h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Isle of Wight Beer and Buses Weekend - A87905541
Author: Bluebottle - U43530

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Sure, give us an October event when most of are thinking about 28 April

A few questions;

>All you are asked to do is purchase a programme

Are the programs all pre-sold to limit the number of participants, or can you just take your chances?

>...and standing is not permitted, even when the buses were designed to allow standing passengers

I assume the number of passengers is carefully controlled, after stopping at a pub, how long might you have to wait to get on another bus?

>A real or cask ale is one that gets from the cask to the glass either by tap or by hand-pump and has not had carbon dioxide added;

How does the tap work without gas in the keg, gravity feed?

>The Isle of Wight Ramblers are also involved

Could you maybe give us a footnote about who they are?

>Duck's Folly

Good anagram

As it is a weekend event you might mention something about lodging.

I have already written that riding a bus on the IOW is a fun and exciting adventure can only make it better

A fantastic read as always,

F S

Are the programs all pre-sold to limit the number of participants, or can you just take your chances?
As participants are spread across riding on the numerous buses, drinking in the various pubs and even hiking along the suggested walks, it is a first come, first served event where you take your chances.

I assume the number of passengers is carefully controlled, after stopping at a pub, how long might you have to wait to get on another bus?
Well, 'carefully controlled' to the extent that once all the seats are filled, no-one else is allowed on the bus. As for the frequency of service on the route you are on. The most popular routes have a bus every 20 minutes, most are a bus every 30 minutes and some of the more out of the way locations, such as Culver Haven, have a bus every hour. Of course some pubs are on more than one bus route, so if you don't mind where you head next you won't have long to wait.

How does the tap work without gas in the keg, gravity feed?
'Keg'…? 'KEG'!?! This is Real Ale we're talking about. CASK ale. There's no 'keg': http://cask-marque.co.uk/beer-drinkers/cask-vs-keg/
But yep, gravity feed – added that now.

>The Isle of Wight Ramblers are also involved

Added now

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Good to see this in Peer Review

I had a few comments and questions on first readthrough:

You mention the two bus hubs twice

You don't need the title of the Entry as a header, so you can merge that section with the On the Omnibus section - hopefully that will help to tighten the Entry up before we go on a ramble via train carriages.

I'm interested to know about the Bus Museum, as that relates to buses, but there seems to be too much detail about the stagecoach.

" will be delighted to know" - I wonder if that counts as 'virtue signalling' or just blatant advertising...

"a surprisingly art deco building" - surprisingly?

" including the bus that ran over singer Adam Faith, whose father was a bus driver, with dressing up areas" - there's a lot going on in this sentence!

You've got two Bus Enthusiast sections, so you could merge them together

Great concluding paragraph

Thanks again for a thorough read-through – you must have spent all last night reading my rubbish!
You can probably tell that this entry began as the chassis of my first report crudely welded to the bodywork of my second report about this event.

Good news - I was considering writing a separate about the Bus Museum at some point – it's on the list…

"will be delighted to know" - I wonder if that counts as 'virtue signalling' shhh or just blatant advertising...
&I don't know, FS asks me to add something about staying on the Island and when I do I'm accused of advertising. I still think people will be delighted to know there are places they can stay 'cos otherwise on the Saturday night when the buses stop running they'd be stranded in the middle of nowhere with no bed for the night.
Tell you what, if you find someone who is stranded in the middle of nowhere with nowhere to spend the night and you then inform them that actually, there is somewhere available for them to stay after all and they're not delighted, I'll re-write it.

"a surprisingly art deco building" - surprisingly?
&Well, I was surprised. I must admit I'd never actually thought to myself, 'I'll pop round the local bus depot to see how art deco it is'. Bus depots, aircraft hangars, barns, sheds, storage yards – I must admit I've never considered them to be buildings with much architectural merit. True art deco embraces modernism, but still.

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>Two programmes have been sold to residents of Hong Kong, though we don't know if those people are coming.

Seems to indicate that at least some programs are pre-sold sounds like a good plan if you are coming from afar.

My question about lodging was more about 'should you book in advance?' and how far in advance. I can see accommodations getting pretty full.

For those of us who might not get a chance to ride the classic busses, is their a list of the IOW pubs that serve Real Ale?

Thank you for addressing my other comments so well

On another note, train and bus depots, as well as barns are often considered to be of architectural interest here in the US, but that may be part of the 'great melting pot' created by the many cultures that settled here.

F S

The programmes can be bought in participating pubs before the event, but I think that is mainly that by having them on display in various shops is good for advertising rather than trying to limit the number of participants.

The Beer and Bus event only attracts 10,000 people, an insignificant number compared to Cowes Week or the Isle of Wight Festival, and most attendees are local. 5,000 visitors in October outside the tourist season, there'll be plenty of accommodation all over, but if you wanted somewhere specific then yes, always best to book ahead. There's an old Isle of Wight saying, 'You can fit the whole population of the standing shoulder-to-shoulder on the Isle of Wight, and you'll still have half the hoteliers in Shanklin complaining this summer season is disappointing…'

There is a list of participating pubs and their real ales here:
http://iwbeerandbuses.co.uk/beers.php

Which pubs are participating is one of the areas which will be out of date every year, especially with pub closures and pubs change management quickly so what was or wasn't previously a real ale pub. But I'll add a bit more about how the programme goes into depth about which pubs are family-friendly etc. If you asked me 'which are the best pubs?' my answer would be very different if you were after family-friendly pubs to, say, if you were after the best real ale pubs.

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I've added a section on the pub-lications and programmes available and what information they provide. I keep hoping to spot the 2018 programme on sale but haven't yet…

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" & I don't know"

All I know is I had a post yikesed in 2012 because it included, amongst other random things, a link to a commercial food website and the words "I like chocolate mousse"

I didn't yikes ya.
Technically you could say that almost any entry could be advertising. You could be advertising the RSPB or English Heritage or the National Trust or Walt Disney, garlic growers and so on and so forth. If you enjoy an entry you've read and what to replicate what you've read about for yourself, either by visiting somewhere, purchasing a book, CD or DVD that you've read a review of or a recipe to follow, the truth is that sooner or later some money will almost certainly be spent. The link I included however was the official tourist information site rather than a similar website run by a private company and is in an easily ignorable footnote rather than being the focus of the whole entry.

There were 2.4 million visitors to the Isle of Wight in 2015/6 (latest figures I could find) which implies an average of 6,575 per day. However the vast majority visited during the school holidays, when the Island's population trebles, so yep, 5,000 bus fanatics is a drop in the ocean. 24% of the Island's employment is directly tourism related, as opposed to 7.8% across the north island's south coast.

This year there will be 19 bus routes rather than last year's 14, with more heading out West Wight, but I'm still after the details.

I like chocolate moose too – especially the Swedish making Chocolate Moose (Oh no! I can't say that as I'm advertising the Muppets!)

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This is tighter than the last time I read it, now you've polished the welding between the chassis and bodywork of the two separate Entries

It's still a bit of a bumpy ride in places, though, as some paragraphs seem to be a bit out of place, somehow... I wonder if a bit more polishing can be done...

The introductory section is perfect if it finishes at "the upkeep of the Isle of Wight Bus Museum. "

The paragraph about standing not being permitted doesn't sit very well between the two paragraphs about the variety of buses. You mention the dates of the buses twice so you could remove the 2017 paragraph, to make the Entry more general rather than being stuck in one year.

The information about the publications is good as it shows whatever people are interested in, there is something for them but I liked how you had it before, so I wonder if that can be condensed somehow and again made more general than 2017. It would fit nicely in with the Bus Enthusiasts section.

Is there a better place for the accommodation paragraph than in the Omnibus section?

I think the mention of the A symbol is not needed - it is enough that thought has been put into the event (and the way it is at the moment, it sounds like the Isle of Wight Ramblers are shown with an A symbol )

The Ticket to Ryde section is better, but I think the welding is still a bit rough - you mention the museum, then the depot, then the museum exhibits, and then a new paragraph about the museum and the exhibits so I think that could be streamlined.

The list of bus routes is hard to read, because it's more detail than I need right now - if I am interested in more information, I can presumably get the vehicle supplement? I think you could condense that to a sentence or two saying something like journey times vary from 15 minutes (Route Y: Ryde Circular) to 120 minutes and buses varied from 40 to 70 seaters, with relief buses at peak times.

The final section is excellent

It wasn't 2012, sorry it was 2009 - all the other posts I made over a whole year linking to food websites and listing items eg Schwarzwalderkirschtorte were not yikesed, but the minute I said "I like", that was it! That's Auntie Beeb for you...

I've made changes to reflect your suggestions, moving bits here there and everywhere, tweaking sentences and shortening the bit on the museum, on the grounds that I might well one day write about the museum on its own in a separate entry.

So I've polished this up, but it might be a good idea for this to be kept on the back burner for a bit as the 2018 event is only a couple of months away now, so all the 2017 stuff will be out of date.

The detail on the bus route was there to help people get a sense of the scale of both the event and the Isle of Wight as a whole. You'd be surprised at the number of people who perceive the Isle of Wight as being a tiny place with three or four houses max, no electricity and no water. This table shows that actually, there is a large number of towns and villages on the Island, and enough Real Ale pubs to support 19 (14 in 2017) different bus routes going to them.

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Thanks <BB< - excellent moving, there, so all paragraphs are now sitting comfortably

Ah, that is interesting about people's sense of scale of the Isle of Wight! My geography is not very good, but I am fortunate to have a reasonable sense of scale of the Island because there's an island off the coast of the Wirral with "three or four houses max, no electricity and no water" so I could tell the Isle of Wight is much bigger than that!

On the one hand it is good to be able to promote topical Entries and tap into the buzz around events, but on the other hand it is a good idea to wait for the 2018 weekend so that the information can be refreshed if necessary The Beer and Bus Weekend is certainly going from strength to strength!

It could go either way – if I thought there was a fair chance that this entry could leave Peer Review and be on the front page in time to celebrate and create buzz for the Beer & Bus Weekend I'd be all in favour of that. Yet there's only 2 months to go and it isn't a big anniversary event like the 50th or 80th celebration – it'll be the 5th this year - so I don't consider it a priority entry.

Of course, someone else might feel that it should be recommended, edited and make the front page in time to coincide with the event. If it made the front page in time for this year's event and it needed to be slightly tweaked afterwards, that's easy enough to do. But I'm not expecting it.

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I've been e-mailed today to say that the programmes have now been printed.

"The delay was due to Wightlink not being able to confirm bookings for our buses until they had the new autumn schedule which was , delayed in turn, by the uncertainties around their new ferry. The programmes are now available for sale online and will be available in participating venues from next week (It takes a few days to get them distributed). The programme is bigger than last year and costs £7."

(WightLink have just spent £30 million on a new car ferry, Victoria of Wight, which can carry 178 cars – but who cares about them when there are classic es to catch - and 1,000 passengers and is hybrid-powered, due to come into service in October.)

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Hallo. I dusted off my old H2G2 login just because of your excellent article. But it took me so long that you already fixed one of the things I was going to point out. This year, the routes include several pubs in Freshwater and Totland: The Vine, The Waterfront, The Highdown Inn and the Piano Bar (not normally a real ale bar but putting several on for the weekend. Hooray.)

But the second - about the derivation of Duck's Folly - is not quite correct. It refers to Lloyd's of London, not the bank. Anthony Goddard was an underwriter and lost £1m and his farm. http://www.visitilife.com/anthony-brews-up-fabulous-life-after-being-on-the-brink-2/ and https://goddardsbrewery.com/inspiration/history/

Cheers!

Oh and PS, this is my first time looking at Peer Review and how it works so I may be completely off the plot. But I noticed that https://h2g2.com/peer_review/ says "If it looks like you'll need to make major changes to your Entry, the best thing to do is to take it out of Peer Review and resubmit it when it's ready."

and

"it's useful to point out when you've made any changes and are happy with your Entry as it stands."

It would be nice if your article could get picked and published before this year's event - otherwise you'll have to wait for next year's programme to be published to bring it up-to-date … or hope for a happy accident with a printing press and a time machine.

Hello - thanks for dropping by, sorry I've not replied before now but I've been on holiday. I've made the tweak as suggested so I hope that meets your approval. I'm honoured you've rejoined h2g2 because you enjoyed reading this so much.

So I assume you will be participating in this year's event? I'm looking forward to it.

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Good to see that of the 227 pubs and 70 breweries in the 2019 CAMRA Good Beer Guide, 22 pubs and 3 breweries are on the Isle of Wight. So 10% of the best pubs in the UK are on the Island - proving we punch well above our weight.
http://www.iwcp.co.uk/news/16858102.nine-isle-of-wight-pubs-added-to-camras-good-beer-guide/

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