First of all I would like to express my very special thanks to all the VANFEST CREW and everybody else who put the effort in this year to ensure that Vanfest retained its position as the biggest and best VW Transporter event in the world.

Now that the dust has settled (rather than the mud subsided) I think we can say (without, much shadow of a doubt - again) that this years event was probably the best we have ever done from the public's perspective. In actual fact there was not a great amount of difference in the organising, planning or resources used this year apart from a couple of little things; this years brilliant weather & the experience gained from last year ensured that we had the measures in place to cope with (just about) anything.

It took a long time to recover our composure from the previous years mud bath but I believe we have done more than that and also proven to everyone that we still have more than it takes to organise a successful event despite whatever the weather or anything else that is thrown at us.


This year we expanded our advance booking system to include direct on line booking via the See tickets Company. There were a few glitches but generally speaking this worked very well and will be expanded in the future. There was a 2:1 take up of Internet bookings to traditional Booking Form, so it is here to stay and be developed for the future. Despite the recession the amount of bookings stayed the same & we ended up with very similar numbers (Camping Units & persons) when we closed advance bookings @ end of July. Only two forged tickets this year & we had a good result when the culprit was tracked down (no need/kneed to take off any kneecaps this year!).

The on site Camping area available to clubs was reduced this year to give a better ratio of on site general camping area so this meant a reduction of clubs to 34. Trade bookings were a bit slow coming in this year but we still ended up full to capacity. The one thing that picked up enormously was the amount of Day Visitors attending the event obviously attracted by the fabulous weather.

Our build up proceeded at it's normal furious pace. Last year we had to battle the elements, this year we had to contend with a Horse event on the site early in the week, which meant we had to leave a lot of the build up area until the Wednesday. However a fantastic effort resulted with us finishing on target despite the inconvenience.

The one thing that was very noticeable this year was how well (and happy) everybody looked during the build up this year, none of the pre event nerves & squabbles that went on last year. (Let's hope it stays like this). I believe that the main reason for this was our new catering arrangement (and new caterers) which ensured everybody was kept well fed throughout the event.

The build up was completed on time (in fact ahead of time if you consider we also had the horse event to contend with as well. Special thanks to Listers VW & VW themselves for again supplying us with a set of vehicles to service our needs @ the event.

Gates opened & the showground filled up in a much more orderly (and dry) fashion this year. No major issues with overcrowding or interloping on club areas. I carried out a quick survey of the camping areas during the event (something that could not be done last year) & I can report that we have got our numbers ABSOLUTELY RIGHT for the maximum number of units we can have on site. Yes, there were some open areas, but this is planned, so we can cope if we do loose areas (as we did last year). The only large area not filled was the extreme end of North 4 which is there as our overflow/safety valve should we run into problems. One new feature for this year was the INTERNATIONAL VILLAGE Camping Area for our continental visitors.

Very few problems in the campsites (compared to last year). Some interlopers who booked & should have been on the Welland site did manage to wangle their way on to the main site which would have displaced a few of the other campers. With regards to the Day visitors we did use up ALL the wristbands & the available day car parking area with little (if any) overflow available so we will have to find more area for next year.

The Show programme proceeded as per plan & went very smoothly. We did not manage to get all of our planned Special Displays in place but still had a very good selection of vehicles. The Kemperink display did not happen & we were a bit light on the well travelled Transporters but this was more than compensated for by the magnificent Alternative Engines & T25Y30 display which had some truly stunning vehicles on view.

Again this year we had a really amazing selection of vehicles in our SHOW & SHINE competition. One first for this year was that the same person won both the Judges & peoples choice for Best in Show. The Model Show & shine although very good on quality was a little down on quantity this year, something we hope will change in the future. Our TUNING WORKSHOP worked very well in its new location next to the Vanfest FIRE STATION.

Indoors Brian dished out his various assortment of entertainment for the children and his legendary Search for the Star (which this year seemed to be endless!). Pablo honed up the talent of people undertaking his circus skills workshop. Tommy the toucan also had a chat with quite a few very bemused children (and adults).

As usual a major highlight of the event was the evening entertainment which this year featured the RUBETTES on the Friday Night along with Druid Brew & the Brian Collins Band. Our Saturday Night line up was REV78 followed by the COMITTMENTS. All of these were very well supported, but equally so was the Vanfest BATTLE OF THE BANDS, which is now well established as a major favourite of the event.

Our new outside MUSIC ZONE was also a major success & something we will build upon in the future. A glowing endorsement for the zone came from our resident band DRUIDS BREW who declared that this year's gig outside in front of the Malvern Hills was the best he has ever had anywhere!

The quality of hired staff we ended up with for traffic control was not up to expectations. The disabled Car park (In Teme Hall Car Park) did not work well & resulted in a couple of our own vehicles getting clobbered by disabled drivers (who should have remained disabled) We ran out of wristbands for the Day Visitors - my fault for underestimating just how many we were likely to get if the weather was good. Balanced out of course by a massive overestimation of how many stickers we needed - so if anybody wants a sticker, we have a few spare.

However, that aside the event was a great success The feedback we have had has been fantastic and very positive. It has been hard to find anything negative about this years event (apart from that by people who did not make it to Malvern this year!) The expected (predicted by some) backlash to the event has not happened & we are most definitely still/back on top.

Actual attendance figures are always a bit difficult to come up with but we had approximately 5000 transporters on site. (2100 General Camping, 1130 Family Camping, 825 Clubs, 50 Disabled Camping) 900 trade & Crew vehicles. We also had another 200 transporters at our off site Welland Campsite. Another 4000 (Approx) transporters came during the weekend as Day visitors. So Total Attendance figures; 8000 camping adults, 6500 Day visitors. If you include children & non fee payers the total attendance for this year's event was approx 24,000 persons.


I can report that we have had ABSOLUTELY NO COMPLAINTS from any of the locals about traffic congestion or noise from the site. Well done, and thanks to everybody who attended, this is a major boost to our confidence and a massive endorsement that Vanfest can and will continue to be welcomed & accepted as part of the local Malvern scene as well as the premiere international event for Volkswagen Transporters. .

Well done and thanks to everybody involved with this years event