TARTAN ARMY HEADS BACK TO GERMANY

The GTI brand got a new lease of life this year and the GTI festival a new home. James Attwood joined the celebrations

- James Attwood

The town of Reifnitz features typically Austrian buildings nestling alongside the glistening water of Lake Wörthersee, all set against the imposing backdrop of the Alps. Wolfsburg, meanwhile, has the industrial buildings of a massive car plant functionally arranged next to the slightly murky water of the artificially straightened Aller river, all set against the imposing backdrop of the huge chimneys of the Volkswagen factory's on-site power station.

In terms of visual splendour, the revived GTI festival - held in Wörthersee from 1982 until Austrian authorities canned it last year-in VW's Lower Saxony hometown was always going to suffer by comparison. It was unlikely to match up in terms of scale, either: the Wörthersee meet was axed in part because more than 200,000 spectators would often overwhelm the local area, including at unofficial spin-off events that would span weeks either side.

Wolfsburg certainly wasn't overwhelmed during the inaugural GTI Fan Fest, with the numbers of both cars and enthusiasts in attendance far more modest. But there was one common element between the two events: an incredible passion for all things VW, Golf and, especially, GTI.

VW's decision to stage this event was about more than just celebrating the proud past of its most famous badge: it was a promise for the future. A few years back, previous VW management was set to let both the Golf itself and the GTI name die, replaced by the GTX brand for electric cars. That changed quickly when Thomas Schäfer took over as CEO in 2022. And so, in a similar vein, did the future of the GTI festival.

"I couldn't believe it when I heard the Austrian authorities decided to cancel the event," said Schäfer, who immediately pitched the idea of VW hosting its own GTI festival to the board. "It was a quick decision. We didn't have to debate a lot."