Land Rover Fest

The sun played its part as thousands of people flocked to Solihull for the Land Rover Fest.

The festival took place over the weekend (June 22 to 24) across the town to mark 70 years of Land Rover production in the town.

The weekend started in style with a procession of 16 iconic Land Rover’s from the last seven decades being driven from the Lode Lane plant to Mell Square.

Drivers included the Mayor of Solihull, Flo Nash, long service employees and Roger Crathorne known as ‘Mr Land Rover’, who was born on Lode Lane and dedicated over 50 years of his life to the company. They met a very warm reception in Mell Square from car enthusiasts and employees.

One such person to come to the festival to relive old memories was Fred Bostock. The 97-year-old retired colleague was reunited with two historic vehicles he’d worked on – the first pre-production Series 1 – HUE 166 and the famous missing prototype 7 first shown at the Amsterdam Motorshow in 1948.

There was plenty on offer including an outdoor cinema, a drive experience area and a Defender arts trail in which 10 specially commissioned, cardboard Land Rover Defenders were placed around the town centre and adorned with a unique design created by a range of Land Rover ambassadors, artists, and community and charity partners.

There was also a Red Cross Land Rover Discovery on display – this special adapted vehicle with unique drone technology for the charity to use in disaster zones around the world.

The plant opened its doors to tours around the aluminium bodyshop which has over 600 robots where friends and family could see the Range Rover Velar in production.

The weekend was topped off with a flypast by the Red Arrows over the town centre and over the Lode Lane plant to commemorate 70 years of Land Rover.