From 21st
July to 24th July I was at Bug Jam at Santa Pod Raceway. For anyone who knows me you will know my love
for Formula 1 and cars that go fast, and for those of you who don’t know what
Bug Jam is then you better get reading.
Bug Jam is a
giant car festival with a VW (Volkswagen) theme.
People from around the world turn up to race, drink and be merry in
VW’s. I went with my mate Hiren, he is
the biggest VW fan I know and he has been going for the past 2 years. I am not a ‘dubba’ but I like racing and fast
cars and this festival has lots of that.
The only way I can describe the atmosphere is like the end of Fast and
Furious where they go to the desert to race Brian’s new Supra.
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| We are somewhere on the right |
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| Our first drink run, we topped it up |
I finished
work at 4pm on Thursday and rushed home threw my things in the back of Hiren’s
car and we started our Journey. We had
until 8pm to get to Santa Pod before they closed the doors otherwise we would
have to camp outside the race track until the next day. We thought we would be ok as it is a 2 and
half hour journey we would be fine. For
some reason that day every major road we needed was either closed or down to 1
lane. We ended up taking the B roads
through little villages and country lanes to avoid the motorways, at 8pm we
were 4 miles away from the race track hoping they would let us in. We rocked up at 8.20pm and they then informed
us that they don’t close the gate until 9pm.
Phew!
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| Our Camp |
We found
Hiren’s mate ‘Ishy’ , and Ishy’s friends Bob, Margret and their daughter Megan.
We cracked open the first of many ciders and pitched our tents and made friends
with the people around us. Immediately
you got a taste of how the festival was going to be, we had random people come
over to chat and have a beer… there was a general hippy like feeling of
friendship around the place.
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| Our Camp |
We woke up
early on Friday morning and Margret started cooked bacon for bacon
butties. So at 8am we cracked open a
cider to have with our bacon butties. We
loaded a back pack with some drinks and headed over to the main area where
there was a fun fair, a car lot for people selling their VW’s, a main stage for
bands, a couple of massive dance tents, markets, beer tents, food stalls, monster
trucks, a giant drag strip for racing and race teams setting up cars. We spent the afternoon there and then went
back for more drink. We came back to the
main area to watch the live bands and go to the dance tents. Honestly I cannot tell you what time we got
back to the tent, I don’t even know how I managed to misplace Hiren and Ishy,
but I got myself some fried chicken and headed back to camp. When I got there Hiren and Ishy were with
some random’s we met in the tent. Bob
and Margret were fast asleep since they left after the live bands. Our neighbours were 3 brothers from Wales, (I
think one was called Owen) I saw one of them sat on the roof of his yellow, ex
AA VW van… so like you do when you’re drunk… I climbed up and helped him drink
his beers. I sat there for a while then
thought, oh shit how do I get down. I
jumped down and stumbled to the people camping behind us. Had a drink with them sat by their fire and
decided to call it a night. In my head
it was about 12am. In reality I have no
idea.
I woke up to the sound of someone throwing up, it sounded like it was next to my head, turns out Hiren was being sick in the gap between my tent and Bob’s tent. Minger!
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| The View |
I started
Saturday in the same way I started Friday, a can of cider and a bacon
butty. We head into the main area and
had a drink in the beer tent walked round for a while and came back. Hiren was still feeling fragile and didn’t
touch any alcohol, I think we peer pressured him into having a beer and burger
and then he was back on it. The day was
so hot and sunny it felt like I was in Spain.
We went to the main bit again but this time we loaded Hiren’s little red
pull along wagon with a cooler box full of drink and chairs to watch “bug Jams
Got Talent” We sat in the middle of a black tarmacked carpark in front of the
main stage watching the show. I was
glowing red, my shoulders arms and the back of my neck were burnt, and I
thought I was born with natural sun block but it turns out I can burn. I’ve not had sun burn since I was 10years old
it was not fun. Whilst we were in the
main bit we got to see the jet engine car power along a quarter mile drag strip
from a standing start in just 5.5 second.
It was so loud I thought my ears were going to burst. It was mega!!!! We saw people take their pride and joy’s the
cars they spent thousands of pounds on and race them just to do something they
can’t do at home. It was insane. By the time we got to Saturday Night I
couldn’t drink anymore cider, it tasted like the smell of a portaloo, every
drink felt like I was swallowing acid. I
had drank too much cider and now I had indigestion and heart burn, they had
Scouting for Girls headlining the main stage, they were really good, but I had
sobered up and I wasn’t in the mood for shouting and chanting along to their
hits. We went in the dance tent for
about 30mins and then went back to the camp.
When we got there a lot of people had the same idea so we chilled with
the people camping behind us. I went to
bed about 3.30am as some wanker started lecturing about politics. Drinking and politics is not a good idea
people!
Sunday we
woke up early packed up and then waited for Ishy to contact some guys who he
had swapped his T4 Camper Van with. He
swapped it for a VW Caddy pick up… for no reason other than he could. We went for one last walk around the main
area and we were treated to see a customised VW Beetle eat up the drag
strip. It managed to nail a quarter mile
from a standing start in 8.5secs. The
crowd went wild! As we walked back to
the car to go home I felt a little sad it was a good weekend and I didn’t want
it to finish but at the same time I was tired and needed some modern luxuries
like warm water for a shower or a clean toilet.
On the way out we stopped over to swap Ishy’s van. Whilst emptying his stuff from the van to the
back of the pickup a guy came over to look at the bright yellow pick up, he
started talking to us he wanted to know if the Caddy was for sale. Hiren told
them they can have if for £5k as a joke and I believe that on the way home the
guy called Ishy and offered him some money for the car. 
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