13/06/2025
Setting up today ready for this weekend at Ashby Magna Vintage Rally - look for the floral gazebo 🌷🌺 🌹
WHAT IS THE RALLY.
Ashby Magna Vintage Rally happens one weekend a year,
we gather to celebrate what went before and what has been saved,
see how much vehicles have changed over the years and to look and wonder how daily life was like before the modern world.
We live in a world of micro processors and LED screens,
so just take a step off the pace and have a weekend of sights and sounds, smell of steam,
quality time with family and friends, good food and fresh air.
Today we drive vehicles that start at the turn of a key or a push of a button, have a weekend seeing how things work, how it ticks, bangs, spits, drives, moves, turns, stops and starts,
engines that start with a handle, a cartridge or a flame,
that run on TVO, diesel, petrol, paraffin or steam.
The buzz of the Saturday auction, anything and everything being sold, the characters you see, faces that you only see once a year, the hand signals submitting a bid, the banter, the skills of the auctioneers, just don't scratch your nose or ear as you might end up buying a tractor or a garden bench.
Vintage and classic cars you used to see in your youth, no matter how old you are, from the oldest models from car producers long gone to newer classics you really wanted to own but once you were old enough to drive it was already an old car,
the ones you piled in the back with your mates on a night out or the ones you snatched your first kiss in.
See motorcycles and bicycles, many the same as the ones that gave you your first taste of freedom and escape with your very own form of transport.
Take part in the fun dog show on Sunday with your four legged best friends big and small, showing them off with pride and having a laugh.
Walk around the rally field, turning every corner to find something new, look at the awning displays showing off the smallest exhibits and the rural displays highlighting skills and talents that are rare now.
Look at the stationary engines line up, showcasing how it was before we had small electric motors powering everything, driving belts powering grain mills or driving pumps moving water,
maybe even see the odd rubber duck bobbing about.
Spend some time in the craft tent looking at all the effort and skills that have gone into producing what's for sale, or take the weight off your feet and have a drink and a bite to eat in the vintage tearoom.
Have a walk around the huge display of tractors, the power behind our farming heritage, all makes, models, colours and sizes, from the smallest garden tractors to wartime machines that helped to feed the nation, right up to the large all wheel drive models that you see in the fields today.
See the history of commercial road haulage, the vehicles that carry the goods we all need for daily life, from the earliest load carriers not much bigger than the latest large cars right up to the latest kings of the roads towering over you, local hauliers of past and present keeping the heritage of road transport alive.
Wander around the market stalls selling everything from a homemade cake to a part for a vintage tractor, and hundreds of other products, stop for a bite to eat and a drink, you might find it hard to choose what to eat from the many food stalls, or have a refreshing pint in the beer tent and listen to a bit of live music.
Stop, sit and just listen to a fairground organ playing, old time music sometimes playing a more modern tune with a vintage twist, the organ playing with parts moving to produce the sounds.
Have a go on a fairground ride or a different type of ride on a little train making its way across the rally field, seeing the show from a different viewpoint.
Stop and watch the parades of vehicles big and small, long and tall making their way around the arena, the sound and smell of dozens of engines all running at once.
Watch the traction engines leaving imprints in the grass, queue up and have a go at steering one, we can guarantee you will have loved every moment of guiding these giants of steam around the arena.
See the miniature steam, just like their full size cousins but in scale, small but mighty, and spend a while watching the working area, timber being sawn, stone crushed and grain worked.
To exhibitor and spectator alike the rally means the same and many different things, it's a weekend of escape, reconnection, quality time, new memories created and old ones remembered,
all made possible by the small army of show stewards and helpers coming together to create something special just for a weekend,
all the exhibitors showing off their hard work, skills, knowledge and pride, and to all the traders providing a service.
BREATHE IN THE SMELLS,
LISTEN TO THE SOUNDS,
AND JUST ENJOY THE SIGHTS.
HAVE A GREAT 2025 ASHBY MAGNA VINTAGE RALLY.
