What actually happens at your first truck show

Nobody is born knowing what a show and shine is. If you have ever watched a convoy of polished lorries rolling down the A-road on a Saturday morning and wondered where they were all going, the answer is a truck show, and you are allowed in for roughly the price of a cinema ticket.

This guide covers what actually happens at one, how the giant Truckfest events differ from a local show, what it costs, what to bring, and how to talk to drivers and take photos after dark without getting on anyone's nerves. Bring ear defenders for the kids. That will make sense shortly.

What a truck show actually is

Strip away the detail and a truck show is simple. Working lorries, cleaned to a level that seems medically unwise, parked in rows on a showground for you to walk around. The heart of it is the show and shine. Owners arrive the night before or at dawn, spend hours polishing, then park up in their lines and wait for the judges.

Judging covers paint, chrome, interiors and general condition, with classes for things like best fleet, best working truck and best interior. The important word is working. Most of these trucks were pulling a trailer on Friday and will be again on Monday morning. The bloke buffing a fuel tank at half seven did his actual job all week first.

Around the edges you get trade stalls selling truck parts, lights, air horns, model trucks and hoodies, plus food vans, a funfair at the bigger events, and usually an arena with something going on in it through the day.

Stay for dusk, that is the good bit

If the show runs into the evening, or it is a weekender with camping, stay. As the light drops, the trucks light up. Roof bars, rows of side markers, and inside the cabs the light boards: backlit panels behind the seats, often airbrushed with the driver's own artwork, glowing out through the windscreen.

Engines get started, V8s get revved, air horns answer each other across the field. It is loud, slightly daft, and easily the most photogenic part of any truck show. Day visitors who head home at four have not really seen the show.

Convoys and truck runs

Plenty of events begin with a convoy. The trucks meet somewhere, often a truck stop or an industrial estate, then run to the showground in one long line with horns going and people watching from every bridge on the route. Some events are the run: charity truck runs where the convoy is the whole point and the field at the end is mostly a car park with chips.

If your show has a convoy arrival, check the route and timing on the event page beforehand. A bridge over the route is the best free seat in the house, and a small child on a bridge above sixty decorated lorries is a core memory in the making.

Truckfest versus the smaller shows

Truckfest is the big one. The original at Peterborough each May pulls in around two thousand trucks, plus monster trucks, stunt teams, drivers off the telly and a full funfair. There are regional editions too, including Truckfest Scotland in August. It is a spectacle and it is busy. Queues to get in, queues for chips, and a lot of walking.

Smaller shows are a different day out, and there are dozens of them through the season, from dedicated truck gatherings to steam rallies with a strong commercial section. You can get close to the trucks, actually talk to the owners, and see everything without a route march. Entry is cheaper and the burger queue is shorter.

Honest advice for a first visit: either works. Go to Truckfest if you want the full circus. Go to a local show if you want to stand next to a Scania and chat to the person who drives it. If older metal is your thing, the Retro Truck Show at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon each September is the one for classics, and Convoy in the Park at Donington Park adds actual truck racing to the mix.

What it costs

Smaller shows generally run £5 to £15 for an adult on the gate, with kids free or a couple of quid, and parking free in a field. A family can get through the gate for under £30.

Truckfest is more like £30 an adult on the gate, noticeably less booked in advance, with kids' and family tickets available and weekend camping options on top. Parking is usually included.

Then the extras. A burger and chips from the van is £8 to £10 these days, the programme is a few pounds and often goes to charity, and the trade stalls will cheerfully relieve you of whatever is left. Card readers are common now but showground phone signal is not, so bring cash. The charity bucket at the gate only takes cash anyway.

What to bring

Not much, but the right stuff makes the difference between a great day and a long one.

• Ear defenders for kids. Air horns and revved V8s are genuinely loud, and the dusk horn battles more so.
• Boots or wellies if it has rained that week. Showground grass turns to soup under a few hundred trucks.
• Sun cream and a hat. There is no shade on a showground.
• Layers if you are staying for the light show. A warm May afternoon becomes a cold May night.
• Cash for the burger van, the programme and the charity buckets.
• A camping chair if you plan to sit by the arena for a bit.
• A torch for finding the car afterwards, because the light show ends and the car park is very dark.

How to talk to drivers without being a nuisance

Most exhibitors are friendly and quietly delighted that you have come to look at their truck. A few basics keep it that way.

Never touch. No leaning on paintwork, no belt buckles against polished tanks, no letting kids climb the steps. Someone spent last night getting that mirror finish. And if a driver is head down polishing, or the judges are working their way along the line, wait for a better moment.

After that, just ask about the truck. What is it, what work does it do in the week, how long did the interior take. Ten minutes by a cab step teaches you more than a year of YouTube. Kids often get invited up into the cab, which will be the highlight of their day, but let the invitation come from the driver or ask first, and never lift a child onto someone's truck uninvited. One last rule: do not ask what it all cost. They know, to the penny, and they are not telling you.

Photography at night, and light board manners

Light boards and full exterior lights photograph best at dusk rather than in full dark, while there is still some blue left in the sky. Get in position before the last light goes.

No flash. It flattens the exact thing you came to photograph and it is irritating for everyone else stood around the truck. Brace against something solid or push the ISO up instead.

Ask before putting a lens through an open window or door, even when the cab is lit up like a fairground and clearly meant to be admired. If you are using a tripod, take your shot and move on, the walkway is not yours. And if you get a good one, share it. Most drivers would love to see it, so ask for the fleet's page or the show's hashtag and tag them. Photographers who share their shots get invited back to shoot interiors. That is how it works.