Stormin’ The Castle
Stormin’ is organised by a group of bikers, the majority of whom are 30 & 40+ yr veterans of the bike scene and rally-goers themselves.
The organising committee are a group of ten well meaning idiots from various walks of life who get together each year from December the previous year to organise the rally which takes place over the weekend following the August Bank Holiday.
Stormin’ The Castle Ltd is a company registered with Companies House. The company was set up in order to protect the organisers from any financial liability should the rally make a serious loss. The profits from the rally are given to the Motorcycle Action Group (MAG) in order to finance its campaigns against anti-motorcycle legislation such as the compulsory wearing of day-glo clothing and anti-tampering legislation, ULEZ etc.
So why do we put on the event for no personal gain? The answer is simple really, the rally was started in 1991 by a group of North East MAG members who wanted to raise money for MAG but also to put on a good party for bikers whether they were MAG members or not. Stormin is no longer run by MAG, now it is run by a group of bikers who wanted to keep the party going.
The event has continued in that tradition ever since and when the Company was formed it was written into its Memorandum of Association that ‘no portion (of the income) shall be paid…… to members of the company (and no member of its Board shall be appointed to any office…. paid by salary or fees or receive any remuneration…. from the Company). Therefore the event is run by volunteers.
As well as the organising committee, each year over one hundred people turn up to help build-up, run and take down the event, without these dedicated volunteers the event simply would not take place so please treat these people with the respect they deserve if you need to speak to them, a cheerful wave as you are leaving is really appreciated by our marshals. I once asked the Committee Members why they continued to work to keep the event going. The general synopsis was that they all loved the event and wanted it to continue.
People also said that they enjoyed going to other rallies so if nobody was willing to organise them the rally scene just wouldn’t exist. Also I think we all get a ‘buzz’ out of building up the event starting with an empty field and ending up with the equivalent of a small town then seeing everyone arrive, have a good weekend then leave with a friendly wave on the Sunday. Then we can get on with the bit we all hate – taking it all down and putting it away for next year.
