Volkswagen Minivan’s 60th anniversary
To celebrate the Volkswagen Minivan’s 60th anniversary, Volkswagen has organized a three-day affair at the Hanover Trade Fair grounds last October 5 to October 7. This official and very successful event was then aptly titled “International VW Bus Meeting”.
The said minivan festivities were launched on Friday with a “historic automobile convoy” of over 3,500 VW Buses, parading from the Volkswagen factory and down to the event’s hosting grounds. It was said that participating Volkswagen van fans have travelled from all over the world for this event, with people coming in from Russia, Portugal, France, The Ukraine, Denmark, Australia, Poland, the UK, and Holland. It was quite an interesting parade, with VW vans coming in from various decades and models. When all these participating vans gathered for the key events, the total area covered was a staggering 255,000 square meters.
As part of the program, there were competitions highlighting different aspects of the VW Minivans, from the oldest, most original, and most beautiful minivans in every generation.
Saturday marked the special, open-air concert by British rock icons, The Who, which then attracted 44,000 people. The song, ‘Magic Bus’, was a hit to the crowd, especially when played with a backdrop of video footages of the ‘split-screen’ Volkswagen T1 from the 1950’s to the fifth generation models seen today.
A covered stage is also present in the Hanover event as a makeshift exhibit to display 100 historic models from the Volkswagen Museum, including the original diagram or sketch from 1947.
As a backgrounder, the first VW minivan was designed in 1947 by Volkswagen Importer Ben Pon. Launching was made in 1949 at the Geneva Motor Show, and official production began in 1950 at Wolfsburg. IT was called as the VW Type II, as the VW Beetle was already acquired the Type 1 name. After that, the VW Minivan then worked its way into automotive history as an icon in a number of countries’ pop culture.
Indeed, the Hanover event was a very successful commemmoration of the VW Minivan. All in all, Volkswagen estimated that besides the tens of thousands spectators gracing the event, there were 11,500 visitors that camped overnight in their Volkswagen vans.