Wolfsburg: A must for GTI fans 🎥
The GTI Fan Festival in Wolfsburg from July 26 to 28, 2024 offered an unforgettable experience for all GTI and Volkswagen fans. With over 700 vehicles, celebrity guests and exciting activities, visitors experienced a true celebration of automotive culture.
A legendary meeting
From July 26 to 28, the area around the Volkswagen Arena in Wolfsburg was transformed into a GTI Fan City. Under the motto "Icons Coming Home", the international GTI community gathered for a big party. Well-known personalities such as Andreas Mindt, Benny Leuchter and Hans-Joachim Stuck shared their GTI anecdotes and offered insights into the history and future of the brand. Sarah Elsser and Philipp Kaess hosted the event and provided informative and entertaining moments.
With an impressive attendance of 15,000 visitors and over 700 GTI and R owners proudly presenting their vehicles, the festival was a special highlight of the year. Among the guests was the Swiss GTI community, which had traveled from Switzerland with all eight generations of the Golf GTI to celebrate the diversity and history of the GTI. As the GTI meetings at Lake Wörthersee had attracted up to 200,000 visitors in some cases since 1982, the municipality decided to cancel the event in 2023 after more than 40 years for sustainability reasons. In Wolfsburg, the meeting now took place for the first time under the new name GTI Fanfest.
Activities for young and old
In addition to the vehicle presentations, there were numerous activities: sneaker customizing, food trucks, live music and much more. Children could look forward to a bungee trampoline, racing simulators and other exciting attractions. A special highlight was the large vehicle parade on Sunday, in which around 200 GTI and R models drove around the factory grounds. Volkswagen Motorsport and apprentices also presented specially modified show cars.
Insights into electromobility
Volkswagen also presented the sporty GTX variants of the ID. models and the ID. GTI concept car, which provided a glimpse of the brand's electric future. With over 700 vehicles, prominent guests and numerous activities, the GTI Fan Festival in Wolfsburg was a special highlight for all GTI and Volkswagen fans and will certainly be remembered for a long time to come.
Special moments and highlights
The fan festival also offered culinary delights such as the famous Volkswagen currywurst as well as DJ and live music, with singer-songwriter Michael Schulte rocking the stage on Saturday evening. For fashion and lifestyle fans, the new GTI collection was a highlight, as was the exclusive GTI sneaker, a special limited edition that was only available at the festival.
The appearance of influencer Jean Pierre Kraemer (JP Performance) with his "Thunder Bunny" and the presentation of the particularly spectacular models from Volkswagen Motorsport as well as vehicles modified by VW apprentices were further highlights of the festival. A mobile dynamometer in the community parking lot provided additional excitement.
The Swiss community
Particularly impressive was the participation of the Swiss GTI community, who drove around 800 kilometers to Wolfsburg on their own. Despite some technical challenges, such as repairing the oldest Golf GTI from 1976, the community was enthusiastic and is already planning to take part in the next fan festival.
Simon Feierabend, one of the Swiss participants, drew a positive balance: "The proximity to the factory is great. As far as the program is concerned, I particularly liked the racing cars and the studies." The Swiss delegation was unanimous: "We'll be back!"
With this successful start, the GTI Fan Festival in Wolfsburg not only won the hearts of the fans, but also set a new benchmark for future meetings.
