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A New Home For Coventry Festival of Motoring

01 September 2011

Coventry Transport Museum have today announced that their much-loved annual event 'Coventry Festival of Motoring' will move to a new venue at Stoneleigh Park, from 2012 onwards.

Organisers are confident that the opportunities offered by the new venue will be an exciting step forward for the event, which has gone from strength to strength over the past four years.

Gary Hall, Chief Executive at Coventry Transport Museum and Chair of the Festival of Motoring organising committee said:

“I am delighted to have secured Stoneleigh Park as the new home of the Coventry Festival of Motoring from 2012.  We’ve had fantastic success and a lot of fun with the event at the War Memorial Park, but over the past couple of years it has become clear that our ambitions for the Festival were outgrowing the space.  Getting 600 participant vehicles in and out of the park often caused traffic chaos in the area, and we were of course always at the mercy of the weather.  When the committee and I started exploring options for a new venue last year, it soon became clear that the facilities at Stoneleigh were the perfect fit for what we hope to achieve with the Festival both now and in the future.”

The first Festival of Motoring to take place at Stoneleigh will be held over the Bank Holiday weekend of 25 & 26 August 2012, and organisers have promised an exciting lineup of activities for participants and visitors alike, throughout the whole weekend.  The flagship ‘historic vehicle run’ which has always formed the backbone of the event on the Sunday will remain an integral part of the festival, and will enjoy a makeover with an all-new route through the Coventry and Warwickshire countryside.  New indoor activities, made possible by the move to Stoneleigh, will include a major showcase of transport-related technological and manufacturing innovations currently taking place throughout the region, organised in conjunction with the Imagineering Foundation, as well as nostalgic celebrations of Coventry’s engineering heritage.

Bob Shanks, Chairman of the Imagineering Foundation said:

“The Festival of Motoring has for many years beautifully celebrated Coventry’s place as the historical centre of the motoring world, and now we are keen to add to that celebration by showing off the range of work which is still happening throughout the region.  We have engaged companies large and small, as well as many of our local universities, all of whom are looking forward to having the chance to display their work.  The wonderful indoor spaces at Stoneleigh offer the possibility of accommodating such an exhibition as part of the Festival for the first time.”

Ian Pegler, Chief Executive of Stoneleigh Park said:

“We are absolutely delighted to welcome the Coventry Festival of Motoring to Stoneleigh Park in 2012. With more than 800 acres of stunning countryside, over 21,000 square metres of indoor exhibition space, and parking for 30,000 cars - Stoneleigh Park is the perfect setting for this iconic, well-loved festival that proudly celebrates Coventry and Warwickshire’s rich engineering history. We have no doubt that next year the festival will be bigger and better than ever and it will be an honour to see it here at Stoneleigh Park.”

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