This Father’s Day saw the return of the annual Swansea Festival of Transport, organised by Ashley Lovering.
With over 400 cars, vans, buses, lorries and more, the festival continues to grow each year. Attracting a huge audience from across the country, the free event has come a long way from its early days. Starting out in Swansea airport in 1994 as a show known as ‘Wings and Wheels’ with 80 vehicles, it next moved on to the Quadrant bus station. As the show attracted more attention and grew in size, it was moved to Singleton Hospital where the famous name ‘Swansea Festival of Transport’ came about.
Eventually the festival moved to the city centre, bringing with it larger crowds and even more vehicles. The festival itself not only aims to provide a FREE day of fun for all the family, but it also aids local independent businesses by attracting such a large audience to Swansea.
Having recently opened a store on Union Street in Swansea, we aim to support and promote all of the great events taking place in the city and Swansea Festival of Transport sounded like a fantastic way to begin!
We spoke with Ashley about how popular our Welsh slate awards and trophies have become and as a result, we decided to create six bespoke trophies for the event, all made with beautiful Welsh slate from Blaenau Ffestiniog. Our team masterfully hand-cut each Welsh slate trophy and then laser engraved them with Swansea Festival of Transport’s logo.
The categories were:
-
Best Classic Car 2016
-
Best Vintage Car 2016
-
Best Classic Scooter 2016
-
Best Classic Van 2016
-
Best Classic Motorcycle 2016
Unfortunately, this year the weather was against the show, but that didn’t dampen the spirits of all those who attended. There was a wide range of vehicles on display, from vintage cars to motorcycles, lorries and minis. Perhaps one our highlights of the festival was the bright red double-decker bus from Swansea’s Bus Museum.
The 1960’s double decker has recently been fully restored and it really does look like new! Unfortunately the top of the bus wasn’t in use due to the weather conditions, but this didn’t stop the fun. The bus shuttled people back and forth to Mumbles all day.
Ashley Lovering said, “We’re so happy we’ve had such a fantastic turn out yet again, despite the pouring rain. The streets were full of people who enjoyed the show, and we are especially grateful to Slate House for coming forward with the beautiful Welsh slate trophies that were presented to our winners. We can’t wait for next year!”
All in all, the day was a huge success. At Slate House we are extremely proud to have been part of such a big event that’s growing more and more every year.
