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MotoFest Launches New “Classic” Event For 2026

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MotoFest Launches New “Classic” Event For 2026

The team behind the huge MotoFest festival have launched a new heritage themed event for 2026. MotoFest Classic will run on the 6th & 7th of June 2026 in Coventry city centre.

The event will be a celebration of Coventry’s automotive heritage and its contribution to transport history around the world, featuring a city centre full of classic vehicles. The weekend will fire up with the Motorcycle Ride-in and Coventry’s beautiful Cathedral Ruins will host the 40th anniversary celebrations of the Jaguar XJ-40. Motorsport will be a part of the weekend with the popular Autotest Championship taking place in an arena created under Coventry’s famous Ring Road near Gosford Street.

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said: “We are looking forward hosting our first MotoFest Classic. Coventry is the spiritual home of the automotive industry and in a city so rich with car and motorcycle history, we are delighted to be welcoming enthusiasts from across the world to celebrate that heritage with us.”

The 6th & 7th June will feature a number of events dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage.

MotoFest takes a break for 2025. But there’s still a lot happening on 31st May & 1st June

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MotoFest takes a break for 2025. But there’s still a lot happening on 31st May & 1st June

The huge MotoFest Coventry festival which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, will take a break for 2025, but there is still a lot going on. As well as regular Club MotoFest activity in and around Coventry taking place throughout the year, a smaller weekend of events will be held in Saturday 31st May and Sunday 1st June.

Many popular elements of the big festival will still be featured including the impressive classic vehicle displays in Broadgate, Coventry Concours in the Cathedral Ruins, and live motorsport in the Autotest Arena in Gosford Street under the famous Ring Road.

The weekend will fire up with the Motorcycle Ride-in which will still lap the Ring Road even though it will be fully open to regular traffic this year. This will be quickly followed by One Big Alarm which will feature on both Saturday and Sunday. The parade of police and emergency vehicles from around the world has proved a huge hit with festival goers in recent years and this year will fill Millennium Place in front of Coventry Transport Museum after they have completed their morning wake up call.

Jaguar will take a starring role over the weekend with special displays celebrating 50 years of the Jaguar XJS around the Coventry Concours area. Further content announcements will follow in the coming weeks.

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said: “After 10 amazing years we felt it was right for MotoFest to take a break for 2025. But we couldn’t do nothing, and with 50 years of the Jaguar XJS to celebrate, a round of the Autotest Championship to host, parades, displays, and our award winning Coventry Concours all taking place, the weekend of the 31st May and 1st June will still be very special. MotoFest will be back in future years with exciting developments in live city centre motorsport in development”.

The 31st May and 1st June will feature a number of events dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage.

For more details, visit https://www.coventrymotofest.com/     

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MotoFest Coventry and FIA World Rallycross Championship “in talks” with the aim of hosting a street race on ring road circuit

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Rallycross Championship “in talks” with the aim of hosting a street race on ring road circuit

MotoFest Coventry, sponsored by E.ON. has revealed it is in “advanced talks” with the FIA World Rallycross Championship to host a round of the World RX championship on its unique sprint circuit, created from the city’s ring road.

The FIA World Rallycross Championship is aiming to host a street race at MotoFest Coventry in 2025, after engaging in advanced discussions with the UK’s largest free to attend annual motoring and motorsport festival event.

Buoyed by the tremendous success of World RX’s inaugural downtown event in Hong Kong last November, Rallycross Promoter is working hard to bring the spectacular dual-surface discipline to more city-centres, to introduce its irresistible no-holds-barred blend of fast-paced entertainment and doorhandle-to-doorhandle duels to swathes of new audiences.

The series will this year race full-speed ahead into its eagerly anticipated new ‘Battle of Technologies’ era, pitting cutting-edge electric RX1e machinery directly against sustainably-fuelled combustion cars for the first time.

There has been no street circuit in Britain since the days of the Birmingham Superprix, which hosted single-seater, touring car and sportscar competition from 1986 to 1990 – but a feasibility study conducted by internationally-renowned track designer Driven International has determined that one could be constructed in the UK’s ‘Motor City’ to stage a rallycross event*.

A proposed layout has already been drafted with the support and input of Kevin Hansen, 2023 FIA World Rallycross Championship runner-up, and over the next few months, a period of consultation will take place with partners and importantly local residents to agree how the project can be taken forward.

The World RX championship round would form part of an extended MotoFest Coventry festival weekend, sitting alongside its current well-established sprint circuit programme, including the British Automobile Racing Club’s (BARC) Connaught Speed Championship Rounds.

MotoFest Coventry will also continue to host its dedicated Crewsade Drift Arena, live action arenas, dynamic and static car displays and full entertainment programme across the festival weekend.

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said: “MotoFest Coventry is hugely excited to have entered into advanced discussions with the FIA World Rallycross Championship promoter to host a World RX round at our 2025 festival weekend.

“We have made no secret in the past of our ambition to stage competitive motorsport on Coventry Ring Road and having successfully delivered closed-road time trials, we are now driving forward with the next phase of that plan. With a track design drawn up by Driven International, we are close to having all the pieces in place for this ambitious project.

“We are now actively seeking commercial partners to provide the necessary infrastructure and finance required to turbocharge our ambitions and take the plan off the start line.

“With the ambition to stage exhilarating, all-electric racing on our unique city centre sprint circuit, we are taking MotoFest Coventry to the next level by putting the event at the heart of sustainable motorsport for now and the future.  

“This is a massive opportunity to showcase Coventry’s motoring past with a project that will help secure its future as a city at the heart of transport innovation and development.”  

Arne Dirks, Managing Director, Rallycross Promoter, said: “Since being appointed promoter of this championship, one thing that has been clear to us is rallycross’ enormous potential to appeal to new audiences – a point very well-illustrated by the phenomenal success of our inaugural city-centre event in Hong Kong last year. That was a real ‘milestone’ moment and has encouraged us to explore further metropolitan locations.

“MotoFest Coventry has solidly established itself as one of the UK’s most popular car-themed events, and after being introduced to James [Noble – Festival Director] and his team, we quickly agreed that we share a common vision – to bring maximum entertainment to as many people as possible in a dynamic downtown setting. We are excited to continue working together as we investigate the possibility of incorporating World RX into MotoFest in 2025 and beyond.”

Andrew Wheatley, Road Sport Director, Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), added: “Following the success of World RX’s first event in Hong Kong last year, it’s great to see Rallycross Promoter pushing ahead with its plans to bring the sport to more city centres. The compact footprint and intense, high-energy nature of rallycross make it well-suited to an urban environment, and with its strong sustainability credentials, Coventry would be an ideal location. We look forward to seeing how this exciting project develops.”

Celebrating all things automotive past, present and future, MotoFest Coventry is the Midlands region’s most well-attended annual event, attracting in excess of 200,000 visitors, and is estimated to bring in a £10 million boost to the regional economy.

The £10m figure was calculated in an independent peer reviewed postgraduate study by Coventry University, working in partnership with Coventry Business Improvement District (BID), sponsors and exhibitors.

Based on average spend, business uplift, visitor footfall and hotel occupancy rates, the number crunching revealed the event injected approximately £10m into the local economy and the wider region.

MotoFest Coventry is a two-day festival dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage. This year’s event takes place on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June. It will feature a unique blend of racing demonstrations, static displays, live music and anything else with a connection to Coventry, transport and the city’s motoring heritage.  

Editor’s Notes:

For any media enquiries, interview or photo requests please contact Mark McLachlan on 0121 362 1630 or 07831 308133, or e-mail mark.mclachlan@waachosen.co.uk

IDestroy headliner to turbo boost Music at MotoFest

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IDestroy headliner to turbo boost Music at MotoFest

The MotoFest music line-up, in partnership with BBC Introducing West Midlands, is to be headlined by IDestroy, with the punk pop all girl band set to add a turbo charged boost to MotoFest Coventry’s big Saturday night music event. 

The free-to-attend MotoFest concert, taking place Saturday 1 June at Warwick Road in the city centre, will see the Bristol-based trio bring their riotous live show to Coventry as they headline a diverse musical line-up packed full of emerging talent.

First formed as a band in 2015, the trio who met as students in Bristol, have played more than 300 gigs across the UK, Europe and Asia, selling out shows in South Korea and multiple tours in Germany.

IDestroy’s debut album, We Are Girls, was released in February 2021 and is a party-punk album that reflects the energy and chaos of their live shows.

There is sharp commentary in its ten spiky songs, from the ‘hands-off’ warning of punchy lead single Petting Zoo to the title track’s ire at the obstacles faced by female musicians.

The album’s title track also featured on Spotify’s editorial PRIDE playlist in collaboration with Punka.

We Are Girls was met with critical acclaim from publications such as The Daily Mirror, Classic Rock and The Sunday Times, who described the album as having “catchy choruses, caustic wit and clever production that captures their ferocious live sound”.

Radio play is also rapidly gaining traction too, with airplay from Jack Saunders (BBC Radio 1), Steve Lamacq (BBC Radio 6 Music), Amy Lamé (BBC Radio 6 Music), Janice Long (BBC Radio Wales), Frank Skinner (Absolute Radio) alongside continued support and playlisting from Radio X, Planet Rock, Ireland’s RTÉ 2fm and US station Sirius XM.

IDestroy will take to the stage at 11pm, the final band to appear on a bill filled with upcoming bands and solo artists, many of whose talents have been showcased regularly on MotoFest After Party partner, BBC Introducing West Midlands’s, shows. 

The line-up on Saturday from midday onwards includes Flora Fiora, Better Luck, Luna Kiss Ewan Whyte and Kanda. On Sunday, again from midday onwards, the line-up includes Nath Brooks. Dolly Mavies, Duke Keats and Alice Lily, to finish the day’s programme.

Jeremy Heaver, MotoFest Coventry Director and main organiser of the MotoFest BBC Introducing Stage, said, “The MotoFest After Party is designed to showcase the best emerging UK musical talent and what better way to achieve that than have BBC Introducing West Midlands as our event partner for the main stage.

“The line-up for this year is a strong one with solo artists and bands already championed across BBC Introducing’s West Midlands programmes and now set to showcase their talents to the MotoFest Coventry audience.

“Our headline act IDestory are a trio of rising stars who have themselves been given airplay on BBC Introducing’s national shows. They are making a huge impact with their live shows across the UK and Europe and will be a fitting finale to our Saturday night programme.

“With music stages and our food and drink village, including a range of pop-up bars, we are excited to offer a true entertainment extravaganza with something for everyone across the festival weekend.”

For those wanting to enjoy an early preview of all the amazing music on the BBC Introducing West Midlands stage on offer at the BBC Introducing Stage, visit the MotoFest BBC Introducing playlist on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4dUQ2u4

The musical feast served up at MotoFest’s BBC Introducing Stage is part of a broader entertainment menu featuring a host of activities. In addition to the main concert on Saturday night, there will be live music across both days with various stages featuring local Coventry and West Midlands performers and community groups.

MotoFest Coventry, sponsored by E.ON, is a two-day festival dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage, taking place on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June. It will feature a unique blend of racing demonstrations, static displays, live music and anything else with a connection to Coventry, transport and the city’s motoring heritage.

Editor’s Notes: For any media enquiries, interview or photo requests please contact Mark McLachlan on 0121 362 1630 or 07831 308133, or e-mail mark.mclachlan@waachosen.co.uk

We celebrate our ten-year anniversary with turbo-charged sprint circuit programme

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We celebrate our ten-year anniversary with turbo-charged sprint circuit programme

MotoFest Coventry will celebrate its tenth anniversary year with a turbo charged programme on the unique city centre sprint circuit with Group B Rally cars, competitive time trialling, vintage race cars, and the return of the ‘One Big Alarm’ vehicle parade.

On the unique MotoFest Coventry Sprint Circuit, created from the city’s ring road, Rallying With Group B, a community of enthusiasts, car owners and service suppliers, will stage dynamic displays of cars from rallying’s golden era, including the iconic Group B cars.

The era of the Group B Rally cars began in 1982 and ended in 1986, but in just a four-year period they assumed legendary status. The Group B class saw a relaxation of the rules that allowed manufacturers to truly go all out with zero restrictions on horsepower, torque output and wildly pronounced aero kits.

It resulted in a class of ultra-powerful and extremely lightweight race cars that were both dazzling and dangerous in equal measure.  They helped define one of the most significant eras in motorsport and at MotoFest Coventry, cars from the Group B Class will take visitors back in time as these motoring monsters take to the track again.

Further sprint circuit highlights will include the British Automobile Racing Club’s (BARC) Connaught Speed Championship Rounds 8 and 9, a now established part of MotoFest’s competitive motorsports programme, with time-trialling taking place on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

As in previous years, the sprint will see one practice run and one competitive run during the first sessions on Saturday and Sunday, followed by two competitive runs during a second session later each day.

The ‘One Big Alarm’, billed by organisers last year as the city’s Sunday morning “wake-up call”, will also make a noisy return to the festival. It will again see 30-plus UK and US police and emergency heritage vehicles make their way through the city with full sirens blaring, before entering on to the MotoFest circuit for a parade lap.

Further sprint circuit highlights include the traditional motorcycle Ride In, starting this year from The Shilton Arms, in Coventry, which will again be the curtain raiser for the weekend’s main festival programme.

As part of their 90th anniversary year, The Vintage Sports-Car Club (VSCC), will appear at MotoFest Coventry, as a prelude to their main celebrations later in the year.

VSCC members and their cars will attend MotoFest 2024 to take part in a series of dynamic and static displays, in what is set to be one of the most spectacular highlights of the festival.

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said: “We are marking our ten-year anniversary with an action-packed programme of closed roads motorsport, dynamic displays and vehicle parades on MotoFest’s unique Ring Road Sprint Circuit.

“There are the BARC sprint championship rounds, Group B rally cars, vintage race cars, the One Big Alarm vehicle parade, the Ride-In and some soon to be announced special guest drivers and cars. It’s a line-up designed to celebrate our unique Ring Road Sprint Circuit and its place at the heart of the event. 

“There really is something for everyone to enjoy, as we get revved up for a fantastic weekend full of turbo charged thrills and high-octane entertainment.”

As well as the BARC Connaught Speed Championship, MotoFest Coventry will also host an official round of the British Autotest championship. There will also be an array of modern and historic race vehicles performing in dynamic displays on the 1.6-mile sprint circuit in the Sports and Performance section of the programme.

MotoFest Coventry is a two-day festival dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage, taking place on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June. It will feature a unique blend of racing demonstrations, static displays, live music and anything else with a connection to Coventry, transport and the city’s motoring heritage.

  

Editor’s Notes: For any media enquiries, interview or photo requests please contact Mark McLachlan on 0121 362 1630 or mobile 07831 308133 or e-mail mark.mclachlan@waachosen.co.uk

Our classic car programme to celebrate the best of Coventry’s heritage

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Our classic car programme to celebrate the best of Coventry’s heritage

Motofest Coventry is gearing up for another classic Coventry Concours show with an array of automotive hometown heroes set to line up as part of the ‘Coventry Connections’ theme for this year’s show.

The Coventry Concours has attracted 36 entries for this year’s show, with many of the hometown marques represented, including a 1950 Jaguar XK120 that has already previously made its mark in various premium shows. The Jaguar XK120 wins have included the Jaguar Drivers Club Champion of Champions and also the Meguiars Concours in 2023 and is set to be one of the most interesting contenders of the weekend. 

The main show theme of ‘Coventry Connections’ will include cars that were designed in Coventry, manufactured in Coventry, or have a strong link to Coventry, such as DeLorean, whose head office was based in the city.

The Coventry Concours  – a premium show for vintage, classic cars and motorcycles – will take place on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June, as part of the main MotoFest Coventry weekend programme.

As with previous years, the Coventry Cathedral Ruins will again provide an atmospheric backdrop to proceedings, enabling Coventry Concours to emulate the glamour and glitz of globally renowned Concours D’elegance such as the Valetta and Hampton Court events.

It will also feature a celebrity judging panel, a number of whom are Sustainable Skills Networks Ambassadors representing one of the event’s co-hosts, Association of Heritage Engineers (AoHE). The judging panel will feature Sarah Crabtree, from TV’s Bangers and Cash fame, YouTube channel host Iain Tyrrell, Dominic Taylor-Lane, founder of the Association of Heritage Engineers and Marc Allum, a resident expert on the BBC 1 Antiques Road Show.

Dominic Taylor-Lane said: “It’s fantastic to be involved again in the Coventry Concours and playing my role in organising and judging what is fast becoming a very popular show.

“As with previous shows, the Coventry Concours team has drawn together a stunning collection of very special vehicles, which will help to further secure its place on the annual calendar of classic vehicle events.”

James Noble, MotoFest Coventry Festival Director, said, “We are all set for another fantastic Coventry Concours show, with the popularity growing year on year.

“There is again the opportunity for visitors to enjoy beautiful, premium heritage cars and motorcycles showcasing the best of Coventry’s car and motorcycle manufacturing expertise in an atmospheric setting.

“We also have our classic car displays across the city, with hundreds of vehicles being showcased, as we again celebrate the city’s motoring heritage with another incredibly strong classic car programme.”

The inaugural Coventry Concours took place in 2021, following on from a successful online ‘Coventry Concours’ event in June 2020.

In 2023, the hometown heroes of the Coventry Concours were best friends Michael and Neil, who worked as trained engineers at Jaguar for a combined total of 55 years. They decided to showcase their love of Jaguars by entering their 1977 Jaguar XJ Coupe into last year’s event and won not only best in class, but the overall best in show award as well.

As part of MotoFest past, present and future theme, there will be the traditional classic car, modern modified car and motorcycle static displays across the city centre, with over 300 cars and bikes so far registered for this year’s event. 

With a significant future technology focus, MotoFest Coventry will feature a showcase of the latest alternatively fuelled vehicles, electric cars and advanced automotive technology. 

MotoFest Coventry is a two-day festival dedicated to the city of Coventry’s motoring heritage, taking place on Saturday 1 June and Sunday 2 June. It will feature a unique blend of racing demonstrations, static displays, live music and anything else with a connection to Coventry, transport and the city’s motoring heritage.  

Editor’s Notes:

For any media enquiries, interview or photo requests please contact Mark McLachlan on 0121 362 1630 or 07831 308133, or e-mail mark.mclachlan@waachosen.co.uk