ABOUT SHAKEDOWN

Us/We/They/Them

Shakedown started in 2013 as a collaboration of like-minded scooterists from a variety of Clubs, who got together to put on a great weekend at the end of the year - 'to create an event which they themselves would like to attend'.

We run the Shakedown Winter Scooter Rally and occasional pop-up rallies, such as Summercamp.

Individuals in the organising team have come and gone over the years (it's a big commitment!), but we are immensely proud of everyone who has been a part of developing Shakedown into what it is today.

The current Team are:

Becks | Neil Carter | Simon Collard | Kevin Irvine | Mark Traverse

Please feel free to contact any of us directly for more information on what we do and our events.

We also owe an enormous debt of gratitude to..

Susanne Daly | Jamie Hall | Chris Gumbley | Paul Foster | Danny Mason

OUR HISTORY

Some years ago a bunch of Kent & Sussex Scooterists gathered again at an early season rally in Dorset, enjoying another weekend of rally-going, safe in the knowledge they had a roof over their heads in the poor march weather. They all loved summer camping rallies, but an out of season covered rally was dear to their hearts.

The Camber Sands Winter Rally had ended and options had dwindled to the further-flung Winter Rallies of the South West. A long way for local scooterists to get together.

So the germ of an idea was born. Why couldn’t the South East have its own Winter Scooter Rally?

A group was formed from scooter clubs across the South Coast, and a neat caravan park near Hastings was found, set around a lake in the rolling Sussex countryside. Some may remember riding out to Coghurst Hall with the Saxons 1066 SC.

Park Holidays agreed to host the first Shakedown Winter Scooter Rally in 2014. They agreed a fantastic accommodation deal which meant a great value, top notch weekend could be offered.

An immediate success with scooterists, the atmosphere was electric, friendly, and everyone had a good old party. More surprising was the way everyone immediately made this first Rally their own - the event was cemented in the calendar.

The Rally has moved from Coghurst Hall, for a while at Winchelsea Sands near Rye, then New Beach in Dymchurch. Now at Harts Holiday Park on Isle of Sheppey.

This has been 'needs must' to keep the event going when holiday parks have changed their business models for fewer caravans - but we think it keeps the sense of adventure alive - and most scooterists like the 'road less travelled'.

So now in 2024, having just held it's tenth anniversary, our relationship with Park Holidays is still strong and attendees come from far and wide, you'll be rubbing shoulders with good old friends and making new ones.

Just attend once and you are Shakedown family
Don't take our word for it - try it

OUR ETHOS

We're all about bringing everyone together and helping create a 'family-like' atmosphere.

We love the mixing of groups and we love what clubs can do as a whole to create the fun with fancy dress and general shenanigans.

While there have been massive pressures over the years on prices, we do everything we can to keep our prices as low as they can be. For a party of 6-8 we are still £100 cheaper than Camber was 14 years ago.

Quality of entertainment is really important to us, we don't want to waste money on the top-tier bands such as The Beat and From The Jam, but we do want you to experience the best of the mid-tier which are often superior anyway.

While we may sometimes bring back bands who have left an impression, we do go looking for bands you won't yet have seen yet on the circuit - these are often next up on the summer rallies.

Sometimes we throw in real 'odd-balls' for a bit of a laugh - we even had a BGT winner Lorraine Bowen with her ironing board at one event.

We put a lot of effort into our productions, particularly our sound equipment - there's nothing worse than a room full of people with a muffled sound.

Our music policy is 'across the board' - we are a wide variety of people with different tastes, but you should hear a bit of what you like best. From time to time we may home in on a specific genre such as northern soul or we've even done 'Old School 90's Dancefloor'

By November everyone will have had their fill of Scooter Rallies, so we like to think of this as a party rather than a traditional Rally. We don't waste our energies on Scooter Shows, Rideouts and trying to get Scooter Parts Traders - you can get that in August on the IoW.

If there's one thing we want is that Shakedown continues to be an event where precious Scooterist culture can be found.