British Volkswagen Festival
1st&2nd July 2006
Pictures & report courtesy of Judith Zerniak
The first to arrival on the club stand was Judith, soon to be followed by Dom then a steady stream of members till late Friday evening. As well as club members, a few partners and family were also in attendance - keeping in the spirit of BVF being a family show. Those arriving in the dark had help to put up their tents, in the form of torches being held and beers passed out. Some attempted to cook a late meal on barbeques while others headed for the catering area. After a few more beers and late night chatting, people started calling it a night around 1 a.m.
By early Saturday morning it was obvious it was going to be a very hot day. As tents turned into personal saunas people abandoned the idea of a lie in and started to emerge. After the usual morning recounting tales of the night before the business of getting cars looking great for the club stand began. By mid day it was so hot it was almost impossible to work any longer. The usual very extensive range of trade stands were calling and people drifted off to find a bargain or just mooch around.
Then something strange happened........trade stands started packing up at only mid afternoon and the show ground appeared to be empty of people. They were all still there but just about everyone was crammed into a Three Counties Show building to watch the England v Portugal match. Those that chose to stay on club stands or make use of no queues at the ice cream van were fully aware of how the match was progressing by the loud cheers and groans from the top of the show ground. After the match finished everyone trudged back to their club stands or club camping area to get ready for the evening.
Steve Alleston and Shelly got stuck into preparing a superb barbeque for those on the Corrado stand which went down a treat. As the evening progressed some members took advantage of the live band entertainment laid on at the show while others preferred to stay at camp chilling and chatting. The evening ended in the small hours again and the sun rose too soon for many to get a reasonable amount of sleep.
Sunday was very very hot. The show organisers announced that the Met Office had released a warning of the high temperature and reminded people to put on plenty of sun cream and take on lots of fluids by which they meant water not more beer. Paul Kippax moved his car from the club stand to the Super class concourse while Judith Zerniak moved from club stand to the Scirroco / Corrado concourse.
Chris Gaskell was entering his Scirroco and the G60 that made it's debut at Stamford was also entered. The spaces on the club stand were filled by members who were attending for the Sunday only. There were a large number of people present on the club stand all day as many members had had a good look at the trade stands on Saturday and it was too hot to move around. The thought of being inside tents while taking them down in the heat was not relished but had to be done as it was not going to be cool until very late that night.
The concourse was announced at 3.30 and Judith was very surprised to get first, Chris came in second and the G60 third although it had had a lot of work done on it since Stamford. The club stand was packed away and the last few members departed soon after 5.
