmyard ever but despite that was the highest attendance yet. The rain and the mud made it a test of endurance for the crew; it was a long hard slog from start to finish. So imagine our joy when we were told at the end of the rally that the bloody dance tent made too much noise and we would have to find another site for 1998.
After months of looking for another venue and beating up Pete Squire at every available opportunity, we were close to giving up when Duncombe Park Estate rang out of the blue to ask if we still needed a site. It appeared that the town's people and largely the local chamber of commerce had missed us and the money our customers spent in the town. You could have knocked me down with a feather. Game on again! Once again the event moved back down the valley at Duncombe Park. Now with a dedicated dance tent and a no fires camping field it gradually expanded annually as news of the site spread and we enjoyed 3 years of relative calm.
That relative calm was broken in 2001 with the outbreak of foot and mouth. Everything was looking decidedly dodgy with the massive restrictions on public access to pastureland including Duncombe Park. Luckily with a last minute change of venue to Pickering Showground, a date switch with the Rock and Blues and a massive effort from everyone involved, we pulled it off. The 15th Farmyard Party in July was a scorcher but the venue was a one off. It lacked the ambiance and character of Duncombe Park but it made the party possible.
With the crisis over we had yet another move back to what had now become home to the Farmyard Party for 2002. The event was now being recognised as biggest bike and trike only rally in the UK. The addition of a new marquee with comedians by day and rock bands by night ran by Rick Hulse from the NABD, the event now boasted six areas of entertainment and eight bars.
Then, in 2005, on that fateful Sunday at around 8pm, after just 2 hours of torrentially heavy rainfall earlier that afternoon, the aforementioned babbling river rye meandering through the valley burst its banks filling the entire width of the valley and became one very angry mother of all torrents. Thankfully all of the revellers had long since gone home, most riding through the storm somewhere as it swept its way across the country. There were one or two folk still hanging around for one reason or another and the strip down crew totalling about sixty people on site. The flood caused total and absolute devastation to equipment, marquees, bars, bikes, tents and everything left on the site. The fact that no one was killed or even injured was nothing short of a miracle.
Once again we contemplated the end of the Farmyard Party. All of our equipment was gone and morale low. The mammoth clean up/recovery task exceeded anything we had done before and was very daunting but we got such massive support from so many people both for the clean up and afterwards. It was clear that the Farmyard was something special and couldn't be lost. But after the flash flood we couldn't use the dale again even if we had wanted to. For 2006 Duncombe Park offered us the use of the fields at the top in front of the house. That brought a whole new set of problems to be overcome.
And overcome they were! The Farmyard Party has survived once again and attendance hit a new record in 2006. Its evolved during its 21 years and gone from strength to strength with the help of the organising committee and the 150 or so volunteer marshals on the weekend, in my humble opinion has become the top of the bike rallies.
Roll on Farmyard 22-23-24-25! And remember Ride Free
Because that's what it's all about.
Pete.
