Monster Trucks – what are your thoughts? We are all a little bit obsessed with them in our house, myself included.

I’ve always loved the idea of driving a Monster Truck, there is just something about the size of them that appeals. I’m not sure I’m brave enough to contemplate doing anything ‘crazy’ in one, but I’d love to just have a go in one – anyone else? When I used to horse ride years ago, the bigger the horse, the more I loved it, I think the same applies here.

Family fun

We’ve seen Monster Trucks up close once before, but prior to that it has always just been on the TV. There is something about being up close with these beasts that is super exciting and makes for a wonderful fun-filled family day out.

This Spring/Summer Monster Jam has come to the UK, with shows in three locations: Cardiff; Manchester and Coventry. We saw the first Manchester show at the weekend, but you can still catch this exciting show in Cardiff on 18th May and then Coventry on June 8th. Book tickets here.

Pit Party

If you fancy getting close up with the trucks and meeting the drivers before the show, you can get additional Pit Party tickets.

Monster Jam Party in the Pits is a significant part of the Monster Jam experience, where the drivers and vehicles are completely open to the fans, providing unprecedented access to the drivers, where fans can get their autographs, take photos and see the trucks up close. Tickets to this part are priced at £12.00 per person, this starts at 10.30 am.

The main show

After the pit party we expected the arena to be transformed before the show into a dirt track like you see on TV. It wasn’t. The entire show was performed on concrete and concrete blocks and tyres were used to create the obstacles for the Monster Trucks.

I’ll begin by saying that this didn’t appeal as much and definitely impacted on the viewing pleasure. There’s something exciting about watching the dirt flying about in things like this and that was missing. It does mention a dirt track on the ticket website, so perhaps Manchester was the exception. It also seemed to impact on the types of skills the drivers could demonstrate, a few times during interviews the drivers commented that it was the first time they had performed on concrete.

Despite this it was an awesome show. It’s such a sensory experience. The noise, the smells, the visual spectacular – so exciting to watch.

There were six Monster Trucks and their drivers over from the USA, including one female driver of the Wonder Woman truck, which was good to see.

They competed in a series of challenges, scoring points depending on where they came.

We were all fans of Max-D, who was the overall winner and also El Toro Loco, who performed the best in the early challenges in the speed challenge and the 2-wheeled stunts. Designed like a bull, he even had steam coming out of his nostrils – visually fabulous!

The interval was incredible with motorbikes performing spectacular jumps. Bikes and riders literally flying through the sky, flipping, twisting and performing full somersaults. Drivers were from all over the world and put on a fantastic display. How anyone suddenly decides they can jump a motorbike from a ramp and land on the back of a truck is beyond me, but it’s very exciting to watch.

The Monster Trucks carried on after the bikes with more challenges, which included doughnuts – very impressive, considering the drivers were having trouble with the concrete feeling ‘sticky’.

The atmosphere was electric and there was a chance to vote online to score each driver, making it really interactive.

If you haven’t been to anything like this with the children before, a top tip is to take ear defenders. It is very noisy and lots of children don’t like that. Only one of our children is bothered by the noise, but wearing ear defenders means he can still enjoy the show.