Busfest 2012 website goes live!

At last! After much anticipation, the Busfest 2012 website has gone live. Most dudes will know this festival as Vanfest but after a long protracted saga, the organisers were informed by the current holders of the “VANFEST” trademark (Volkswagen Type 2 Owners Club) that they no longer had their permission to use the Vanfest name for the event. To fulfill existing contractual obligations with the Three Counties Showground in Malvern the organisers had to start up a new event with a new name.

The Busfest crew announced earlier this month:

“You can be sure that despite the name change it will be business as usual & we promise you that we will continue to put even more effort into the event to ensure that BUSFEST at Malvern retains its crown as the biggest & best VW Transporter Festival in the world”.

So there you have it, you know the deal. This event is truly awesome and I represent all the Skip Rats when I write: we spend the whole year looking forward to it. From pimping the dubs, making the meat order, deciding who’s taking the BBQs to building NASA’s answer to fire pits the preparation conversations are endless - come to think of it, it’s a good job it’s only once a year!

Get yourself over to www.busfest.org and have a look around.

What is a Skip Rat?

So, what is a Skip Rat?

A dude who burrows through the discarded debris in a skip or bin, looking for items which may still be of value and/or useful to said Skip Rat. Much like a modern day Womble. Needless to say, such activity is viewed as “a bit pikey” by the average man on the street, who prefers his kitchen sink to come from a more reputable source.

Should I submit this to the dudes at the Oxford Dictionary?

BUSFEST 2012

It looks like Vanfest 2012 is going to be very different to past years. Following is a extract from a post I read today on the volkszone forum, it also appears in the vwt4forum and the split screen van club. I was tipped off by a Skip Rat who’d been to DubFreeze 2012 this weekend and had been party to the same story. This got me digging around on the web and bingo! It sounds champion, the Skip Rat Dubs will be there again for sure, check it out…

BUSFEST 2012
WELCOME TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL BUSFEST
An event for Owners & Enthusiasts of the Volkswagen Transporter

BUSFEST is the new name for the annual VANFESTIVAL event held at the Three Counties Showground MALVERN, over the weekend of 7-9 SEPTEMBER.

That new name is……………………………………. BUSFEST.

We think the new name is the best we can come up with and is a natural successor to our previous one. It fits in well with the existing logo & is easily recognized all over the world as being connected to VW Transporters.

BUSFEST will retain a similar format, & size to the previous festival.

For those of you who went to Vanfest last year the layout will be similar as we are already committed to a lot of the plans we already have in place.

BUT we will use this as an opportunity to refresh the event and make a few changes & improvements.

• The name may be different but we will be keeping the same logo

• The New Festival will be built on the heritage & spirit of the previous events at the showground & will be a new beginning for a new future.

• It will be produced and presented by the same crew with help from our supporters & traders

• There will be many changes & improvements which I am sure will be welcomed by many;

• We will be “going back to basics” in many areas.

• This includes FREE evening Entertainment & an enlarged display arena featuring lots more visual static and mobile displays (building on the success of last year’s Syncro Course).

• We will have full use of all the new buildings this year rather than the building site that we had to deal with last year. This means we will finally be able to remove almost all of the fencing we have had in place at many of the recent events.

• We will not be forgetting our roots & will be retaining a “Retro” theme . You will still be able to look back and see all of what we have achieved & produced at the showground in the past as we retain the material and content of our previous events.

• The booking system for camping will be exactly the same as last year. All camping will be by advance booking. However we are going to have to downsize the amount of camping area’s available to bring the event within our new budget constraints.

• Most/All other clubs wanting to come to the event have already booked and the website is already setup to cope with their bookings.

• VWT2oc members who still wish to come to the new event should contact their club events/camping manager to arrange for plot in a club camping area.

• The New BUSFEST WEBSITE should open for bookings in the first week in FEBRUARY

You can be sure that despite the name change it will be business as usual & we promise you that we will continue to put even more effort into the event to ensure that BUSFEST at Malvern retains its crown as the biggest & best VW Transporter Festival in the world.

Looking forward to seeing you with us at Malvern this year.
THE BUSFEST CREW