Making a bet with friends can be a bit dangerous, but it can also produce something wonderful. Fabrice Laligant made a bet with his friends at Avallon club about whether or not they could create a huge agility event in Avallon, a really small town far away from any big towns. There’s definitely no lack of big agility events in Europe and some become more popular than others. Avallon Cup is probably one of the biggest as this year they expect 1500 competitors from all over the world (last year from 26 countries!) to compete for 4 days on 4 fields. But how can this be done?

In the beginning, everything was uncertain

“In Avallon club, we are passionate about horses, riding, rodeos, sports, especially American sports, and shows. There is one thing that American sport has long understood: a sporting event is inconceivable without a show that accompanies it. One cannot be without the other, the two are complementary.” That was the starting point for Avallon Cup.

Fabrice and his friends had a lot of uncertainties, to begin with: “Would we be able to adapt this format to an agility competition? Would we be able to attract competitors from all over the world to our small town of Avallon? Will it be possible to make a dog run on an agility course while a DJ mixes music at the same time? Can a team of strangers, though motivated and determined, become, in terms of an organisation, a world reference in its sport? Today, we have the answers to these questions .”

From 350 competitors to 1500 in five years

The first edition of Avallon Cup took place in 2015 at the current site, but the previous year we had tested the concept at our dog club, which is in Girolles, a few kilometres from Avallon. It was a one-day competition with 300 people on 3 fields. Before we started, we needed to know if we were able to attract a significant number of competitors”. In the first edition there were 350 competitors, mainly French. The format was smaller too: competition over 2 days with 3 fields. “Now we are expecting 1500 competitors from all over the world.”

Criteria for choosing judges

Fabrice knows how important the choice of judges is to competitors but also to organizers. He says that he has two major criteria on which to base his decision:

1. Is the layout of their courses as well as their judging of high quality?

2. Are they fun people who want to party?

“We are going to live 96 hours together, so we might as well share the same vision of our sport and of life.

The choice is essential because the quality of their services will affect the quality of the sports show. We must, therefore, find judges who truly want to set up fast and technical runs, to highlight the speed and technical work of the dog as well as handling skills.”

Inflatable dogs, dancing, festivities - challenging the limits

When thinking about an agility show, you wouldn’t necessarily first think of huge inflatable dogs, the mouth of which the judges come out of each morning, through colorful smoke, dancing. Or swimming pools, DJs and dancers. And there’s something new every year!

The atmosphere at Avallon Cup is built with such care that you can just wonder where all the ideas come from. Fabrice explains that the secret to getting new ideas every year is based on simply having fun with friends and thinking that everything is doable: “We're like children. We seek our limits. When friends get together, always, at some point one has an idea that becomes a challenge for the rest of us. And as nobody likes to be left out, everyone comes up with a new challenge! And what inspires us is to not know if it's doable. If it were easily doable, it wouldn't be fun!”

Fabrice says, that the crucial question after getting an idea is how to execute something that seems impossible? “Then something quite mysterious and fascinating unfolds: collective intelligence. Each one deploys an incredible amount of energy and investment in the service of the project. And, in the end, the result is 100 times greater than what I would have achieved by spending all day and night on it”.

300 helpers needed - how?

There’s a lot of work backing big events. They don’t just pop up and run themselves. Fabrice tells us that for Avallon, they need about 300 helpers. Most of them take care of competition surroundings and different functions there.

Everyone who has ever organized an event knows that in the Western world people tend to have their calendars full and it’s hard to get helpers, even a lot less than 300 of them! So how do they do it?

“Things happen spontaneously. Every year, La Gazelles Team (that's the name I gave to my helpers), is full. People naturally offer to help. And every year, I am amazed and grateful for this spontaneous outpouring of solidarity. I think it's their way of making their contribution in order for this competition to exist. It is, I imagine, a form of recognition and support for the work that the organizing team provides (100% voluntary). On the other hand, we know how to take care of our Gazelles: in 2019, we installed a private swimming pool, a relaxation area and offered one of them a week's all-inclusive vacation in the sun. It's a fair return.”

20-hour workdays - building together everyone’s success

The event starts early in the morning and continues till late at night. How do you cope with it all?

“I'm going to answer in the form of a joke, but not very far from reality: "Red Bull gives you wings"! That is the secret! For the organizing staff, made up of about ten members, the days start at 6 am in the morning to welcome the first cars, and end at 2 am after the evening festivities: 20 hours of work per day for 4 days. And very often, during the night, it is necessary to manage the setting up and reorganization of the site for the next day. I know only one way to keep up with this pace: the PLEASURE of being together. Nothing else would work.

What drives the team is the challenge of building everyone's success. Everyone puts his or her skills at the service of an idea. The strength of the team is having within it extremely varied profiles (electrician, salesman, manager, teachers, masseurs, machine operators, etc.), which allows us to get through all situations. With this team everything is easy. There is never any "Why?" but only "How?”.”

3 key points to building a successful agility event

According to Fabrice, the secret to Avallon Cup’s success lies in the approach: “Approach the event in a thoughtful and structured way and already half the work is done. Secondly, assembling an organising team of volunteers capable of developing professional skills and know-how is the indispensable basis for a reliable organisation.” Fabrice lists the three key points behind their success:

1. Define the objective of your event. For Avallon Cup, since the first edition, we have wanted it to be a festival that unites sporting performance, festivities, ephemeral and event-based festivities in the same place at the same time. This is why every year we inject more than 15 000€ to develop the inspiration part of the event.

2. Finding an "extraordinary" venue. The recreational area of the Labaumes Islands is perfect for Avallon Cup. 5ha of land in the heart of a forest, at the bottom of a valley, overhung by cliffs and bordered by a river. And all this in the town of Avallon, on the lands of Merlin, King Arthur and the fairy Morgana. The door of imagination and dream can be opened, more surely than running at a stadium in the town center.

3. Wanting to give pleasure. It is the motor of life, so it must be at the center of our organization.

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