How to: survive a testival

As every parent knows, there is a danger of letting your kid loose in a playground of toys. Add caffeine, sugar, lack of sleep and some lingering fatigue from days spent trying to strain as much airtime from every hour of the day and you know it’s only a matter of time before the stopwatch comes to a grinding halt. One last burst of energy, a final defiant determination to keep pushing full gas. And then the sudden realisation of the limits of human energy follows.

I handed back the Epic 2 to the BGD stand. (It’s a fun wing, especially for wingovers, but gets your adrenaline pumping.) Their stand was situated at the very far end of a long line of exhibitors, forcing me to run the...