Stories of the Big Birthday Bash – organising a Big Event

A sign for 2the 35" parking at the Big Birthday Bash Creating memory making events helps us celebrate the smiles that the Figaro creates and inspires the joy of meeting owners and fans!

Is it the car, or is it the owners and fans that inspire the Figaro Owners Club? Well one inevitably leads to the other… and all are invariably a little bonkers, somewhat temperamental but altogether have a yearning for great times!

Organising anything like this invariably means that members want some certainty as to what is planned and when things will be finalised… of course one of the challenges with doing so is that what can be organised depends on the numbers attending… and some of the things we had planned also meant that we needed some certainty around who would be there! But in practical terms the numbers attending undoubtedly affect what you can do, so there’s always a balance to be had!!

When we thought about arranging a celebratory event like the 35^th Birthday we wanted to create a series of moments that members could look back on and remember with fondness. That’s why including a quiz, a photo to remember the event by, a drive out, ways for members to feel special, a charity fund raising effort, a world record attempt, an exhibition, showcases, thanking people and a gala dinner were the ideas we had that we wanted to deliver as we celebrated the car’s 35^th birthday!

But it’s also worth considering the practicalities… as well as making sure that we had all the legalities and insurances in place, as well as the help of St Johns Ambulance, and health and safety provisions (for the hotel, grounds and chapel) in case anything happened we didn’t expect, and of course the help of volunteers on the day who all helped the event to run seamlessly!

We also needed to consider how we could feed everyone in a timely manner without people being kept hanging around! That’s how the idea of a picnic started, because we realised that if we could find a way to cater for everyone in a fairly efficient manner, people would remember the picnic rather than a queue! It was also about the photography and video, so we were very lucky to find a fantastic company who we could hire to support on the day so that was one less thing to worry about because we knew they were on it and capturing those moments!

We also wanted to find a way to pick some special cars and members, but avoid the need for judging condition which can often be down to spending oodles of cash! So, alongside furthest and nearest travelled, and longest and newest membership, we decided to have a look at use the Production Database to find out which were the youngest and most mature cars present!

Along the way we had some challenges with the original venue we were going to use, but fortunately the back up venue worked well… and even then there was a possibility that the water board was going to dig up the road outside the hotel which would have somewhat scuppered the drive out! And, of course, there was that record breaking summer which left everything with a bit of a brown singed look that we couldn’t do a huge amount about!

When we look back on the Big Birthday Bash we genuinely can’t think what else we could have done for it to go any better on the day! And the emails and thanks received truly demonstrate that… making wonderful memories with friends old and new is the reward that keeps on giving and why it’s a joy to be a member of Figaro Owners Club!

Enjoy the gallery and video of the day below!