I do think there is a Social change that is affecting all these things, not just shows, but "actual bodies doing stuff". So "audiences" are reducing (dying mostly...) as well as participants, leaving a smaller market for tool and machine sales, less money everywhere, and fewer who are even interested in seeing "stuff". - "If it isn't on Telly, it isn't worth wasting time with..." is a common problem.
No longer do we teach things in schools so the young kids get their hands dirty - even Cooking was deemed too dangerous to teach kids a couple f decades ago! - So there are 1 or 2 generations who cannot cook a meal!
So, mending a button off a shirt (I had to learn to get a sewing badge when I was 8 years old in the Cub Scouts), cooking Egg, bacon, fried bread, toast and a sausage (for the cooking badge, which wasn't possible until I was tall enough to stand at the cooker at 10!) are not skills that half the population of the UK can do.
As to machining... using a hacksaw and file or hammer and chisel to shape wood or metal... ? No way are young folk taught those dangerous tasks! - But when they are past 18 (and have their own place?) they can go to B & Q and buy power tools that can rip an arm off and use them without any tuition...
So if they don't know these things when young, VERY few will be interested later in life, so we are a dying breed.
I find that explaining "how an engine works" or "what the boiler does" is a foreign language to most who visit the local club tent on our open days.... The usual response (from people in their 40s or younger) is "Aah..., yes, My Grandfather did something like that, but he is long dead.". So we have already "lost" half the population as the people who could carry-on doing "our hobbies".
Sad, but that is the world as I see it.
There are more than a generation who cannot comprehend life without a mobile phone, or computer, TV, Cars, refrigerators, Central heating, pre-made meals, etc.
I heard of a lad (from work) with Indian parents, who went to India to meet all his relatives. He nearly had a breakdown because they only had electricity for 3 or 4 hours a day, mobile phones for an hour or so and internet for the same. As for running water, sewage management, hygiene, food, etc. - they sent him home after 2 weeks because he was ill with the stress...
But in India and other countries they do have wood and metal working skills and training of the young...
K2
No longer do we teach things in schools so the young kids get their hands dirty - even Cooking was deemed too dangerous to teach kids a couple f decades ago! - So there are 1 or 2 generations who cannot cook a meal!
So, mending a button off a shirt (I had to learn to get a sewing badge when I was 8 years old in the Cub Scouts), cooking Egg, bacon, fried bread, toast and a sausage (for the cooking badge, which wasn't possible until I was tall enough to stand at the cooker at 10!) are not skills that half the population of the UK can do.
As to machining... using a hacksaw and file or hammer and chisel to shape wood or metal... ? No way are young folk taught those dangerous tasks! - But when they are past 18 (and have their own place?) they can go to B & Q and buy power tools that can rip an arm off and use them without any tuition...
So if they don't know these things when young, VERY few will be interested later in life, so we are a dying breed.
I find that explaining "how an engine works" or "what the boiler does" is a foreign language to most who visit the local club tent on our open days.... The usual response (from people in their 40s or younger) is "Aah..., yes, My Grandfather did something like that, but he is long dead.". So we have already "lost" half the population as the people who could carry-on doing "our hobbies".
Sad, but that is the world as I see it.
There are more than a generation who cannot comprehend life without a mobile phone, or computer, TV, Cars, refrigerators, Central heating, pre-made meals, etc.
I heard of a lad (from work) with Indian parents, who went to India to meet all his relatives. He nearly had a breakdown because they only had electricity for 3 or 4 hours a day, mobile phones for an hour or so and internet for the same. As for running water, sewage management, hygiene, food, etc. - they sent him home after 2 weeks because he was ill with the stress...
But in India and other countries they do have wood and metal working skills and training of the young...
K2
