International Vintage Volkswagen Forums

A fantastic weekend , really enjoyed it one of the best shows ive ever been too long my it continue :thumbup: How the hell did those ratters get into the bus field is beyond me perhaps it was after my stint :unsure: Any way it didn't dampen things too much i really enjoyed the meal as well , the strawberry's were to die for, so id just like to thank the organisers for really pulling out the stops :smile:

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it's a lovely show, beautiful location, fantastic atmosphere

saving parking for locals? i'd have thought locals would embrace events like this - must be good for the local businesses (cafes, newsagents, B&Bs) on the day - & also word of mouth spreads about how lovely Lavenham is (internationally)

how would non-registered VWs know not to park near to the square? were there signs?
i'd rather see VWs parked all around than a few modern vauxhalls or fords...and it was a shame not to see exclusive parking for VWs on the square...or it not being closed to 'normal' traffic

only the local grumps would have a problem with it, surely

& why would you pay £5 to park in a field/overspill field when there is free parking all around the town?
free parking in the car park next to The Cock?
i guess to be sure you are seen

a big thank you to the guys who organise it (i know it must be a huge effort). the show needs to stay in lavenham. & expand!
i'd like to see Barndoor Lane, Split Street, Oval Avenue, Cab Corner...

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Great show. Thanks for all the hard work that went into it from all the team. We had a great day out!.Its a difficult call as its a village, where people live all year round. Kind of like your village being taken over by older fords or fiats etc. I feel if we can keep the village folk onside we kcan keep the show thriving in Lavenham for many years to come. In my opinion the format is spot on, as the close knit feel adds a great atmosphere to the show, and makes it feel like an unnarranged gathering:thumbup:

Most do embrace the show, but there are other things to consider - the town has a large population of older people who don't want to park a long way from their house. The Guild Hall is a national trust tourist attraction and has many visitors (internationally) who aren't interested in seeing VW's. There was also a wedding on Saturday as Lavenham is a popular wedding location, so a lot of the hotels had guests for that who again weren't there for the VWs. The Kübles had to be moved from their initial location because of complaints from the locals. The bottom line is that if we start getting too many complaints then thats the end of the show.



There were signs for visitor parking, and the visitor information page on the website asked people to support the show and park in the visitor parking.



I'd prefer to see that as well, but unfortunately it's just not practical. As you probably know from the various street parties for the Queens Jubilee, it's pretty difficult to have a public road closed. Plus again, you have to consider the locals/access.



Again, to support the show. £5 isn't a lot to pay as a small contribution to help secure the future of the show is it? The alternative may well be that it's not open to day visitors



As much as I'd like to see that as well, I don't think it's going to happen. I don't know if there will be another Lavenham VW show, but if there is then I suspect it will be very different...

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My Lavenham photos are now online:

https://www.pre67vw.com/shows/thumbs.aspx?id=53 

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To quote the topic headline- What a weekend!

We just arrived home late this afternoon & I wanted to post this up asap, while the VW adrenalin is still flowing :smile:

Despite the distance we travelled in a 25hp '53 Oval (exactly 939 miles round trip including an overnight stop on the way down & another overnight stop & tour of part of the Lake District on the way home), the absolutely atrocious weather on the M6 on the way down (yes, we did think we were about to die a couple of times, when we could see virtually nothing out of the windscreen) and feeling totally knackered now, I will repeat: What a weekend!

A huge thank you to Malc, Rob, Barclay & all the "background crew" for organising the show of the year. In fact I reckon the only other shows I've attended which are better than this are HO & BC. That's how highly I rated this weekend. Well done guys, you obviously put in a load of effort to make it work, and it showed.

Just to qualify how impressed we were with the whole thing:- Before this event my other half Jean would just about put up with my vintage-VW addiction & constant talk of splits, ovals, splitscreen vans etc etc. As we were driving through that diabolical weather on the M6 she swore that she would never go anywhere in an old Beetle again- no seatbelts, windscreen wipers that did next to nothing, lights & semaphores that no-one else could see. However...... after the event she asked when the next show was, are we going & can we take the Oval out more regularly! I think we have a convert to vintage Volkswagens... :d

Thanks again guys, the countdown to the next one starts now! :thumbup:

Dave

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Nice photos Rob as ever :thumbup: did i read some were that you shot some film footage ?????????????????????????????????




Andy W

Awesome show, I had a brilliant weekend. It was great to catch up with so many friends I hadn't seen for a while. Many thanks to Malc and the team for making it happen.

I don't see the number of stock VWs increasing too much to make Lavenham unfeasable. Many more cars could have been parked in the meadow.



I'm not convinced there are enough stock barndoors around to fill barndoor lane :wink:

My 1st post:smile:
I had the blue '62 bug in the lower meadow with the rally spots and the no.5 on the side. I had a brilliant day - bumped into the guys from our hotel in Bad Camberg last year & a few guys from VZi, good food & a pint in the Greyhound, and the best vintage VW's I've seen since Camberg:thumbup: . Well done.
I loved the show, I thought it had potential to be a UK Camberg - after all, the lower meadow is about the same size as the entire field that holds the Camberg festival!
As for the lowered & modified vehicles parking in the lower meadow - hear this - I specifically informed the organisers of the event about this about 10 minutes after these vehicles turned up! The lady and the chap who registered me at 8:30 Sunday morning, I bumped into them half way up Water Street, and told them about the people coming in who shouldn't be, and they didn't seem interested at all! The chap said to me "Well if they want anything they'll have to come see me at the end of the day". I had no idea what he meant by that, but that was all the response I got. At that, they walked away.
Why didn't they go to the meadow & boot them out?
Seriously, why didn't the organisers boot these people out? They were taking the p*** out of everyone who had paid and registered.
People were saying to me things along the lines of "Well, no need to register and pay in 4yrs time, anybody who wants to can just turn up and park in the show field!" And they had a point, too.
When I parked up at 8:45 a yellow '72 bug parked up next to me. When I asked the driver if she'd registered, she said "No, I'm just meeting someone here. The man on the gate told me to park over here". Who was that on the gate, and what was he on about? I had to tell her myself that she should go to the VW parking area!

All said and done though - PLEASE PLEASE don't drastically change the show in 4 years' time. It was lovely. All that was needed was a few marshalls here and there - one on the gate at the lower meadow, one walking the main square, one walking the meadow maybe, just keeping an eye on parking, interlopers, etc. That's all that was needed.
As for saying the villge may be too small to hold the show again - no it's not - all you do is allow so many cars to register, and no more, and don't let unregistered vehicles in.
Resident's parking being taken? A few traffic cones around the residents' parking areas would cure that,along with the afore-said marshalls. Job done.

All in all - brilliant show, and massive well done to the organisers for a second go at putting a show on. Keep it up!

Julian.

Welcome Julian! Loved your car, very nice!



As I understand it, the lower field was marshalled until all the registered cars were in place, it all looked OK when I was down there mid morning and there were people on the gate. Not sure what happened after that, it wasn't until the afternoon that I heard some unregistered cars were in there, I heard that Malc had asked them to move but they refused and there wasn't much he could do about it once they were all in and settled and refused to move.

The difficulty is that the show is not all in one place, things would be so much easier to manage if it was all in one field. Having it spread over the village really adds to the organisational challenges - Malc did a fantastic job considering the amount of work involved. The niggles that happened this time around didn't happen at the first show, so you tend not to think of them I suppose - the main worries were all around the weather, contingencies for if the field was flooded or unusable etc.

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Know where you are coming from Rob.But it would be a great,great shame if that measure had to be taken.
It's very unfortunate,but it shows the type,when they refused to move when politely asked.
Surely they would present a problem,whatever steps were taken.

It's the old,run into a church shouting "tits,bum,willy" crowd again.