Sandringham Pageant of Motoring – Sunday 26th May 2024

Words and pictures by Eastern Chapter Coordinator Adam Woods

This year in the Eastern Chapter we decided to try a few different events to our usual Day Trips and do a mix of Figgy and Chats and Car Shows.

One that we had always wanted to do was the Sandringham Pageant of Motoring, in the Royal Parkland of Sandringham Palace in Norfolk. Featuring an impressive array of classic vehicles, craft and vintage traders, vehicle manufacturer stands, and live music, we decided to go ahead and arrange with the organisers to have a stand for the Club.

The tricky thing with having a club stand is that it is quite a commitment, as often members and their cars have to remain onsite for the full day, which often means getting there well ahead of the event officially opening, getting everything set up, and being around to welcome people. But it is oh so very rewarding…

But I’m getting ahead of myself, as we had a lot of planning to do first! I had our gazebo, and the club flag ready to bring with us, but what theme should we go for… After consulting with our lovely members who were coming along, we decided that a Japanese / British Picnic theme would be a great idea! Eilish and Peter would be assured to have the kimonos ready while Maria and Gary were bringing some bunting, and Claire and Clive brought some picnic gear and a fantastic Japanese cake! In fact, everyone brought lots of items and bunting galore to make the Japanese / British Picnic idea work. We also had another couple of members due to come along but an injury prevented them from joining us which was a great shame! But, onward and upwards, we would do our best to enjoy ourselves… So, we had the theme, we had cake, we had our cars… What else?? I remembered that on one of our recent Figaro Smiles playlists, a member of our Facebook Group had nominated a couple of familiar songs but in Japanese! Great – so Lukas and I had a good look around and managed to put together a playful playlist exactly on that theme, and you can access it yourselves on Amazon Music, by following this link https://music.amazon.co.uk/user-playlists/fbd66a3862dc47988dc450104b1b4207engb

The week before had been quite a magical time with the Northern Lights playing across the sky, and so the prospect of attending an event at one of the Royal Family’s Royal Palace was quite exciting! But even more exciting is meeting Figgy Fans and the Figgy curious! It’s wonderful meeting such a great range of visitors to the stand, and letting them know all about the Figs! It’s brilliant when you meet fans coo-ing over the cars, the dad whose kid wants one, and of course the Figgy curious… those who sidle over trying to work out what the cars are, and whose eyes widen in astonishment as you tell them about the Figaro only being produced in one year, the lottery, being Japanese, the 55 accessories, that they are automatic, have power steering, and electric windows… the famous owners and the car’s idiosyncrasies! As always it’s the smiles that always steal the day – the joy, the happiness that these cars bring! One guy said to me, “I heard the laughter, so I knew that had to be the Figaros!”

“I heard the laughter, so I knew that had to be the Figaros!”

We had our bit of joy too, as the show’s organisers had asked if we would be happy to participate in an event at the Arena and drive the cars about while they were talked about… And Eilish did an amazing job of letting them know all about the cars and how special they are too!

The only dark cloud on the horizon of the day was a literal one… As we knew the weather might turn a bit wet… But we were so lucky, as other than one massive thunderstorm, the rain pretty much held off throughout the whole event.

As always with these things, it’s the people that make it, so as well as all the lovely people we met visiting the stand, I would like to take a moment to say a massive thanks to our wonderful members who did a wonderful job of greeting and chatting to visitors to the stand! Their passion and excitement for the cars was just wonderful to behold, a bit like the Figs themselves!

We hope that the video below helps capture some of the atmosphere of this most royal but fun event!

WATCH OUR VIDEO