VWoodstock

Herts County Showground
11th - 13th June 2004

  
There's always something good about these weekend camping shows. Whether it is the planning that goes into them (getting a tent, supplies, hay fever tablets...), seeing all the beautifully turned out air-cooled machines or simply knowing that Friday afternoon is booked off work, there is a definite buzz in the air. That's how it was as Nicki & I squeezed the luggage into every available space in her Lupo GTI - it must have been a slightly comical sight - but as we travelled along the M25, the looks we got from several dubs that we passed confirmed that they knew where we were going for the weekend!
We arrived at the Herts County Showground at about 5pm and after a quick drive round found Tony's camping area with his Rocco proudly wearing it's Junction29 plates. 15 minutes later my new tent was erect, and the first beer of the weekend was open. Surveying the scene in front of us, a plethora of campers were parked, with people in various stages of fixing guy ropes, unloading cars, and lighting BBQs. Later that evening we left Tony busily engaged on his dash-mounted Playstation, and wandered out to view some of the other club stands. After chatting to the guys on Scirocco World for a while we found Jo & Leanne sitting with the Club GTI peeps, and following a beer with them we nipped across to the Dub-Club area where Geoff (the Rev. Pimp Daddy) introduced us to his immaculate white rocco.
Saturday morning was a lazy affair. After brekky I dug out the camera and went for a good nose round the camping area. The standard of cars turned-out was very high with even the most everyday camper somehow having something special about it. After taking way too many pictures, we ventured towards the autojumble area. As usual at these type of events, water-cooled parts were very thin on the ground. Not a problem, as I still find it interesting to browse the beetle & camper spares, dreaming of the day I'll be running an air-cooled money-pit!
Following Nicki convincing Tony to fit her new CD-player into the Loop, and a huge pig-out on the remains of our BBQ supplies, Jeffers arrived in the Rat. After another wander round the trade stands we settled down to enjoy the evening's entertainment, in the form of the tribute bands that were playing. There had been an excellent Beatles one on during the latter part of the day, followed by the Hamsters. Now it was the turn of Queen'd to take to the stage and as the night drew in, the VWoodstock festival rocked to "Freddie's" vocals. The party-goers were in high spirits, with many people wearing clothes drawing inspiration from the legendary 60's festival.
Sunday was by far the busiest day of the weekend. Lots of dubbers had brought their pride & joys along for the show & shine that kicked off that afternoon. The turnout was of a very high standard - each square inch of Volkswagen gleamed in the sunshine as a million and one photo's were taken. It was good to see some familiar faces getting the nod from the judges too, with Geoff's rocco scoring fifth in the water-cooled class. The biggest smile though was on the face of occasional-J29er Danny as his 2l 16v cabby, fresh from a facelift at the body shop, scooped 3rd place.
The show ended on a high note, and with everyone casually packing up their tents, no-one was in a rush to join the car-park that is the M1. We had packed up earlier in the day, so stayed and chatted to the Dub-Club guys for a while before heading off (not forgetting the guy on the gate giving the Loop mucho respect on the way out!). A very enjoyable, almost relaxing, weekend behind us and the promise of lots of after sun lotion once we got home!
Words & pictures by Tris.