The Trip Out 2026
The Meyer Dancers, no rain and a sudden loss of oil pressure.
All went well until the old Shovel was 70 kilometers from home. Then there was this enormous cloud of white smoke in the headlights of the cars behind us, and the red light came flickering on. Oh, shit!
Scroll back 48 hours: the old Shovel with luck dodged a couple of downpours, found its way across lovely Kent and East Anglia, and rolled into the huge and bucolic grounds of Euston Park. What a relief. Almost 900 kilometers of lorry infested motorways and a windy channel crossing lay behind us. Hundreds of tents were scattered in the sweeping grounds, the rattle, bark and rumble of big engines filling the air. Ah, to be back at the Trip Out!
Set up the tent under a blazing sun on the ground still damp from the morning’s rain. Stroll over to some gentle people we met before, have a chat, have a beer. If this isn’t heaven, then I don’t know.
The collection of hand made chops congregating here once a year
is something to behold. Nowhere else do you get this mix of hard driven chopped Harleys, Triumphs, BSAs and Indians (we even spotted a Nimbus!), some of them barely holding together by the sheer willpower of their owners, others immaculately built and maintained by obvious masters of their craft. Add to this the eclectic music emanating from the main marquee, the iconic and lovely Meyer Dancers doing their thing between the music acts, the wacky merch in the Trip Out shop and the very welcome chill out lounge, and you have the Trip Out in a nutshell.
Ah, forgot the beer! And the swap meet!
And all the lovely people! Uncrowded as a bike / music festival can be thanks to the really amazing vastness of the grounds, still loads of interesting bikes and people to see and meet. Hard to beat, we think.
Getting home again wasn’t fun, with the engine spitting out all of its hot engine oil in the middle of the night on the motorway. But that’s another story.
See you again next year at the Trip Out!