TankFest
Date: June 22nd 2024.
TankFest is a annual event staged at the Bovington Tank Museum in Wiltshire. In addition to TankFest they run two additional display days in April and September called Tiger Day. On Tiger day the world‘s only Tiger 1 ,(Tiger 131), is used in the display. On the TankFest day the working tanks from the collection other than the Tiger put on a demonstration.
The forecast for the day was fine and sunny and so it turned out to be with the temperatures in the in the low 20s and a cloudless sky.
My attendance was more because of it was an interesting day out seeing the old tanks on display rather than static in the museum, and less about the photography. I expected it to be hard to get an interesting photograph and saw the photography more is just a record record of the day. The Sun was almost directly above the display arena, giving harsh light.
I left home at 5:30 am as it was a three hour drive, (150 miles), to Bovington. I arrived at 8:30. I parked and walked the quarter of a mile to the showground entrance. On completion of the ticket check and bag search the first thing to come across were the reenactors. There was a large tented village and reenactors representing Americans, British, German and Finnish troops present. Beyond the reenactors area was the tank compound, this is where the tanks that were due to take part in the display arena were parked ready for the display. Prior to the opening of the show this was open for everyone to wander around and have a close look. The show was due to start at 10:45 am so I still had plenty of time to visit the museum and make use of the facilities and grab a coffee.
I had purchased a ticket to the photographic area, this is new this year, which gave a ringside view for a limited number of photographers. This cost an additional £20 and was well worth the money as, there was plenty of room and you could move around in two different areas to get a variety of shots. Highly recommended.
The order of the display was in chronological order, starting with World War I tanks involved in a small re-enactors skirmish. This was then followed by the inter war years talking about the development of the British tank. After a short break, this was followed by a display of the World War II tanks in the collection. This took us to lunchtime. After lunch it recommenced with the evolution of the Centurion tank in all its varieties, and this was followed by a long session involving the Cold War period tanks from Britain, France, America and the Soviet Union. The show was due to finish with vehicles from the modern British army. This was of less interest to me so I took the opportunity to leave 30 minutes early to get out of the car park and make a quick getaway.
It was very good day, I thought good value for money, but a long drive over three hours, each way. When I’ve been before I had travelled down and stayed locally the night before which was a much better plan. But this year travelling down from Northumberland the day before had precluded this. Whether I attend tank fest again next year, I’m not sure I think I’m tempted to, go to one of the Tiger Day events and see what that’s like.
