As a MAG member for many years and an attendee of this rally since it's inception I have to say that I am appalled that the organisers of this event have taken this decision at such a LATE stage - to close the event at noon on Saturday is beyond belief - those who had the common sense to stay away yesterday evening would have been well on their way (from all over the country)this morning - there is still no notification on the website 1.33pm and there was nothing this morning when I set off (with a car full of excited teenagers!!)Luckily I got a phone call at Catterick from a friend and was told to turn around it was off! (I'd been on the road for 2 hours travelling 45 miles at this stage!)

I am not amused at all and although I support MAG in their policies and beliefs I feel that the organisation leaves a lot to be desired - when no announcements are on their website, nor are the people on the site sure of what is happening exactly!

I feel like I've made a very large donation to their funding and have been well and truly ripped off. 2 adult tickets, 1 car parking ticket and 4 kids tickets £82 plus booking fee and postage = no rally! NO refund methinks - ho hum!!

Yes I know they have to think about safety etc but to not actually print contact numbers on tickets or publish information on their website is quite frankly, UNACCEPTABLE!

So you'd be the person complaining on the STC page too? Posted within virtually minutes of the site being closed too.
Posted before you gave a thought to the organisers and what they have to lose or what they have to clean up. No, you are petulantly stamping a foot because you didn't have a nice time and want to hold someone accountable. Blame God. He's in charge of weather, I believe.
STC is a fantastic event, run by volunteers who work their backsides off and I suspect they are just skipping about in the mud right now. They will have hung in until the bitter end & would probably give anything to be warm & dry right now.
Nobody can predict the weather but seriously, if it had taken you that long to get such a little way, did you really expect the site to be a little oasis of rainbows & sunshine when you got there? If you were able to look up the Stormin' website you could have looked up the BBC weather page or the Met Office and seen the big blue blobs & 'Weather Warning' written in big letters.
I wonder how much you would complain if the event had gone ahead and you had been injured?

Lizzie-lint's comments are beyond comprehension and beneath contempt. I set off from London to Stormin The Castle yesterday morning; I'd bothered to look at the forecast and knew that the weather was particularly likely to be bad on Saturday. But, after travelling in near non-visibility conditions on the A1, I pulled over to consult friends on the site (interestingly, Lizzielint says she got a phone call from a friend at Catterick - presumably, despite taking over two hours to drive just 45 minutes, it did not occur to her to contact that friend?).

For someone who claims to have attended this event many times, one might expect that she would have some idea of what the weather can do, unless she managed to the previous times at the old site when it rained.

If one of her 'excited teenagers' had fallen on a muddy site and broken a leg, I dare say she would have been the first to scream blue murder if there'd been insufficient medical cover.

And if this person has been a MAG member for many years as they claim, they would remember the Farmyard Party in 2006 which nearly became a huge disaster because of the weather causing a flash flood, and also been aware that MAG events have been hit by the weather this year too, causing a huge hole in the organisers' fundraising efforts. As with other events, the team behind Stormin' The Castle devote months of time and energy into organising this event and I can tell you from speaking to them that they are absolutely devastated. But no, Lizzielint, it's just easier to whine. Join the BMF.

honestly Lizzie, you really didn't want to be there, me and the missus were there from about 7pm last night, and by then it was already under a couple inches of water, and just like Wizz, alot of my mates travelled from further, only to return home this morning, a good few folks I know are down a good few hundred quid. Other folk I know were only coming from down the road in Newcastle, but they decided to give it a miss when they say the weather, alot of other folk watched the weather last night and saw the big bloody exclamation mark almost ontop of where the site was and phoned in saying they weren't coming. as said, the weather can't be controlled. take a spoonful of cement and harden up a bit

As an alleged member of MAG for 'many years' Lizzie's concern for her fellow bikers underwhelmes me. Uunfortunately I as unable to attend as I ouldn't get leave from work but my partner has been on site since Monday helpng to set up the event, as he has snce it's inception....you have enjoyed the fruits of his and many other people's efforts, Lizzie. He is still on site today and intends to stay to help ensure that the people who did arrive at the site leave safely. He will not be travelling home in the comfort of a car (with or without teenagers)and bearing the weather forecast in mind I will worry until he arrives back in South Yorkshire. As for the people on site not being sure of what was happening, I wasn't aware that God was one of the organisers!!
In short...you are safe, dry and home. Stop whining.

Couple of things to note on the post by 'lizzielint'

1: If she is such a MAG fan as she claims how come she doesn't know that MAG do not organise the event.

2: She was going in a car, to a bike show and says that the organisers shouldn't take into consideration the weather affects on bikers. If she wasn't bothered to get out of her nice warm dry car and had actually bothered to look or even phone to check then its her fault. The warnings have been given out on TV and Radio.

The phone numbers to contact people are on the Storming web site

I'm one of the caterers, we've lost a lot of money on this event. But the organisers did everything they possibly could to keep it going.

This season has been absolutely disastrous but I can tell you that no event that we've been to has made such strenuous efforts to cope with the weather - this weekend's weather really was exceptional.

It was our first time at "Stormin" and I'm ready to book my place for next year.

Everyone involved deserves a pat on the back, you did everything possible, and then some.

As a MAG member I've also attended this rally since its inception in 1991 bar one year, my tradestand along with 30 others lost hundreds this weekend as I had staff wages, stall fee and diesel to pay plus I've bags of ruined wet muddy stock however I WILL NOT be asking the organisers who all work for free and donate the profits to MAG for a refund. The soaking wet, cold marshalls worked tirelessly to keep the event open helping bikes on and off the site, and supplying straw bales everywhere for walk ways and tented areas. We did our best to keep open using straw and cardboard to abate the water to supply warm dry clothing and cashback facilities and as usual thousands of hardy bikers partied on. However the cold wet and windy night flooded so many tents people left in their droves this morn so there weren't that many left to leave by noon when it was cancelled anyway. The marshalls even refused a £20 donation from me for helping deliver parcels to our stand and towing us out the mud tonight.
It's not the organisers fault it rained why should they have to refund? After the 1st aid tent flooded all the stage power went down too so there was no choice but to close.
Thanks to Stormin marshalls for sterling effort, see you next year!

Lizzie, your comments are typical of those people who like to turn up at a rally and just expect everything laid on. As an organiser of a rally, I can assure you that every consideration is given to accommodate the punters wishes. Jim & Liz, and they're band of willing volunteers do a stirling job and have done for many years. Give the organisers the benefit of doubt and stop complaining. We were there and we had already decided to abandon and return home, it was bad.
I'm quite sure the family of the dead biker would glady reimburse your tickets for the life of their son/husband/father.

What is Lizzielint's problem,,, big deal she travelled 45 miles and lost £82... As Motorcyclegifts.co.u
k says him and others lost hundreds of pounds .. and do we hear them complain ??? We spoke to a couple that had travelled for 6 hours on Friday in the driving rain from Sommerset and Gloucester only to have to do the return journey a day early.Hope they had a sfe journey back. I think the marshalls and everyone else involved did a great job concidering the circumstances. Did Lizzie not think to ring her friends before she left home to check it was still going ahead instead of waiting for them to ring her... Also has she not stopped to think the reason there was nothing on the website on the morning before she left was because the webmaster could possibly be at Stormin?
Who could possibly have known the devastation the rain would cause at this new venue when it hasnt been used for Stormin before,,, All I can say is tho... what a top night Friday night was,, top bands.... and whats a bit water and mud between friends,,, roll on next years Stormin

I presume that Lizzielint is also uncapable of reading a web site. This was posted on the official web site on Friday, THE DAY BEFORE she set off in her car. Might it not have given her some idea to check? Obviously not.

FROM STORMIN' THE CASTLE ORGANISERS
Please be aware that although the event is still running, the site is in a very bad condition. We are advising people to park their bikes at the top of the site. Also there is a severe weather warning in operation - torrential rain and high winds are expected tonight. Addtionally the A66 is closed West of the site.

From what I was told (and this is from the mouth of a marshal I spoke to on saturday morning) the police turned up early saturday to assess the situation and advised them not to let anyone else on site until they had made their assessment and decided on a course of action. Then the medical team were forced to leave due to their equipment tent being flooded out during the night, being left with nowhere hygenic to work if the need arised. A mate of mine was taken to hospital on the friday night in what appeared to be a serious condition, so if lizzie lint had got her way with keeping the event running and my mate needed to go on the saturday instead, what sort of condition would he have been left in. The wise decision to shut down the event was not one that was made lightly, but was made before the police came back and made the decision for them. As for asking for a refund, if EVERYONE asked for their money back, and was given it, there probably wouldn't be Stormin 2009. Some of the marshals I know have been there for over a week setting things up, and are due to stay another week cleaning up, and what do they get for their efforts? for every 4 hours they work they get a £4 food voucher, thats £1 per hour if you can't be bothered to do the maths. They took 2 weeks holidays from their regular jobs to do what they did. Did you read about that poor fella that died when he came off his bike after hitting a fallen branch? do you recon him family will be asking for his money back cos he didn't make it either.

I too can't believe the whinging of lizzielint. We had an unprecedented ammount of rain fall between Thursday night and Saturday morning. We have a sloped field here which meant a lot ran off. Do you honestly think there would have been any less rain/mud at Witton? No, it would have been the same or worse! Most of Witton is flat so all that water would have had nowhere to drain! The committee (who are ALL unpaid volunteers) are still on site now clearing up the mess, some have been there in tents for 10 days now. So you got wet and muddy well at least you are home and dry now, which is more than can be said for two of our kind, one who unfortunately hit a fallen tree branch on the A66 on the way to the event, and another who was killed on the way home. Our deepest condolences go out to their familes. (http://www.yournews
.itvlocal.com/Clip.a
spx?key=31D1F002A5BE
080B) We will move forward and are already planning next years event. Unfortunately freak weather happens and we got it big time this year. I'll be back next year and so will the rest of the volunteers to keep what is the finest bike event in the area alive!

I copied and pasted my last post from a post that I made at the official Stormin' website. Some of the things I mention refer to another complainer and are not relevent to lizzielint. But one thing that is relvevent that I didn't say before is 'Why was she coming to a bikers only event in a car?'

h.a are making $1.billion a yr drug and child **** . They dont care really .clever front though. Lizzie lint dont exsist. But please do bring your kids to the next bash