Visit Great Yarmouth will take the helm of Wheels Festival
Popular crowd-pleasing event to return with new organisers
One of the key events on the Great Yarmouth events calendar is returning next year with new organisers.
Visit Great Yarmouth will take the helm of The Wheels Festival from Great Yarmouth Borough Council to manage and coordinate the event on Saturday and Sunday, June 29 and 30 2024.
The council has passed the reins to tourism bosses after changes in budgets prevented it taking the event forward.
Carl Smith, Leader of Great Yarmouth Borough Council, said:
“The Wheels Festival is a fantastic event that attracts visitors from all around the UK to Great Yarmouth’s seafront, bringing around 50,000 people to the town in 2023.
“We are keen to see the success of the event continue, and now as it enters its eighth year, we feel the time is right to pass the delivery of the festival to our partners at Visit Great Yarmouth.
“Having long supported the event, I am confident they will put on a great Wheels Festival in 2024 and I encourage you all to go along and support them.’
The festival is a celebration of wheels, from vintage cars to supercars, bicycles, trikes, motorcycles, as well as the developing area of electric vehicles.
Wheels draws in thousands of visitors, who flock to the seafront to enjoy the spectacular collection of vehicles alongside a host of ground events of thrilling stunt shows, exhilarating rides and interactive displays.
The festival is one of the largest events in the area with external evaluation estimating it brings in a net impact of £2,600,000 to the area.
The event has a long tradition of collecting for the East Anglian Air Ambulance and this will continue in 2024.
Lyndon Bevan, Chair of Visit Great Yarmouth said:
“The Wheels Festival always attracts huge crowds and next year will be no different. We are looking forward to taking the baton from the council and matching its huge success. We have big shoes to fill but we are ready and excited to start the planning stages.”
The event’s date next has been forced to move to the end of June from its usual weekend in July because the British Grand Prix will take place on July 9.
Its new date is the same weekend as the two-day Caister Festival. Discussions are under way between Visit Great Yarmouth and Caister Festival organisers to make the event mutually beneficial with vehicles travelling to Caister to take part throughout the weekend.
Asa Morrison, Chief Executive of Visit Great Yarmouth said:
“We are in the very early stages of organising, but we also intend to work closely with a wide range of organisations and partners over the coming months.
“This year, as well as organising the festival we will be working closely with the organisers of the two-day Caister Festival, so we can encourage our residents, day trippers and visitors to enjoy both events.
“Wheels contributes to the economic growth of our areas with people making a real weekend of it eating in our restaurants, booking into our hotels, and enjoying the wares of our businesses.”
Kevin Wood, Caister Parish Council chair, who also chairs the Caister Festival committee, said the Caister Festival committee was working with Visit Great Yarmouth and was looking forward to its visitors enjoying displays of Wheels cars and bikes as part of its activities.
“Our event attracts about 6000 people, both holidaymakers and locals. Saturday is mostly focused on music with local bands while Sunday is a traditional carnival family day with about 150-60 stalls, a dog show and much more.
“This year, with the Wheels Festival in Great Yarmouth, we will have space for about 200 cars and bikes to visit Caister Festival bringing a new dimension to our growing event.”
