- Date
- Thu 19 Jun 2008 at 17:45
Well, before you know it, Flugtag was upon us. Six weeks of burning the midnight oil culminated in an early start, setting up the rig in Hyde Park, by the Serpentine.
Forty-one teams arrived, some half ready, some works of Art, some only a mother could love.
The gods were with us and by lunchtime the Evel Knievel Skycycle was in place, benefiting from our rehearsal at Putney Wharf two weeks earlier.The paintwork looked majestic in the day's sunshine, and even Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth took a jaunt out in her carriage around the magnificent park!
The set-up day turned to night and the organisers put on a little Barn Dance for the competitors. While we could not necessarily 'cut the rug Country style', we found comfort in the free bar and watched our rivals making shapes for the evening.
Flugtag Saturday was a different animal. The barriers went up and an almost military operation was put in place. Hopefully to keep the 87,000 crowd in safety, rather than not let us escape! The moral was high, in the aptly named Hangar Lane. All the teams' banter was good, and the creations all now looked like master craft!
As the countdown began, the first team took to the ramp and almost as quick as they were up they were in the drink. This continued, judged by the charismatic Danny Baker, Mr Nasty Craig Revel-Horwood and the beautiful Carry Grant and ‘super model super car nut’ Jodie Kidd.
Each team shuffled along the runway till it was their turn to ‘take off’. Eventually it was our turn. Maybe it was the fact that we had to follow the record-busting Cullian Bird team, who flew for miles, but we literally stalled. Our mini-Harley Chopper had to be pushed over the 13 bus jump in our pre-jump performance. And to top that The Rocket Skycycle’s trip was a bit shorter than we hoped. My trip to St Marys hospital in Paddington to check out a minor arm injury, was longer. But in true ‘Evel Style’ I was rewarded a cool scar for my troubles.
Would I do it again? Yes, in a heartbeat. The moment may be short but the build and the build up is fantastic. Not even Madonna gets to fill Hyde Park and when you stand on that stage you feel ten feet tall.
As Evel Knievel once quoted, ‘Pain is temporary, Bones heal, Chicks Dig scars but Glory is Forever!’. How true. We sat back to watch the TV coverage and true-to-form the covering TV company forgot to include us. But don’t worry E4 fans we have some cool footage of us on the day and we will put it on our events website www.charityballevents.co.uk and a bit on the popular youtube site in the near future.
Well the Rocket is now sitting gathering dust in my back garden. The Evel suit goes into my extensive showbiz wardrobe but the moment lives forever. Our thanks to all at E4 who gave us the chance to shine I hope we did the purple crowd proud. Look in on us from time to time at the events website, I’m jumping a perfectly good Volkswagen ‘Herbie’ through a caravan in August at a motoring event. Here we go again…….
Phil ‘Hollywood ‘ Hatton
