THE IDEA of bringing massive pickup trucks – known as monster trucks – to Suffolk to perform in an adrenalin-fuelled show came about as two friends tucked into a cheese burger.

Yesterday – four months after the idea was born – the first Monster Trucks Live event entertained about 1,500 people at the Suffolk Academy in Barrow, near Bury St Edmunds.

It is being hailed as the third largest monster truck event after Monster Jam – which takes place primarily in the US – and the UK Monster Truck Nationals at Santa Pod Raceway in Wellingborough.

Amelia Benion, 31, from Bury, explained how her and Greg McNair, 35, who is a monster truck fan, were eating a cheese burger in Giraffe in the town when Mr McNair said ‘you know what – monster trucks. We need to bring monster trucks to Suffolk’.

Miss Benion, who is an accountant and also has a furniture company in Sudbury, said she loved a challenge and the pair formed Monster Trucks Live.

She said: “We had no idea what the interest would be [outside of the American bases]. We knew we have got a lot of Americans around here so we knew they were going to be a big audience for us and they have been.

“To be honest this year is going to be a massive learning curve.

“We want the criticism, we want to take it away and make it bigger and better next year.”

The crowds could get up close to the trucks and speak to the drivers ahead of the main event at 1pm.

Four trucks – Crusher, Podzilla, Big Pete and Grim Reaper – thrilled the audience as they flew high into the air over the wreckage of crushed cars below. The noise was so loud some people had even brought their own ear defenders.

Lynda Wells, 44, from Elmswell, who came with her family, described her first monster truck event as “really fantastic”.

Broke FMX also impressed the crowds with their motocross stunts.

There are plans for Monster Trucks Live to return to Barrow every year with shows also taking place at other locations.