Ias seen in issue 205 of 100% Biker

 

In my year of “let’s try and attend as many new events as possible” on a very busy weekend for events in the south I headed towards the coast and the Bongo Bash now in its sixth year. The event being held at the six bells at Chiddingly a popular pub for motorcyclists in East Sussex.

 

I was welcomed with a warm but slightly squishy welcome, as the previous day had seen our spell of glorious weather end in spectacular fashion, but a downpour did not dampen the revellers spirits and there was a great range of cars and bikes on show.

 

And for some reason I never quite got to the bottom of lots of people dressed as pirates, in fact the layout of the campsite reminded me very much of the small harbours and villages that you see in pirate films and gave the whole event a unique feel and you will all be glad I am not going to try and head into pirate speak again following this years earlier attempts.

 

Organised by a small group of friends the event is run for charity for children’s charities in Sussex. And it seems everyone chips in, from people who had run marathons for the cause, to throwing wet sponges at people, to a young girl having her hair cut off and then her dad having spikes and beard removed, much to the pleasure of his good lady, for an impressive impromptu £250.

 

Equally impressive were the collection of cars, bikes and trikes entered into the show and the enthusiasm of the attendees to partake in silly games. Usually it is a thankless task to find even one or two to play games, here whole teams fought over the spoils in the Bongo Olympics and were very keen to get wet, covered in gunk or to pull a full sized hot wheels car (which sounded lush with a  fully blown engine and sidepipes). There was even an interesting variation on sack racing, well no one ever said you had to stand in the sack.

 

The awards I can remember were best American to the 1960’s Ford Mustang, Best Trike to the V8 Yellow trike and Best Bike in show and chop to the lovely red bandit owned by a NCC member. There were also trophies for spirit of the bongo which I thought was a great idea.

  

Well done on a fabulous event, relaxed chilled out and smiling spot on