The world's premier dog show, Crufts 1999, which took place at the
National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, on the 11th to 14th of March, welcomed
an international audience to the largest celebration of dogs on earth.
Innocence Abroad:
Our First Crufts
By H. Cavanaugh
Facilities and Amenities
The Birmingham NEC is capacious enough to facilitate several events simultaneously. Crufts took five halls, while eleven others were given over to other displays and shows. Free buses shuttled visitors and exhibitors with their dogs from vast outlying car parks. Each hall contains judging rings, benching and grooming areas, vendor stalls (350 of them), food stands, dog food company displays, restaurants, and lavatories. Despite the vast size and resources of the venue, every hall was mobbed, and loo lines were often desperately long.
As long as I am discussing amenities, a word about the food stands and restaurants is in order. Dog-show food seems to be universally awful and overpriced, but the English have lifted the art of producing outrageously expensive and odd (by American tastes) show cuisine to a new level. For instance, an 8-ounce container of cauliflower soup was going for 2.99 pounds, which would be about $5.10 in US dollars. British sandwiches seem peculiar to the American palate, even if the ingredients are familiar: tuna and sweet corn, cheese and onion, grape and cream cheese, and so on. Other oddities were grilled cheese and salsa sandwiches (squashed flat in a press like a waffle iron), curry dogs, and French fries (called chips) with mayonnaise. Most cooked food in the cafeterias wallowed in puddles of grease and looked grossly unappetizing. In general, food and drink are expensive in Britain, a six-ounce cup of coffee at Burger King on the motorway clocking in at 1.50 pounds, or about $2.75.
More from "Innocence Abroad" ...
Judging
The Exhibitors
Spays and Neuters
Facilities and Amenities
Discover Dogs
Additional Events
Spectators
Cell Phones
Gleaming Brass Horns
Photographers
Final Thoughts
History of Crufts
