Crufts at the NEC, Birmingham
The West car park is preferred by most exhibitors, any others will mean a longish walk or get the shuttle bus into halls. Experience shows that its often easier to walk to nearest entrance to your hall from outside - hall 4 does have dog entry at 4.1 – trying to move through 1000s of people can be tough – so check on what hall entrances are close to you /car park. If just spectating then often best to go to one of perimeter car parks and get bus – easier to get out later, remember there is a mass exit from 4pm and it’s a week day so hitting rush hour around birmingham!
Get updated traffic info at http://www.trafficengland.com/map.aspx?long0=-192.3043589671317&lat0=3200.7488365561894&long1=22.903048440275825&lat1=3109.185785708732
Shopping – our advice is write a list and then note which halls the stands are in see http://www.crufts.org.uk/trade-exhibitors then you can walk direct to the relevant stands – otherwise you will simply go round and round!
Food – as with many places food at the event is very expensive and (generally) nothing special - taking own packed lunch is advisable – this also means you beat the queues.
Loos – for the ladies notorious for queues – there are a couple of loos in the car parks – take advantage of these. There are also loos in the piazza – where dogs cant go – so you can pop out through main doors and maybe find shorter queues there. Certainly don’t leave going to last minute – queues can be very long!!!!!
Car park – nothing to gain by paying at start of day – in fact for times when you are so late leaving (one of unwritten bonuses to getting BOB) the attendants all go home so you can get out free or pay on exit!
http://www.crufts.org.uk/
exhibitors guide - http://www.crufts.org.uk/files/kclub-crufts/crufts2010exhibinfo_0.pdf
http://www.dfscrufts.tv/ also televised on More 4 each evening http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dfs-crufts-2010
Words of caution – don’t leave your dogs unattended (or bags etc)! Watch out for publicity agents who may come up to you especially when you least expect it and start asking you questions which they later twist to use for their own gain, don’t feel pressurised to say or sign up to anything.
Enjoy it – especially those attending for the first time