Well, if you do not mind i could share my experience with our local contest.
I hear some negative voices here because of the IAPLC publicity issues, but usually the local contest are not that hard. People still do journals and they post pictures there on their progress. Maybe they stop publishing 1-2 month before the contest just to have a better result, but you have an idea how they are doing.
Contests not equal with hiding works. That's important.
Other might learn a lot form the journals which is really helpful by the way, but the person itself learn the same to prepping to these events. When you have goals and targets you need to do much better.
Quick example last year from our small contest more than half of the aquariums had algae issues. This year probably only the last few tanks. Plants are much healthier, people think more about planting, and harmony. There are also crazy ideas sometime from individuals. Which is good in overall.
Contests are good. Really helps to move forward, do better. And at the end we all have the best moment from that tank which is amazing to see anytime in the future.
These tanks gives great inspiration to newcomers, shows them this is all possible to do. Will have more active members at the end.
Hungary is a poor country compare to UK. And the economy is in a bad position. So money should not be an issue here.
UK planted scene is more experienced and the scene itself is older much larger, but i feels that the hobby is a bit burnt. This happens with many creative tasks after a time. We're much younger, but we do many stuff to keep the fire burning. This is not an easy task anyway. Back to the original post local competitions keep this fire burning.
With target, goals a bit of a race, seeing these journals in progress makes the whole thing more exciting. Many of us do not have real chances on the largest contests because of the big guns. But local contest is different. This was the reason to keep our contest allowed for local guys only. Just like Poland contest.
We also select the winner to our judge panel next year. So the winner will be different for sure every year.
😉
I do not know what will happen 5 years later, how we can keep up the interest in long term, but sometime need a boost, an inspiration to put things back on track. UKAPS need a bit of that around this time. You have great talents, amazing scapers, brilliant works and past achievments. Some people would be more active in the journals if you would have a contest i guess. People who probably burnt might would turn back to the hobby again.
I would be the first person to vote for a UK contest for sure. Seeing your works in their best form would be inspiration to many of us. There are not just 4-5 talented guys here. Keep the fire burning guys.
ps: sorry for beeing long
😉