Monster Truck Mayhem!

(OK, OK - but I felt that title was better than the two alternatives I came up with of "Keep on Trucking" and "Truck-tastic" but I expect the organisers have heard it all before...)

At 10.30 we had a few people in the shop already...

...but no queue outside.

However, as 11.11 approached, the queue grew. Some of our regulars were a bit surprised...


These were the first - I'll resist referring to them as "lucky truckers":

But I'm pleased to report - with the help of the wonderful Deborah and Claire - that sales went smoothly, we sold out of our initial 200 allocation, and there was no BA-style screw-up (phew)!

We've got more tickets, so they are still available. More about Truck and Wood can be found here.

All of this has overshadowed an important royal visitor we had earlier in the week. More on this exciting and eagerly anticipated milestone for Mostly Books shortly...

Truck Festival 2008

Back at the beginning of the year we got a call from someone asking us if we wanted to sell tickets for the Truck Festival this year. Apparently Dawsons (RIP) and Modern Music before them used to sell tickets locally. Since their demise last year the organisers were looking for another outlet in Abingdon. Since we've started to sell music, they came to check us out - and offered us the gig. Of course, I was completely ignorant of what the Truck Festival actually was (I've never been a festival kind of guy). But, it is a local festival - and we liked the sound of the ethos (that and the fact that we're usually willing to give something a go often before examining some of the finer implications). I blithely said "sure thing" - so consequently we're the Abingdon outlet for Truck Festival tickets this year. We're also selling tickets to the inaugural Wood Festival at Braziers Park in May. I guess I assumed that this was some small festival, the vast majority of tickets would sell online, and we'd get a few people coming to get them from us. Au contraire. We began to get a hint about this when people started to phone us to find out when tickets would be available. When several of our customers said they would be coming in on the morning the tickets go on sale, and even our DHL delivery driver got all excited and commented on the expected demand, we began to get a bit worried. Then I spotted this article in our local paper. Eh? Queues expected??! Truck - it turns out - is somewhat of a big deal, as this article in the Guardian suggests (although well done to the Gruaniad for getting the ticket price wrong - it's £60). In addition, the organisers are very keen to give local people the best possible chance of getting tickets, meaning the tickets go on sale locally a week before they go on sale nationally. This will be Wednesday morning at 11.11am (it's the 11th Truck Festival apparently, do you see what they've done there?) We were consequently fearing some sort of British Airways T5-style fiasco on Wednesday morning when our usual 2 members of staff (me, and Ali who only started last week) will be faced with hundreds of festival goers queuing up Stert Street eager for tickets. However, unlike BA, help is at hand - one of the festival organisers appeciates that this is our 'first time' and will be on hand to come to the shop and assist us in selling the tickets. It still might get a bit hairy for a while though, so perhaps some sort of storytelling to the queues might be in order... So - if you're up for Truck tickets, we'll see you in the shop at 11.11am on Wednesday...