Thoughts on Japfest this year?
 

Hey guys and girls, just wondering what your experiences were of Japfest this year?

I had a great day, 15 mins to get in, 20 mins to get out

Lucky for some! Took us 4.5 hours to get in! We were not impressed! What we saw was good though

I wasn't overly impressed, was a good day out, but that's more to do with the people.

Was a mental amount of people there this year! Gonna go there extra early next year me thinks!

If you was displaying then you could get in earlier couldnt you???

Also took us over 3hrs to do the last 5 miles which we wasnt impressed also as left at 7am so time we got in was about 1.45 so would have been nice to had a bit more time to look around instead of rushing about,but hey ho if we went next year would leave even earlier.

But in the last month we have been to

btcc at thruxton
goodwood breakfast club
bhp show at lydden
japfest

and we all said the one we preffered was the bhp show at lydden.

apart from the poor lad who got hit in the head by a stone that was thrown up from one of the drift cars and got knocked out and ended up with a fractured skull

I was on stand and clean by 7'15 ;)

The problem is that they have these problems every year (not always as bad as this time round) yet nothing is done about it.

They much earn a nice few £££ from it, so maybe time to invest that in another entrance and more marshalls?

There are other gates, but the local roads can't handle the amount of cars... They woul need more roads lol

It's the biggest Jap event in Europe, think its out grown the venue

There are other gates, but the local roads can't handle the amount of cars... They would need more roads lol

It's the biggest Jap event in Europe, think its out grown the venue

As opposed to a fractured skull in the leg? ;)

by the numbers of people turned away,(pre bought tickets and track time too)the event was oversold!
and the fact that on their facebook site they have taken probably 90%of the complaints down i would imagine their pretty happy with themselves

I had a great day, left Reading at 630 with Berkshire Scoobies, we got in around 730 and didnt have to queue at all, however we did take a short cut that bought us out practically opposite Gate C that we needed, so probably avoided the queue coming from the other direction. Getting out was just as simple, no traffic at all, think I left about 4ish though.

I think that they should only allow entry to those who are displaying cars, it would still be bloody busy but you would know that everyone in there is a genuine jap car fan. Taking cash on the gate and getting to capacity, knowing you have people outside who have paid for advanced tickets is just bang out of order, in fact, it is probably fraud. I wonder how long it will be before they acknowledge the complaints on facebook.

Left home 06.00, 2.5 hours to get there, stopeed in jams 3.4 miles away and took a further 3 hours to get in. A complete and utter fookin joke.

Its all very well saying gettheir earlier, and yes if iwas on my own i would have left home at 04.30 am, but with kids, thats a no no.

I agre with Anger, its too big for the venue, they eithetr need a new venue with better access or make it two day event withy camping etc.

What i will say, is once i got in, Me and my two boys thouroughly enjoyed it, but thats mainly becasue of the club and people i was with.

oops:cuckoo:

Have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the day but, based on the comments I've read on Facebook, I can see why there were a lot of pissed off people!

A car event of this size, at a track only served by local roads, is sure to produce congestion and queues when trying to get in. That situation obviously isn't helped when people don't read the instructions and approach the circuit using the wrong exit from the motorway. To be honest I was expecting a queue, though we were definately in it longer than we have been in previous years.

Seems to me though that the organisers either poorly planned the event (or just got greedy) as, based on how much they had been going on about "the biggest car club turnout so far" and "most amount of tickets pre-sold ever", you think there would have been a check on tickets sold on the gate. It seems they just continued to allow tickets to be sold and people to pour in though, up until the point when the gates were closed.

Some of the club patches seemed tiny as well: I thought we got cheated with our patch, but reading comments from some other car clubs, I don't feel as hard done by now!

After going for a walk around the track.... I can't see why they squeeze us in and leave the far side empty

I rearly injoyed my day I did get lucky with the trafic though. The track time was wicked :) thats the problem with moving tracks castle coombe is very good :)

I think Japfest has out grown Castle Combe.

Despite being stuck in the queues on the way there it was fine. Was the most packed in terms of attendance I have ever seen.

I feel for the folks who got turned away regardless of if they has pre booked tickets etc.


I thought there was a lot of dirt bags there this year. But maybe thats me getting older?


Steve