The Redbull Soapbox Race is a highlight of the London summer scene. It’s fun, wacky, competitive but at the same time not too serious. It’s a great day out, and not to be missed.
The London Life section of this blog has been a bit quite of late, and for that I apologise. Saving for a house/flat kind of kills your social life a bit … or at least reduces the amount you can get out and explore this great city I call home. There are some days I get out though :)
Whilst I’m not the biggest fan of the drink itself (whereas my sister lives off the stuff), I am a massive fan of what Redbull do with regards to sports. The Air Race, Cliff Diving and most recently the Crashed Ice series are all a seriously exciting watch … on TV.
That’s the difference though isn’t it, experiencing sport in person is always much more exciting. Being a part of the event and making up a part of the crowd that gathers to cheer on their favoured individual or team and watching them compete, whilst also involved in your own form of competition with and rivals spectators.
Rivals is maybe too strong a’ world, but hopefully you know what I mean in terms of different sets of fans all supporting and cheering for their favoured individual athlete or team, and drumming up a superior atmosphere to that of you living room sofa. Sorry but it’s true, live sports is far superior to watching it on the box.
The Redbull Soap Box Race @ Alexandra Palace
So to the Redbull Soap Box Race … live!
Having watched the previous years race on the TV from home and thoroughly enjoying, this year I took it once step further and invested in tickets to attend the race in person and take my enjoyment of the event to the next level.
I wasn’t alone mind, in tow I had the parents and girlfriend, and we set off early doors from our respective homes in West London in order to make it to Alexandra palace in time for the opening of the gates, circa 10.30am. Who cares if the forecast was indicating a 70% chance of rain, like thousands of others we arrived at Wood Green underground station in North London, and make the so called 10 minute journey up the hill to Alexandra palace.
In reality it was more like a half hour walk and all uphill. Long!
There was a bit of a queue to get in the race site, but in all fairness it didn’t take long at all to get to the front and we were soon inside the gates and ready to explore the race site, which surprisingly had quite a lot to offer in addition to the race itself.
Pre Race Pits
Whilst others queued up for a late morning burger and beer (too early for me), or made their way to find the ‘best’ spot to stand along the race course, our party of four made a dash for the still quiet pit lanes.
First up we spotted this race nice looking automobile which apparently goes rather fast!
… and then we found this collection of 4 wheeled specimens, which didn’t go quite as fast, but which looked utterly fantastic and provided many an entertaining photographic opportunity. These were of course the soapboxes to take part in the race, and their incredibly talented designers/builders/engineers. Well played boys and girls!
What is a soapbox though? They all look great right, but what defines these amazingly creative and beautiful vehicles as a soapbox?
Here’s the official line from the Redbull website …
Each hand-made machine is fuelled by nothing but sheer courage, the force of gravity and perhaps a little Red Bull
The key word there is ‘gravity’. Look up the word Soapbox on Google and you might well find it accompanied by the term ‘gravity racer’. A soapbox is essentially a non motorised race vehicle, and with this Redbull race specifically, the different teams had to build their racers to within certain dimensions.
You’d think at this point I would tell you said dimensions, but in truth I don’t actually know them and can’t see them as being more important than the Frozen outfit the fella in the photo above is wearing. Magical right!?
All in all 64 different soapboxes were to take part in the race, and as per above they were all brilliantly themed and accompanied by some great costumes and acting skills. Some teams really got into character which really added to the occasion, and certainly kept the kids in the crowd happy.
The different soapboxes really were works of art, it was almost difficult to walk around the pits and admire them, knowing that in less than an hour, any number of them might had become a smouldering wreck at the hands of the race course and any one of its five obstacles.
Food and Drinks
Having left the pits behind it was of course time to stock up on a bit of food and drink before searching out a good spot to catch the race action. There was the option to BYO food and drink (except no canned drinks other than Redbull were allowed inside the gate) to The Redbull Soapbox Race, or you could treat yourself and indulge in any number of pop up food stands and bar.
We did a mix of the two, bringing a couple of sandwiches, but also tucking into a burrito and beer bought from the stalls on site, Tasty!
The Race
By the time we had bought food, consumer it, and then found a spot alongside the track to set out our picnic blanket, it was pretty much time for the race to start.
The crowds lining the track were now 5 or 6 people deep, so views were at a premium, but the organisers were good/smart enough to erect a number of large screens on site so that we wouldn’t miss any of the action, and the action came thick and fast! No sooner had the first soapbox made it’s attempt at navigating the 420 metre long course, than we had our first spectacular crash of the day with the Tuteneska team crashing over the Bone Rattler and skidding into one of the hay-bale barriers which lines the track. The Bone Rattler had claimed it’s first victim for the day.
So I guess a ‘race’ would actually be incorrect in terms of how the soapboxes made their way down the track. It was more like time trials, but while also navigate obstacles. Whilst a race would have been great to see in terms of witnessing overtaking etc, I think the time trial format gave all of us in attendance a much better viewing of each of the different soapboxes. I also think it would have been a little gutting for any of the teams and drivers had they crashed out of a race at the hands of another team. At least in the time trial format their fate was in their own hands once they had exited the starting gate below and commenced their 420 metre decent to the finish line.
The best crashes
So that crash by the Tuteneska team I was talking about earlier, yeah you can catch here at 0.54. The most I watch it the more brutal it looks!
The winning soap box
Want to know which team won The Redbull Soapbox Race and how? Simply press play.
Judged not just on speed down the course, but creativity and showmanship by a panel of 4 judges, this effort from the Breakfast Club is really worth watching due to the creativity that went into the design of their soapbox. On the day it was entirely unique and stood out a mile.
2016?
There has been no official word on a 2016 race in London next year, but on the basis of a massive 20,000 people attending this year I would presume the event would be repeated.
****UPDATE – FROM OFFICIAL REDBULL WEBSITE*****
Red Bull Soapbox London is taking a break in 2016, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of wacky races happening all over the globe.
To tide you over until Soapbox returns to London in 2017, we’ve gathered the craziest outfits, vehicles and entrants from the past year. Enjoy!
Cost
Adult tickets for the event were £9.00 per person. Considering the event was almost 6 hours long, it represented pretty good value.
The cost of food and drink was of course fairly expensive. A burrito was £8 and a pint of beer £5.
Where
The 2015 race took place at Alexandra Palace in north London. See the map below for a more specific idea of the race location.
The Redbull Soapbox Race – A good family day out
All in all The Redbull Soapbox Race was a really enjoyable day out in London town. Something fun and a little bit different. The atmosphere at the event was a fun and lively one, and the ‘race’ itself was great watch.
Would I go again? Yes I would … but I would highly recommend that if a 2016 event were to take place, Redbull and their security team review their site exit strategy. Making people, some of whom were on crutches or in a wheelchair, to travel all the way back to the top of the hill in order to exit the race site seems ridiculous. There were lots of p*ssed off punters towards the end of the day who simply wanted to get the train home via the bottom of the hill and finish line, but who were made to walk back up to the starting gate and all the way around Alexandra Palace. Truth be told it was starting to turn a bit ugly as we made our exit, with people barging past security and trying to climb the locked gates, and it was hard to argue with the punters who just wanted to go home via the quickest route. Presumably the event organisers had a reason for not allowing people to exit via the bottom of the hill, but I’m struggling to think of what it might have been.
Fingers crossed for an improvement in that area of what was a very exciting and enjoyable event, come the 2016 edition.
me and my two kids traveled down from Glasgow for the gig
was a great event
but sadly went all the way back home with not even a poster for the wall
a merchandise stall (t-shirts) would have been great.
@Jason – Cool, glad you guys had a great time! Yeah there were a few strange decisions around the event, lack of mechanise being one, and the refusal to let anyone out of the bottom gate. I did wonder if each of the teams might try sell their own t-shirts, but then maybe Redbull doesnt allow them to.
what agreat site really helpful, i’m trying to find out if there will be soap box race in 2016, i would like to build a saopbox and take part, but been unable to find any site saying if it will happen this year, would be grateful for any information you may be able to give,
many thanks,
Mike,
@Michael – Thanks very much, glad you enjoyed the post. I’n afraid I do not have any info on a race in 2016. Probably the best thing to do would be to contact Redbull directly via either Facebook or Twitter.
I would love to go to the London 2017 ? Are there any details available of the event yet please ?
@Emily – Best to check the redbull official site for details. Afraid I’m not privy to any early details.
Thankyou! Very helpful review, as trying to decide whether to book for the 2017 races for the family (the kids will be 16 & 13), or just for my husband and myself. Was going to book as a surprise (once the tickets are available), but now realise I definitely need to check with the kids whether they’d be up for the 6 hours and the hill. If they’re not that keen they’ll be winging after a couple of hours and will spoil the whole trip!
@Tamzen – in truth the hours flew by, but appreciate we were a group of just adults and that a day out with little ones is a whole different ball game. If you do go to the 2017 race I hope you have a great time.
Thanks for the review Neil. I was wanting to get an idea of ticket prices, and you’ve answered the question. I’ve registered to get an email as soon as the 2017 tickets go on sale, and having read your blog, I’m sure my husband will have a wonderful birthday surprise! We’ve watched the race on tv, but it’s great to get an idea of how the day pans out, timings, facilities etc. Let’s just hope they open the bottom gates this year!
@Nicki – hope you all have a great time!
Thanks for the review. I’m hoping to attend the 2017 event. What time did you say the event finished last year? How long do you think it would take to get back to Kings Cross afterwards? Just working out what time advanced purchase train ticket to buy from KX to Leeds on the Sunday evening.
@Andy – Admittedly we didn’t stay for the award ceremony, we left around 5pm, but I dare say the bars and food stands stay open for a good hour after that. In terms of getting back to Kings X I would say allow up to an hour again. Getting out of the venue and then walking to the nearest station took at least 30+ mins from memory.
Thanks for the review,I’ve got 4 tickets for this year, however all have different ‘seat numbers’ on them, do I just ignore these? I’ve never been before!!!
@Kate – There was no arranged seating when I visited, so thats a new one on me. We simply put our picnic blanket down where we found a nice space and a good view.
What time did the racing start?
@Dan – Fairly sure it had started by midday, if not earlier.
Hi,
We are attending today, travelling with a 7 week old, aware won’t be at the front of the barriers an know there is picnic areas so will spend most of my time there while others are off watching but could we take a pushchair in or is it better to carry?
@Sarah – Lots of people with pushchairs the year we attended. Big hill to climb on the way up too, so maybe best to push them up in a chair rather than ask them to walk.
Many thanks for this,Neil. Thinking of booking the 2019 R B Soapbox event at Ally Pally for friends with 8 & 13 year olds. I found your blog very useful, informative & enjoyable to read.
Best wishes
Caroline
@Caroline – glad it helped! Hope you guys have a great time.