On a beautifully sunny, and at times rather windy, weekend in June, thousands of air-cooled Volkswagen (VW) enthusiasts gathered in Long Ashton for a celebration of VWs and VW culture for Volksfest’s 31^st year. A family run and organised operation that started as a small show on a playing field in Southmead in 1992, the event has grown to welcome around 5,000 people each day and now takes place on Birches Farm.

Visitors enjoyed monster truck displays, off roading experiences, extreme BMX and parkour, chilli eating competition, live music, wrestling and specialist club display, all culminating in the famous ‘Show and Shine’ on Sunday morning featuring some of the finest VWs in the country hoping to come away with some unique silverware by entering in to a variety of competition categories.

Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) were the festival’s headline charity partner for 2024, meaning we enjoyed lots of wonderful advertising in the festival programme, video play on the big screens next to the main stage and we had the opportunity to collect donations at a number of points on site, also giving a presentation in one of the main arenas.

Peter Ashby, festival organiser, wrote in the programme ‘Being a petrol head it was really interesting to learn that GWAAC responded to 377 roadside accidents in 2023. A common misconception is that the air ambulance is part of the NHS, but this life saving service relies entirely on fundraising and donations, which is just one of the many reasons that we chose to partner up with them this year. Please help us support this amazing charity.’

We had a fantastically positioned pitch giving us the opportunity to have lots of great conversations with people of Bristol and beyond, sell raffle tickets and engage with people keen to learn more about GWAAC and donate. The company running the off roading experiences, Oddball Customs, were kind enough to take a bucket for the weekend where people could donate to GWAAC to enjoy a ride in the passenger seat. And barber, Mack Daddy, took donations for GWAAC in return for onsite haircuts.

Enormous thanks to all the volunteers, staff members, former patient Simon and Operations Officer Tim Ross-Smith, representing the crew, and family for their time over the weekend. Whether helping set up or pack down our stall, collecting donations, chatting to festival goers, teaching CPR, or doing a stint as our Charlie Bear mascot, we couldn’t have done it without such a wonderful, enthusiastic team.

We were delighted to have 16 volunteers from corporate partner Natwest and 4 from The Event Booker who were a massive help in welcoming weekend campers and parking them up safely.

One Natwest volunteer said ‘…probably the hardest days work I have done in a long time, but wow had so much fun and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Had some lovely conversations with people attending and had such a great sense of achievement afterwards.’

Tim and Simon delivered a short presentation in one of the main arenas on Saturday, talking to festival goers about the critical care GWAAC crew deliver and sharing Simon’s story. There was great engagement from spectators who loved seeing the critical care car with its blue lights and many people came over to the stall following to ask more about us.

Three Heartstarters volunteers taught CPR and AED skills on the Saturday. Volunteer Martha shared her experience of the day:

“Our rough total of people taught was 40 - a huge range of ages and backgrounds and we all felt really inspired by some of the stories we heard:

We taught an 8-year-old called Adam and his mum, who told me only a week prior Adam had pointed out a man was unconscious on the road whilst his mum was driving. They went back and called 999 but did not perform CPR as the man was surrounded by used needles and they realised it was dangerous. Adam wanted to come over because HE wanted to know what to do if he ever saw another unconscious person and if it was safe to approach next time. He did so well, he told me all about the defibs that are near his home and school, and even practised putting on the defib with his mum doing CPR on the manikin. 

We spoke to another friendly person who was about the same age (I did not catch his name) who told us that a month ago his dad had suffered a cardiac arrest because of a genetic heart problem. He arrived at the stand with his mum and two little brothers (1 year and 2 years old) and asked if we could teach him how he can do CPR like his mum did for his dad, so he can help his dad if it happens again and his mum is not there. He went on to ask exactly how to do it if it was his brothers because he knows small people need different CPR.  We also got to show him and his mum how to find out where their nearest defibrillator is. 

We also spoke to aspiring paramedics and lifeguards, we talked to a family that had managed to do a long run CPR on a beach in Cornwall whilst they waiting for Cornwall Air Ambulance to land, all sorts really! I would say all round a big success.”

All in all, a fantastic weekend and a chance for us to raise essential funds and awareness for GWAAC amongst a great number of local people and road users. Thanks again to everyone who helped to make it happen.