MiniFest at Stanford Hall is the must go to event and we were on site from Friday and decided to change the design of the site from last year. By moving all the 33 clubs to the side of the beautiful River Avon, and the Show N Shine, which included some 100 Mini’s of all ages to the left of the hall right next to Concours. The redesign worked perfectly and we now have our own unique BMC style on the UK’s oldest Mini Show. We believe this was the 40th year of the show at Stanford Hall
To set the scene at Stanford, the Saturday evening was glorious. With a full moon, little cloud, Jupiter on view and no light pollution, it’s such a wonderful place to be. Late evening the mist started rolling in from the River Avon, simply beautiful.
Sunday we woke up early to a very Misty morning, which soon burnt off with the warmth of the sun. Some traders had also been on site since Saturday. The first concours entrants started to arrive around 7am to enable them to get a head start with final detailing of their MINI on the perfectly manicured lawn directly in front of the magnificent Hall.
More trade, and Mini’s soon started to arrive for set up, including 10 of the very limited edition Paul Smith Mini’s who were part of a very special display. We didn’t tell them where they would situated on purpose, as we had a very special place for them all. Right in front of the centre of the Hall on the carefully measured out grass circle. This was certainly a surprise for them all and they put on a wonderful display which many visitors went to view during the day.
At midday we held a minutes silence for the late Queen starting with the National Anthem. A very emotional moment for all of us. Everyone at the British Mini Club would like to say a heart felt thank you for the way the minutes silence was impeccably observed. A very humbling moment.
James Hunt, the current holder of the Premier Concours Silver trophy, was the victor again at the British Mini Clubs Mini Fest at Stanford Hall when he won the best Mini Of The Day with his lovely Mini MK1. A unanimous decision by the judges on the day because it really is a superb Mini. Especially if you know its story from basically a scrap Mini and built at home to what it is now.
The concours is kindly sponsored by Meguiars UK and this now means that James and his Mini now go forward to represent the marque at the NEC Classic Motorshow in November. This is an incredible honour and we know James will do very well. No pressure of course.
The concours provided some excellent competitor again the year and is starting to grow again. It was so good to see so many quality 90’s Mini’s enter. Did you see Alan Slaters recently restored ex Police Mini, now that was quality. We also saw Andy Coxon entering concours for the very first time with his retro style 90’s Mini taking a win in the modified class
Modern MINI concours continues to grow every year. The recently rebuilt R52 cabriolet really was superb and deserved to win the Gen 1 class. The underbody was just perfect. We have always said a clean underbody wins trophies.
Show N Shine this year was moved to a slightly different position to the left of the Hall and looked wonderful with so many awesome Mini’s taking part. The Mini Busa was the star for us. It just looked so good and such a piece of engineering.
Club Stands were just brilliant as always with a theme of 1960’s Hippies, yep some of us are old enough to remember those days. Skidmark Mini Club really took the theme to heart with an excellent stand of flower power and hippie style clothing and Mini’s bedecked in flowers. Well done to everyone involved. Also thank you to all clubs for putting on superb displays. We hope you enjoyed your new position by the River Avon
We would like to say thank you to every single person for taking part, and everyone who came along, in what was a glorious day. Without you the Mini scene would not be the same.
Also the British Mini Club would like to show our gratitude for the way everyone stood and observed the minutes silence at midday. It was very humbling. Thank you. God Save The King.
MiniFest 2023 takes place at Stanford Hall on Sunday 10th September
