Volkswagen is planning something of a homecoming for the Golf GTI as it is going to move the classic GTI festival traditionally held at Wörthersee.
Grown from a simple camp-out
Since 1982, the world's largest GTI club event has traditionally taken place at Lake Wörthersee in Austria - but the local municipality Maria Wörth recently, sadly, took the decision that it no longer wanted to host the annual event in future. The event had ballooned from a simple club camp-out to a sprawling festival that saw Volkswagen bringing secret concept cars, even allowing other VW group brands like Skoda to get in on the fun. Remember the lunatic W12-engined Golf? That was made as a one-off for Wörthersee.
Highlights and surprises
Still, don't fret that the Austrians don't want the festival anymore - Volkswagen says it's bringing GTI-fest home to its factory in Wolfsburg for 2024. "Our GTI fans are of great importance to Volkswagen and that's why the exchange with them is very dear to us," says Imelda Labbé, Member of the Board of Management for Sales, Marketing and After Sales at Volkswagen Passenger Cars. "For this reason, after the GTI Meeting at Lake Wörthersee was unfortunately cancelled, we decided pretty quickly to offer the GTI fan community in Wolfsburg a new home for the event. When planning the event, we also want to take into account the ideas of the fans, because it should above all be a meeting for them. Accordingly, we will certainly be able to offer some highlights and surprises in the coming year."
All-electric GTI?
Volkswagen has said that, as well as the usual stands, stage shows, and club meets, "there will be many other interesting events and surprises for GTI enthusiasts", so it sounds like the tradition of bringing along some GTI-themed concept cars hasn't died out just yet. Indeed, with VW recently confirming that the Golf GTI name will continue into the all-electric era, perhaps Wolfsburg 2024 will be the first sight of that new model. Well, we can dream...