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UK Pinfest 2023 - August 25/26/27th

All back in sunny Leeds and unloaded! Time for some brews!

I am now an expert house move packer and mover. Never rent a Vauxhall vivaro van for more than 2 pins hahaha

My proper thanks post later after some snooze and tea!

Also Eric my Dutch friend/lunatic is stuck here in uk fir an extra day because flight is cancelled due to air traffic issues🤣🤣🤣


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@thelab
bethamari said:
Huge thanks to @Big Phil as always for organising and everyone else involved from the volunteers and those kindly bringing machines to play.

Probably my favourite one to date! Thanks @ailsaclunie for the ladies evening and @Poibug for the karaoke duet! Karaoke was a brilliant idea. Loved stall ball too! Really nice to catch up with so many people again (@Wizcat, @windoesnot, @Arv, @myPinballs, @CHRIS B PINBALLS, @Garry Sp8, @Fantazia2 etc.) and meet a few new people too. I’m not sure if Vin is on here but thanks for the hangover cure! Cheers all 🙌
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roadshow16 said:
Thanks so much to Phil and family, all the volunteers, scorekeepers, machine donators, Paul/Wayne/Arv/Ailsa+NLP/Gonzo+Spence for all their hard work with the comps. It was an amazing event that was absolutely loved by my whole family. Thank you everyone, so many amazing things happening over the weekend, by far the biggest and best Pinfest ever.

Was gutted what happend to Neil, it made me feel sick to be honest, but the way he handled himself with grace and calm was pretty amazing, not sure I would have been the same in that position, even with my rust bucket.

Fantastic event, brilliant people, a truly joyous weekend, loved every minute 😊
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What happened to Neil?
 
Just wanted to add a little post to say thank you to everyone who came to pinfest and suported us every order helps us grow and get more great products for the community to enjoy with our your help this wouldn’t be possible

Was great to meet so many of the forum members and put some faces to the names

Such a great event organised by @Big Phil and his team and was a pleasure to be a show sponsor and do our bit to help get more people into this great hobby we’re already working on next years pinfest and we plan to go bigger

Huge thanks from me and my team roll on pinfest 2024
 
Thanks @UKPinfest. It was a fun trip!
Thanks also to the very nice people that said hello. The 1979 Harlem Globetrotters art still looks cool. Those 1992 Addams Family machine restorations are works of art. Alas, the new Scooby-Doo machine died at 11am #NeedsScoobySnacks #SeeYouAtTheNextOne
 

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Thank you to @Big Phil for organising Pinfest, the amazing staff team and everyone I met! Lovely to meet people in person, including @Calimori, @Fantazia2, @ailsaclunie, @Happypin and many others. Also great to speak to the Magic Girl team, a wonderful pin and a complete privilege - thank you for bringing it along to share 🥰

Finally, thanks to @Arv for organising Classics. A great tournament and some of my favourite pins!
 
Big thanks for @David retro and your Dad for bringing so much stuff to the show. Its really great to see such a selection of parts to pick and choose from I do hope you do it again.

@Big Phil Once again a great show!
Big shout out to the Pinfest team they are always so friendly and helpful it really keeps the event positive.
I was speaking with several people about this and I think it would be great to organise a Bring and Buy event on one of the days. People could setup small tables or just car boots in the parking lot to buy, swap and trade parts. I had to bring parts for people at this event and finding people was tough at the best of times!

it was especially great to see some rare titles like Magic Girl, Ghost Busters Premium, Scooby Doo and Medieval Madness.
Thanks to all the machine donators, without you it the show wouldn't happen!

My top favourites were definitely:
  1. Medieval Madness
  2. Scooby Doo
  3. Ghost Busters Premium

Cheers,

Scott

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Firstly many thanks to @Big Phil for organising and all the back end team inc NLP guys @replicas and chums ♥️ Also great to see more and more games i have helped repair boards wise and electronically playing nicely for a full weekend. A real nice variation of games here this time and alot in very nice condition.

My favourite game for the weekend, @MajesticPinball 's absolutely wonderful restoration of Alvin G and Co's Mystery Castle. What a game!! Loved it, Beautiful game. Great sound effects and music, lamp effects. I've played ALOT of games in 35 years but this is one that escaped til now, so i am very grateful. Would love one!!

Also loved Big Lebowski, Played it before, the film integration is great. Found myself laughing out loud many times. Need to buy one asap! Feels wpc-95 eque rules wise to me, which is nice.

Thanks to all that played Magi Girl and thanked me for bringing it. Means alot. Play count over the weekend was 370. Survived the full weekend on time, with a few ball rescues and one lock tight related spinner fix. I hope to be able to bring it again perhaps

Also had alot of fun chatting in the bar with old & new friends.

Onto 2024! ♥️ Having the whole hotel booked out was a great idea.
 
myPinballs said:
Firstly many thanks to @Big Phil for organising and all the back end team inc NLP guys @replicas and chums ♥️ Also great to see more and more games i have helped repair boards wise and electronically playing nicely for a full weekend. A real nice variation of games here this time and alot in very nice condition.

My favourite game for the weekend, @MajesticPinball 's absolutely wonderful restoration of Alvin G and Co's Mystery Castle. What a game!! Loved it, Beautiful game. Great sound effects and music, lamp effects. I've played ALOT of games in 35 years but this is one that escaped til now, so i am very grateful. Would love one!!

Also loved Big Lebowski, Played it before, the film integration is great. Found myself laughing out loud many times. Need to buy one asap! Feels wpc-95 eque rules wise to me, which is nice.

Thanks to all that played Magi Girl and thanked me for bringing it. Means alot. Play count over the weekend was 370. Survived the full weekend on time, with a few ball rescues and one lock tight related spinner fix. I hope to be able to bring it again perhaps

Also had alot of fun chatting in the bar with old & new friends.

Onto 2024! ♥️ Having the whole hotel booked out was a great idea.
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Thanks for your such kind words on Mystery Castle Jim, I was scared to bring it but it was so worth it just to share it with everyone. Wonderful to meet you in person finally and put a face to a name 😂 thanks again for bringing Magic Girl! Never thought I'd see one in a million years!
 
Loved Mystery Castle ,
James, thanks for bringing it along.
Didn't get to play much but was happy to be reunited with my old Alien and play a few games, thanks Mike P for bringing it along.
Also very privileged to play Magic Girl, prettiest game ever ? I loved it. Thanks Jim for letting us all play it.
 
kevlar said:
Loved mystery castle too but it has to be the flashiest game ever, definitely not for the photosensitive!. Is this where Dwight got his ideas about illumination from? :)
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I think the LED flashers need to go back to incandescent really. As for the GI flashing for way too long sometimes I think that's just unfinished code sadly... @myPinballs next project maybe? 😂
 
Wow, what an amazing Pinfest, best so far I reckon, and seems to be only getting better, Huge thanks to Phil firstly and also to all the helpers, volunteers, comp organisers, machine bringiings and everyone else who makes such an awesome event possihble.

Special thanks to Wayne, Paul, Ailsa and Shaun who gave up most of their weekend to run the comps and to all the scorekeepers,

Many congrats to Steve and Wayne for becoming Hall of Fame inductees, both throroughly deserved.

Personally enjoyed the Sunday much more than the Saturday as had a rough time in the league finals, classics and main qualifying but was releived to finally qualify on the Sunday with less than half an hour left and was delighted to make it all the way to the final especailly getting past Kurt who had been amazing in quliafying and veteran, Martin Ayub, a long term rival who used to usually get the better of me.

Sadly couldn't do much in the final but many congrats to Craig for another Pinfest triumph along with Andy and Matt. Also well done to Rich for another Classics win, you still got it, man!

Already looking forward to next year.
 
Just a quick heads up everyone that stayed over at Pinfest - I was charged twice for room by the new receptionist that booked us in on friday teatime. Luckily I checked by bank account just before I left - took ages to get sorted out so glad I did it there and then.

Might be worth taking a precautionary look at your bank account just in case guys.

Cheers

kev
 
The post that always terrifies me…..

Wow, just WOW!

I honestly don’t know where to start. It’s all just a whirlwind and goes over way too fast.

There are so many loving and dedicated people behind this event that just do what they do. I get way too much credit. UKPinfest just happens over the weekend. I think I can sum it up in one sentence which I said a few times over the weekend.

“I didn’t even get room keys to open up!”

The team turned up and just did it.

Thursday night in the lobby was like the previous year’s Friday. So many pin heads had turned up already. We had the charity machines and other free play machines already set up. The bar was even charging UKPinfest rates which I wasn’t expecting to start until the Friday.

Friday night in the lobby from midnight. What the hell!?!? The atmosphere! The place was bouncing. There must have been just over 100 people still partying. The karaoke was brilliant (not the singing) so thank you Aide for bringing that along. You’re deffo booked for next year.

Saturday night in the lobby was a bit quieter. Obviously people had partied way too hard on the Friday but maybe it was Alan and the gang passing around shots that finished people off early.

The competitions were run smoothly and professionally once again. Thank you to Shaun & Eve for the Classics and Wayne & Paul for the Open. There were so many volunteers for scoring too. Greatly needed and welcomed. Thank you.

Tim the streaming legend! What can you say? The equipment and stream itself. Just so professional.

NBA Challenge – Something happens to you when you walk into this room. You just turn into a Looney Tune. It’s as mad as a box of frogs in there! Ailsa doing her thing with Scottish Pinball to run great events. A lot of fun and laughs as it’s not taken too seriously. And we also had a great cheerleading team! Thanks to Malcolm and Naomi. There were others but I don’t know your names. Sorry! And of course, Geoff the ref! Some really funny callouts. I think you’re taking the mic from me for the next Stall Ball.

Stall Ball was run by Gonzo, Spence and HappyPin. Always a popular fun competition. The queue was huge on Friday night! We were 3 quarters of the way up the other side of the room at the start.

The Upside Down Challenge ran by Steve on Saturday night. Sorry we cut you short Steve. In hindsight, we should have put the machine in a different location. We had to cut this shot because it was right next to TZ and Stall Ball. Really sorry. It’s a great fun competition though so we can make a bigger thing of it next time.

DP Challenge headed up by Gonzo and Spencer. Again, very popular and competitive. A yearly regular from now on.

The best in show was won by Ant for the second year running with his beautiful Addams pair. Scott’s LOTR was a beauty too so it was very close. There is chatter about tweaking this for next year. The tweak may be banning Ant(joking)

As well as the prize money being given out, winners also got to get their hands on the fantastic trophies made by Colin aka Collywobbles. They are stunning and I’m afraid you’ve made a rod for your own back now. We’ll need the same next year.

The backroom maintenance team. Electrics once again done by Pete, Helen and their son, Daniel. Machines looked after by Chris, Daz, Dave and Simon with others chipping in for the odd stuck ball here and there. Working flat out to keep everything working.

My friends and family that I always drag along with me and just ride the wave of this crazy obsession I have of putting on events for the community. You’re all just too awesome.

And we wouldn’t have a show without all of your machines. Thank you one and all. This hobby is so expensive these days. You trust us and the community to treat them right. You’re all so generous.

Thank you to Dave at Retro Arcade Specialists for sponsoring the competitions.

Thank you to Pinball Heaven for sponsoring Stall Ball.

Not all heroes wear capes and my unsung hero of the event is Andy Netherwood from Pinball Mania. I’ve never once asked him to come and work on maintenance but he always just pops up like the Mr Ben shopkeeper. When open heart surgery is needed, Andy is there. He brought a few machines back from the brink. Mostly mine…..

Thanks to Chris B for the charity machines. I haven’t heard how much has been raised yet but once again, they were very busy.

Congrats to Wayne Johns and Steve Pagett for being inducted into the Hall of Fame. Very well deserved for what they’ve done for the community for many many years.

Thank you to all the Irish visitors, the most we’ve had, and anyone else who travelled from abroad. I know of one was from the US, a couple from Belgium and of course our very own Ad Jonker from the Netherlands. Any other countries?

And after saying all that, I think the stand out part of the show for me has to be Ailsa and what she’s doing for pinball and inclusivity. Ailsa is leading the charge in ripping the dick off this hobby and proving it’s not just for the boys. It’s always been a male dominated hobby but Ailsa is building up a strong following and it’s only a matter of time before we get our first female UKPinfest Open/Classics champion. It’s generally an intimidating experience for the ladies to participate but Ailsa is teaching them how to grab, twist and yank to tear it clean off. Please keep it up ladies. We want to see you competing in the main competitions.

We brought a bit more to the event this year and we’re always looking to bring more. We’re already looking at options next year. This in turn has a knock on effect with existing activities and it caused one or two snags this year. We’ve listened to and greatly welcome any feedback.

We want to break records next year. We want to have more machines than there has ever been at a UK Pinball event. I lean on you all. I’ll be leaning harder.

Thank you everyone!



As usual, I reserve the right to edit and add to this post as I always forget something.
 
Awww! That's a perfect summary of everything that happened, it really was perfect and flew by!

Everything was so smoothly run, a complete testament to all the organisers, volunteers and donators.

I think I had a good time!

Thank you all so very much :thumbs:

P.S. Glad I missed Gonzo and Spencer's DP Challenge :eek:
 
This vlogger has some interesting car park footage 😬 (not the incident that's been discussed previously as far as I'm aware)

 
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