A weekend at Busfest 2012

Well, that’s it for another year, all home safe and just about recovered from a weekend at Busfest 2012 and what a fantastic Busfest 2012 it was, thoroughly enjoyed by all. A extra-large well done and thanks to the organisers for delivering undoubtedly the best VW event of the year. They even manage to order us fantastic weather too! Which was very welcome given the number of VW shows that have been postponed or cancelled this year.

The Skip Rat Dubs family continues to grow in size every year and it was great to see all in attendance. The Busfest 2012 general camping staff were very helpful this year, assisting and co-operating with us to build a safe, group area, allowing us to leave space for late Skip Rat arrivals.

Busfest, like it predecessor Vanfest, is a three day event (Friday to Sunday) located at the Three Counties Showground at Malvern in Worcestershire. It’s the world’s largest VW Transporter show with over 8000 vehicles and 25000 people attending.

It all kicks off at 10.00am on the first Friday of September every year with live music, funfair, indoor and outdoor displays, over 300 trade stands, show & shine and loads more – there really is something for everyone and all ages. So, if you’re looking for a great weekend camping, spare parts for your VW Transporter or just a great day out – you can’t go far wrong.

This year the Skip Rats had an early start and were in full convoy on the M42 by about 7.30am on Friday morning. Cruising at a steady 60MPH was everything from a beautiful old VW bug, to a shiny VW T5 California, arriving at Busfest around 9.00am, giving us just enough time to plan the camping strategy over a sausage roll before the gates opened.

Parked up and pitched for 11am it was time to get something to eat and check out the trade stands. There was a great turn out this year as always from the bigger names in VW like Just Campers, T4′s R Us, CMC and Van-X plus loads of smaller traders, selling everything that I’m sure exists on this planet and on others!

Eating meat forms quite a large part of our Busfest weekend and I’m not just talking about a few sausages and burgers – I’m sure the product of our smoking BBQ’s could feed a small village for a week the never mind 20 Skip Rats! However, we do need a lot of energy to have so much fun, dancing and laughing the nights away.

Saturday was another busy day, hitting the trade stands, chatting, swapping tips with other VW owners and checking out the entertainment – it was defiantly time for some more BBQ’d meat. Later it was time for a touch of dressing up for the fancy dress. This years chosen theme ‘Children’s TV Characters’ – did you see any of us!? Although I don’t remember ever watching a kids TV show that featured a Pimp and a Nun duo!

Heading this years entertainment in the main marquee was ‘Doctor and the Medics’. Often promoted as 1 hit wonders, the band claim to be the only 1 hit wonder to have had 2 hits as their next single “Burn,” got to number 21!! But as they don’t make documentaries or publish books about one and a half hit wonders, the Doctor wears his “One Hit Wonder” badge with pride!!!

Another great night was had by all before crashing out to prepare for Sunday – the last day already!!

Sunday is always a busy day packing up, then racing around getting last minute gifts, hunting for a last minute bargain on the trade stands and admiring all the dubs entered in the show & shine.

All too soon it’s time for the fond fair-wells until next year, when we get to do it all again! If you went to this years Busfest, like the Skip Rats, we hope you had a fantastic weekend. If you didn’t then, really, you don’t know what you’re missing – get yourself along next year, you’ll be glad you did.

The dates for Busfest 2013 are Friday 6th – 8th September, so keep your eye on www.busfest.org early in the new year for tickets and what’s on.

BUSFEST BONAWEEN

BUSFEST BONAWEEN is a chilled out, family Camping weekend being held at the Welland Camp used for BUSFEST over the weekend October 26-28th, with an option if you like of staying over until the Monday.

It is a chance for the all those involved with the BUSFEST show to wind down and meet the “Fans of Vans” in a chilling relaxing environment.

Friday night there is the opportunity to watch the fire works display at the Three Counties Showground that is described on their website thus “Don’t miss one of the largest displays in the county set to a fantastic soundtrack! Indoor and outdoor shelter and viewpoints, delicious refreshments and a fun fair makes this the fireworks event of choice! “

Saturday Night, take in our own Bonfire/Halloween Party. A recipe for a great Chill out weekend to round off the Camping year.

It will be a pre – booked only event.

Further details on Price etc to follow.

www.threecounties.co.uk/fireworks

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.

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