It is 23 years since I last took my organ to a traction engine rally and I wondered if organ owners are still being treated with as little respect as they were then ?

I remember that the rally organisers looked upon organ owners as hobbyists and had no need to cover their costs in a real world way. There were expenses that hobbyists or not, had to be paid by the owners. There was fuel to get to the site, generator fuel coats, and a P.R.S. and M.C.P.S. license to both play and sell copyrighted music to keep the owner on the right side of the law. All these things had to be paid specifically to attend the organisers event and would not exist without having to go to a rally.

Additionally, if some daft daffodil of a steward, backed you into something belonging to someone else that was damaged as a result of his poor instructions, then the liability to repair was yours and not his, even though he was acting as an agent of the rally organisers, who also wanted public liability insurance to protect not only you, but also them if any accident, however caused, occured. They wanted everything and were prepared to pay virtually nothing.

All this was for the colossal payment then, of between £3 and £5 per playing hour. It was less than cleaners would get and they wouldn`t be expected to provide their own mop and bucket !

I just wondered if the organisers had were in the real world yet and if organ owners were still selling their services so cheaply.

Think you will find the situation is now much worse. I believe this is one of the reasons that larger original fair organs have practically vanished from our rally fields. We travelled a large 101 key Mortier for many years, but the down right penny pinching attitude of rally organisers and the complete indifference to the fair organs in general by them lead us to finish travelling.
We have now nearly completed the restoration of our 98 key Gaudin organ. I dought whether we shall bother putting it in a vehicle and travel it, probably opting for building it up in a museum or other attraction.
I think the rally organisers should hang there heads in shame for the devastation they have brought to the original fair organ movement in this country. They have no problem paying a group in the beer tent upwards of £300.00 for 3 hours entertainment in the evening, but refuse to pay a period attraction for playing 8 hours a day. This just shows were we are now with organisers knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Money was never a factor in owning an organ it was the fun for me and exhibiting it, after restoring and remounting a large Dean organ i was in my element. I got paid but it never covered the cost of fuel considering our outfit was over 7 tons. Organizers of a lot of the events where dam right rude and often pushed us from pitch to pitch one rally we moved 3 times over the week end, the last straw for me and her indoors (at the time) was so pushed around that we decided to go home, it was a small rally and we was invited we dint asked to go, so the knew the size and how loud it was, we have 12 outfits that came with us from the Mansfield and Sutton in Ashfield area we always travelled the same way and booked in all together and if one outfit was refused we all was, we all travelled this way because if anyone had a problem there was always someone to fix/sort things. We was like the small rally on the move, anyways when others spotted me pulling off site my radio (cb) we all had them went daft I was asked to pull over and wait a minute, about 20 minutes later I could see convoy of caravans trucks and so on was pulling off as a convoy, just as we arrived , we ditched all our respected exhibits back where they belonged and went camping in Matlock, best weekend we ever had and I’ve never exhibited since and don’t think I will again.

The organizers did ring me as others was packing up and apologized and asked us to come back but like I told them I didn’t spend thousands a year to rally to be treated like a slave to them. Anyways sorry about all that but if you wont to make cash with your organ forget it. Best way to make money and be stress free at the weekend is sell your organ and go camping its cheaper more fun best of all you can pack up and move when you want without someone telling you.