Great Yarmouth’s Wheels Festival 2025 attracts record crowds

 

• Nearly 70,000 people flocked to Great Yarmouth seafront to enjoy its Wheels Festival at the weekend making it the busiest yet
• Crowds were treated to more than 1.5km of cars, trucks and motorcycles – from lovingly-restored classic, to souped up novelty vehicles, American cars, and emergency vehicles
• The free event served up non-stop action and street acts with world-class headliners motocross team Bolddog FMX, BMXTRAS, the Red Dragon Monster Ride Truck and madcap nun Musical Ruth
• The 2026 event date has been set as organisers Visit Great Yarmouth believe the weekend brought positive ‘ripple effect’ economic boost – last year’s event generated £49 for the local economy for every £1 invested

 

More than 68,500 people revelled in the fast, free and fun weekend mega extravaganza of all-things wheels that took over Great Yarmouth’s seafront at the weekend.

Sunshine helped boost crowds to an all-time high at the mighty

Wheels Festival where they could watch world-class stunt riders, street acts, watch Europe’s only race framed Monster Ride Truck crushing cars and get up close to the 1.5km of cars and motorcycles and chat to their owners.

Riding high on the success of the end-to-end family entertainment, organisers Visit Great Yarmouth confirmed next year’s Wheels Festival will take place in 2026 on June 20 and 21.

Asa Morrison, CEO of Visit Great Yarmouth, said: “We were gifted with true summer weather all weekend, which drew people to the seafront to enjoy all Great Yarmouth has to offer and made it the busiest Wheels Festival yet.

“We know from talking to our members with accommodation that visitors had come to stay for the whole weekend, which can only have a positive impact on our destination.

“Dates are set for next year and the planning will start. We refresh entertainment for every event and will be

reviewing in the early autumn and will make announcements in the new year.

“In 2023, 50,000 people visited, last year 60,000 and this year nearly 70,000. Every year we aim to make the programme bigger and better, drawing in visitors from far and wide as well as locally to spend time on the seafront, enjoy the shows and make the most of our diverse seafront businesses.

“Our work is designed to benefit our destination, its businesses and its people. Our mission is to attract people here and the Wheels Festival is gaining nearly thousands of additional visitors at each event and this has a  significant impact.”

The overall tourism and visitor industry brings in more than £641m to the local economy.

Winner of the Best in Show on Saturday was a Venetian Red 1974 Ford Escort restored by Ken Lane, of Braintree in Essex, who has visited Great Yarmouth nearly every year in his 60-year life but had never attended with the car he lovingly restored into Wheels before.

“We are usually on holiday when Wheels is on but we are going next week this year. I used to come to Great Yarmouth when I was a child and I carried on bringing my family and we’ve been coming to Seashore for 30 years, so winning at Great Yarmouth is special.”

Ken, 60, spent £35,000 on parts to rebuild a replica of a the Ford Escort written off in an accident many years ago after buying a 45-year-old blue shell and working on it every day, fitting it with a 2.1 Cosworth engine, which spectators admired for its immaculate condition.

“That doesn’t include any labour. It is worth every penny,” said the member of the North Essex Classic and Performance Club.

Sunday’s winner was a 41-year-old white VW Golf GTI bought by Ivan Folkes, of Bradwell, 34 years ago.

The 60-year-old bought it for £2995 in 1991 when it was seven years old and got so attached to it, he has kept it in the same condition. He will never let go of the car.

“In 1984 when it was new, it was £10,000 and it had £2,000 of extras out on. It is a special car. When I like something, I keep it.”

Car and bike club bookings were up on last year.

The UK’s number one motocross stunt team, Bolddog FMX, wowed the crowds with jaw-dropping tricks on the world’s first mobile landing system.

Led by Dan Whitby – this year riding a 100 per cent electric motocross bike after decades riding one with a combustion engine – the Norfolk-based riders delivered on-board commentary to the crowds while they flew through the air taking hands off their handlebars, twisting, flipping upside down and ‘flying’ out of their seats.

The youngest motocross stunt rider, Jack Burton, joined teammates Dan and Dereham-based Ryan Powley to chat to the public, show off their bikes and talk through their stunts.

Joining the team at St Nicholas car park, standing 11 ft high, 12.5 ft wide, 19 ft long weighing about five tonnes and crushing cars in its path was the ride-on Monster Ride Truck Red Dragon, which gave visitors a ride as it squashed cars.

Causing mayhem and havoc on her baby grand piano on wheels was street act veteran comedian madcap nun Musical Ruth, who took her unique comedy and music show along the seafront mixing and mingling with the crowds.

UK top riders BMXTRAs delivered high-energy shows at the Marina Centre car park.

Also, at the Marina Centre was the jet powered Jet Hearse.

The Wheels Festival is a key event in Visit Great Yarmouth’s events programme positively affecting the local economy. At the 2024 event, for every £1 invested, £49 was spent in the local economy.

Nathan Race, Visit Great Yarmouth chair, presented the Star of the Show trophies to Ken Lane and Ivan Folkes with fellow Visit Great Yarmouth directors, Lyndon Bevan, former chair, and Alex Youngs, of Gorleston’s Pavilion Theatre:

“It was brilliant to see Great Yarmouth seafront so busy and our visitors, residents and Wheels enthusiasts enjoying themselves so much and creating a wonderful atmosphere. It was a fantastic turn out for what has become a must-not-miss event for our destination. We are already looking forward to next year.”

Other attractions and activities went on along the seafront.

Award-winning Pink Fusion FX and DJs Rulebreakerz, X-Static and Michael Angelo provided the music on Sunday.