Bug Jam 24 Report - Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th July 2010

Read who won what at Bug Jam 24 in the report below and view more photos on the Gallery pages.

Bug Jam 25 will be held on Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th July 2011.

Bug Jam is over for another year and the 24th event proved to be an absolute stormer, but for the first time in years we had great weather across all 3 days with no rain at all! As usual, come 9 o clock on Friday morning an eager queue of VW’s had formed outside the gate and there was a constant flow of traffic coming onto site for the duration of the weekend.

The track opened at 11am giving the early birds their first opportunity to get their cars on track and racers and RWYBers alike took advantage of this cheap tracktime. Martin Hill in his Fireforce 3 Jet Car also made a couple of 5 second passes to wow the crowd and the RWYB resumed until 8pm.

There was plenty going on away from the track too with great band Postman’s Opera, and De-Railed with Smiley Mic the beatboxer on the Live Stage. For those wannabe comics Bound and Gagged put on a comedy workshop giving comedy lessons to any willing participants. These lessons went on throughout the weekend and what started with 8 students was soon whittled down to 2 who went on stage during Saturday's comedy session and judging by the crowd's reaction they did a pretty good job too!

A new attraction for 2010 was the Black Knights Parachute team who dropped in (literally) on Friday afternoon touching down with great precision between no mans land and the spectator banking.

A new found favourite at Bug Jam, the Guitar Hero competition took place in the bar which saw a female winner for the 2nd year running. Teresa Lawrence finished with an impressive 262,254 points which really was head and shoulders above everyone else.

Throughout the weekend there were Pro BMX demonstrations on the skate ramp which saw some insane stunts and finished with a competition for a £1200 prize.

The Evening Entertainment line up kicked off at 8pm and it was take your pick from the 4 arenas that we had! Richie Don took control of the Fuelers bar for the evening with Ministry of Sound in the Dance Zone and Motown and Northern Soul in the Retro Zone. Unfortunately due to a traffic problem, The Paris Riots were unable to make it but The Blings of Leon and Kazabianuk were on the Live Stage playing all of your current favorites followed by the great current band, The Holloways.

There were a lot of bleary eyed people around first thing on Saturday morning but some of the early risers took to the track at 9am for more RWYB action. The Rust and Rat Competition was a great success with a huge collection of aged vehicles. The winners are as follows:

This was a stunning original car that looked as old as it was with the original interior, engine and floor pan!

This awesome rat had a custom made pop top, not sure about the practicality of it but it certainly looked the part.

This Caddy had a fully rusted top half with a tatty paint job on the bottom half, junk on the roof and gleaming Porsche wheels! A good look!

Not rat, but the best Trekker in a great line-up that deserved the trophy. Sorry rust-fans, this was the number 1 military vehicle here.

Freddies ex-school and ex-army bus was complete with original signwriting and was a great ratted all rounder!

This Beetle had a naturally-aged interior that showed every one of its years like a teddy bear that had been hugged too much. The gearstick was an inspired choice too!

This is a Bug that we regularly see at Santa Pod, and it never falls into a Rust & Rat or Show & Shine category, but it’s a great car that attracts loads of attention with a painted-on rat effect on a very solid car. A long overdue trophy.

There was a kids playbus on site from Saturday which was free for all the little ones to go in and get their computer games fix along with Punch and Judy shows in the main catering area.

Near the Main Tents the Off Road Course was open for the weekend which the public could have a go on or watch the demonstrations from the Baja Club and this proved to be a great past time.

The Live Action Arena was a flurry of activity right from Saturday morning through until Sunday Afternoon with Terry Grant Stunt Shows, UKFMX, The Risk Club and the Monster Trucks with Monster Truck Rides available in between! Needless to say the arena drew huge crowds full of appreciative onlookers.

Despite the sun being out, come lunch time people flocked to the Retro Zone for the Bound and Gagged Comedy Performance and what a great show they put on! The marquee remained full for the whole 3 hours and the awesome line up of comics had the crowd in stitches throughout.

As the day wore on it got down to business on track with the leaders of the RWYB competition changing right up to the very last minute but the eventual winners are as follows:

The Low Riders were on site for the duration of the weekend hopping and bouncing around site, one particular vehicle of interest was the VW T25 Van than spent most of its time on 3 wheels!

Bug Jams Got Talent once again proved to be a huge success with 10 entries, of singers, dancers, comedians and even someone with a Didgeridoo! The winner was Jack Barker who did the dance skit from the Napoleon Dynamite film to Jamiroquai’s Canned Heat. A big “thank you” to everyone who took part, the show was great fun for everyone even though the audience and judges were a bit brutal!

As we moved later into the afternoon it was down to business on track in the first session of qualifying for our race cars.

As evening came it was over to our 4 Music arenas again. High Rollers took control of the Fuelers Bar playing a wide selection of cover songs both current songs and those from decades that have been and gone.

The choice in the marquees was between I Love the 90’s with Live PA from Angie Brown and I Love the 80’s with a George Michael tribute.

Due to a slight change of plan Doctor and the Medics were moved over to the Live Stage to follow live band Bijoumiyo and the crowd absolutely loved it.

We can only apologise to all of those Audio Bully’s fans that were in attendance. They did turn up, got to the stage, decided Bug Jam wasn’t for them and immediately turned around and left again without giving any notice. Obviously they are too good for a venue that has had acts such as The Holloways, Dodgy, The Prodigy, etc. etc.
We can’t thank the Dr and the Medics enough for a last minute change of plan but I think you will all agree that they put on an excellent show.

The Sunday has recently become known as the serious day of Bug Jam with all of the Race Classes finishing off Qualifying and running their eliminations to find the event winners and the prestigious Bug Jam Show n Shine competition. On track it was a great action packed day with super close racing, wheelies galore from loads of our race classes, a 6 from Ray White in his Pro Mod and another 5 second from Martin Hill in Fireforce 3.

Once again we ran out of space in the Show n Shine arena. Thanks to everyone that took part, it was once again a fiercely fought competition in all categories and the winners are as follows:

This Speedster was customised all round and was a real head turner. It had so many tricked out touches on it and it attracted all the attention. All of the work was clearly done with no expense spared.

This New Beetle was almost as tidy outside as it was in but the customised Pink Interior with a full ICE install was what took the prize.

An absolutely faultless car all round gave Jonathan the Best Beetle award.

This 23 Window Double Door Samba was as the best Splitty amongst some tough competition.

This fully customised bus was finished to such a high standard after a 4 ½ year build after being imported from a chicken shed in Australia.

There wasn’t much left that hadn’t been touched on this car and all of the work that had been completed was completely immaculate

This excellent Karmann Ghia had a full custom interior combined with an exterior finished to the highest standard.

Unlike many that have won this trophy in the past this tidy Beetle has not been restored and is completely original as it came out of the factory. A lot of hard work has clearly gone into the maintenance of this vehicle.

This awesome back to 89 Beetle is just as fresh as it was 22 years ago, and the owner has been a supporter of the B289 displays from the start.

This stunning Beach Buggy build was in stunning condition. Almost too good to hit the beach!

This almost completely original Caddy was in great condition and with original paint too.

This 1200 Beetle was difficult to fault and featured stunning paint and custom touches straight out of a Californian beach scene.

This Oval has been fully restored and was tidy all round despite it being driven daily.

This very tidy daily driven was faultless both inside and out,  with some very neat touches, this trophy will have been even more special as all of the work was completed by it’s owner!

This Blue Perry Pearl Beetle had a flawless paint job and as we couldn’t find a mark on it anywhere, this one was a no brainer.

This Split has a great story behind it – it’s back on the road after being on its roof not too long ago! A happy ending to a sad accident that made the judges smile.

The Drag Race Winners are as follows:

Throughout the weekend the Type 2 Detectives were hard at work on their pick up van, they worked so hard they even finished in plenty of time before the end of the show and put it on display for everyone to see their excellent workmanship.

Well that’s it for another year, we can only hope that you all enjoyed it. "Thank you" to everyone that supported the event, we are often told that it’s the people that make the show what it is today! We’ll see you all back here in 2011 for Bug Jam 25, we’ve got big plans for this special anniversary so make sure that you check back here early next year and get your tickets early, or sign up to our email newsletter and get all of the latest bookings as and when we make them direct to your inbox. If you can’t wait that long then you should check out VW Action on 3rd-5th September and then Big Bang

View more photos from Bug Jam 24 on the Gallery pages.

Watch the Unofficial Official Bug Jam 24 Video Report

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