As threatened, and as you will have seen from photos in previous posts, we drove to this year's IWA National Festival in my 1969 Volvo Amazon (that's the blue car in the photos). Despite what it said in the programme there was no display of classic cars on the Saturday, but the organisers - Malcolm and Janet Fry - were very happy for me to join the slightly more expensive-looking cars in the line-ups on Sunday and Monday. I got up at 0615 on Saturday to polish the car ready to impress the admiring public, and drove to the main entrance at 0915. The blue-shirted IWA volunteers didn't know what to do with me. I was sent to park in the exhibitors' car park, from where I walked back to the site entrance and spotted a gazebo for exhibitors to report to. I reported myself there, and was told to get my car out of the exhibitors' car park. I waited for a while, and began to regret not having made a flask of coffee. Eventually Malcolm came and apologised for there being no classic car display that day, but he walked with me to where I should drive the next day. Then I drove back to the campsite and made myself that coffee.
The photo at the top of this post is from Sunday, when most of the cars were from the local Daimler and Lanchester club; the bottom one is from Monday, with cars from the local Jaguar club. As I was at the end on Monday, I led the procession into the arena. One of the car owners gave a commentary on each car as it drove round the arena (I'd supplied a few nuggets to help him talk knowledgeably about mine). On the Monday we'd packed up so everything was in the car: as we left the arena we drove straight out of the exit and straight home. A good quick getaway, and no traffic!
1 comment:
YOu seem remarkably philosophical about the delays and mix ups. Still, it must have been fun to join the other old nobility and to show off yours a little.
I can't help noticing what a looming presence those power station towers are behind the site though. Very dominant as a visual image.
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