Santa Pod is pretty well known for its race track days and events throughout the country. Since the mid 1980s it has been host to the biggest VW festival in Europe known fondly as Bug Jam.
We had sent our details in to perform at Bug Jam (recommended through the bloke who fitted our engine) and were contacted by the organisers to arrange a time. This was great news for us as we own a VW T4 and having played at the fantastic Wurzledubz (the most friendly VW festival) back in May would be a real treat for us as we had never been to a race track before.
We travelled down the day before and stayed at the cosy Cherwell Valley services. When we arrived it seemed we had been parked in the middle of a police operation and were swarmed by uncover police, Andy was having a whisky or two in the front and was becoming slightly paranoid as the police were shining their headlights right into the cab. The next morning after a peaceful night’s sleep we headed out for essentials and followed the signs for Santa Pod Raceway.
Upon entry we met security who told us were to collect our passes and proceeded to ask if we had any glass on board. I chirped up “we have the windows and our cups” without breaking a smile, he said “do you mind if I take a look?” Ha ha good luck with that, with all our equipment and the van not being its usual tidy self, he took one look in the back, had a quick scout about and said “that’s fine”. I often wonder in these types of circumstances if everyone gets searched, I understand the no glass rule at a festival this size as broken glass combined with 1000s of VWs driving around everywhere would be a complete nightmare, but it’s intriguing if I was say in extreme circumstances The Queen and Andy was The Duke himself rocking up in our trusty T4, sporting his shades and doing the wave, aside from the fact that I would probably be surrounded by at least ten police cars and MI5 would they whisk a bottle of Sherry off me and tell me to pour it into a plastic container? I shall have to go dressed as the queen next time and put it to the test, I could use a £10 note as my ID.
Once we got our tickets we drove round the site that was already full of camper-vans, tents and VW cars. The site itself is huge (alot bigger than I imagined) and has a quarter mile strip where you can “Run What Yer Brung” open to anybody who pays a fee, (you take your van/car, have a blast up the strip and get a record of your time). The weekend was filled with stunts, motorbikes, quad bikes and monster trucks as well as a 8,000 horsepower dragster powered by fire. Our performance was at 8pm in a large wig wam, we both loved the design of the wigwam and inside was furnished with sofas and large cushions. We introduced ourselves to the sound man at the desk told him of our requirements and then quickly ran up the strip to see the 270mph dragster. After a huge plume of smoke erupted from the starting grid a massive loud eruption of noise and thunder penetrates your whole body as it whizzes past at unbelievable speed. My adrenalin was pumping and once that rush was over we headed back to the wigwam.
On stage was a chap with a guitar called Dave (well he had to be called Dave). Dave had many friends with him; I think he must have been with one of the VW Clubs. Performing a rendition of The Wild Rover he added his own set of shall we say controversial lyrics for the verses. It was really humorous and cleverly rewritten; I don’t reckon I’ll ever listen to the original song in the same way ever again ha ha cheers Dave for putting those lovely clean images in my head.
Next it was our turn; we were pretty excited, although the live music was now in full swing on the main stage so the wig wam was slowly emptying. It’s every performer’s nightmare when a crowd starts to disperse before you’ve even played your first note. We did not despair and would perform to our small intimate crowd with the same enthusiasm as always. The people who stayed enjoyed the set and we sold some CDs afterwards, so all was well. Since we were the closing act for Bug Wam after our performance we ran across to the main stage to watch the amazing Hayseed Dixie to finish our night off. What a show they put on, such a talented bunch of musicians and a perfect end to the evening.
Later the next day we happened to bump into some musical friends of ours who we had no idea were attending; Zoe, Scott and Bex. It made the weekend perfect (except for the gale force wind) as we didn’t know anyone else at the festival and it gave us the perfect opportunity to dress up as space cats for the Saturday night (using tinfoil and neon paint) and go and watch some live music.
We thoroughly enjoyed the weekend; it was a weekend of complete madness, we saw some great live music, debated going on the bucking broncho, participated in drunk driving on the dodgems, saw many speeding races , caravans being crushed by Monster trucks, BMX Stunts and tons of other stuff. If it’s an adrenalin filled weekend your after then Bug Jam is for you, just don’t forget your ear plugs.
Thanks for having us Bug Jam, see you again next year.