Van Build Off Competition

[TheWesleyElder]

Hi everyone!

Really weird thing we're doing, but we're holding a festival called Gutted where 3 teams compete to renovate a van, an RV and a skoolie over 5 days in the Great Sand Dunes of Colorado. We have several travel creators who will be on the teams, holding panels and just attending, so I wanted to make sure I posted over here, too. 

If it's something you want to come watch, go see the Dunes and meet up with other van dwellers, then come on out! This is our first year doing it, so we're working through all sorts of things (especially post-covid), but it's looking to be a great event.

https://guttedevent.com/

Hope to see you there! Ask me any questions either here, or you can reach me directly at [email protected].

Thanks!

Wesley

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[highdesertranger]

Does it cost anything to come and watch?

Highdesertranger

 

[TheWesleyElder]

Hey!

Yeah, we have a ticket fee since we're providing private land for the 5 days, paying our competitors, having to buy the materials/rigs, etc. We're strictly trying to cover our cost, haha.

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Wesley!

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started. 

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

For all who don't want to click on the link: the price is $175.00 per person for the five days. $150.00 for early birds purchasers

 

[highdesertranger]

Well how much? What's included with the ticket price?
sewage disposal?
port-a-potties?
Trash pick up?
Water?
Power?
Shade?
Entertainment?
Food?

What's in the area?
Shopping?
Things to do?

expected temps?

Is there a cap on attendance?

Covid restrictions?

Highdesertranger

 

[TheWesleyElder]

Really great questions, love it! We have a lot of information on our website at guttedevent.com, but I'll answer some of these here too. Some of the questions aren't directly answered on the site yet.

- Ticket price: $150 per person. Includes a lot of stuff from the competition, group trips to the Dunes, Mt. Blanca and other places, dry docking campsite, different panels through the week with van life/rv creators and influencers, and more activities.
- Sewage: we're trying to either have a service come once during the week to service any vehicles that need it or work with a nearby campground for easy dumps.
- Port-a-potties: yes, should have plenty.
- Trash pick-up: planning on having 2-3 large 40ft closed dumpsters on site.
- Water & power: it'll be dry docking. We're hoping on year 2 having water and power options.
- Shade: we have 160 acres private property that we're renting, but there isn't any shade. Bring the awning! We might have rest tents set up.
- Entertainment: that's a little bit tied to above, but we're planning plenty of activities.
- Food: planning on having food trucks on site each day. 
- What's in the area? Alamosa is the nearest city if you want to go and walk through the downtown. It's a nice little mountain town. There are the Great Sand Dunes 10 minutes from our site, that's easily a day or 2 day trip. Mt. Blanca, a 14er right across the street from our site. Zapata Falls, a nice waterfall to go see and explore. Sandboarding on the Dunes. We're trying to make sure there's plenty in the area, but plenty to do on site.
- Expected temp: Right now, looks like it's a pretty big swing of a high of 81 and a low of 40 most days. 
- Cap on attendance: Yes, it's limited supply. We're looking at between 1500-2000 attendees.
- Covid: we're hoping that by the time September is here, the vaccination rate continues to climb, but we will have washing stations on site and planning on hand sanitizer stations throughout. With it primarily being outdoor too, that makes it a lot less of an issue.

Hopefully that gives you a good idea of what to expect! We're literally making a "What to Expect" page for the site that should be up soon. Thanks for the great questions!

 

[barleyguy]

Interesting event. Just want to say that I love Alamosa and Sand Dunes National Park. I spent about a month near there in 2019, in late September through late October. It does get chilly at night. In September it may be just above freezing. Also, you can get sand mixed with wind. That is exactly how sand dunes form after all.

If anybody has a telescope, I recommend bringing it. The sand dunes are very dark at night, so there are lots of stars to look at.

Oh, question: What's the pet policy? I do not travel without my dog.

 

[TheWesleyElder]

It's a beautiful area! Yes to the telescopes. I'm hoping we can get a few and bring them or something.

We LOVE pets! I'm bringing my dog too. As long as they're trained/good with people, then that's fine. Probably gotta draw the line at, you know, Tigers and things.

 

[Scott3569]

Ahhh man I bet that would be fun.. wish I was on the road

 

[TheWesleyElder]

Ahhh man I bet that would be fun.. wish I was on the road

You're able to pitch a tent, if you'd like to come.  It's not required to have a rig yet.

 

[Cammalu]

The vans that will be built out, I don’t know what you have in mind but HOWA gives out vans. I wonder would you all care to build out for HOWA for the competition. Perhaps something could be worked out. (I’m not part of HOWA btw).

 

[flying kurbmaster]

So is it five days, five nights or five days three nights? Are the teams building out a van an rv and a schoolie each or each team builds one of them, what happens to the build outs afterwards are they auctioned off, raffled? Who decides who wins if this is a competition, can anyone enter a team, if so what are the rules. What is a travel creator? What do you win if your team wins?

 

[TheWesleyElder]

The vans that will be built out, I don’t know what you have in mind but HOWA gives out vans. I wonder would you all care to build out for HOWA for the competition. Perhaps something could be worked out. (I’m not part of HOWA btw).

We've already purchased an RV, still have to source a van and a school bus. I'm not opposed to building out a HOWA van! It does have to be one of the larger sprinter vans so that we can get close in sq footage to the skoolie/RV.

 

[TheWesleyElder]

So is it five days, five nights or five days three nights? Are the teams building out a van an rv and a schoolie each or each team builds one of them, what happens to the build outs afterwards are they auctioned off, raffled? Who decides who wins if this is a competition, can anyone enter a team, if so what are the rules. What is a travel creator? What do you win if your team wins?

So, it's 1 van, 1 RV, and 1 skoolie. Those are the 3 teams. The RV will be gutted in advance, the skoolie and van will be prepped some to get them up to speed with the RV to have a similar starting point.

It's closer to like, 4.3 days. 5 days, 4 nights. They can build 24/7, at any time that they want. 

We're auctioning one off to donate to a non-profit. We're giving one away. And we're turning one into a community vehicle that changes hands throughout the next year.

We will have judges on site that have criteria and then we will have audience choice voting as well. Teams are limited to us choosing them this year and there will be "auditions" during the week for next year. 

By travel creator, we mean van lifers and RVers who are on YouTube/Instagram, etc.

You win glory this year! And a trophy. We're paying everyone to participate, so there isn't a cash prize.

 

[wayne49]

Leaving out the vital word "content", which gives the context between the words "travel" and "creator".

They create content about travel.

"Travel Creators On Wheels" though has a good acronym, TCOWS.

 

[crofter]

...They create content about travel.

"Travel Creators On Wheels" though has a good acronym, TCOWS.

Otherwise would be stuttering TCCOWS.

Sounds like more sponsors are needed so the event could be free to attendees like RTR and CRVL build events.
-crofter