Top Gear Festival Wows Durban

This past weekend saw Durbanites’ lose their minds for one of two reasons. Either they were attending the Top Gear Festival where the constant motor-sensory bombardment has left many festival goers in a welcomed state of PTGE (Post Top Gear Euphoria). Those not at the festival are still reeling from the coup-de-ta their minds enacted over the weekend when the realisation that they were not attending hit home.

So what was this year’s Top Gear Festival all about then? Well, it was big, no I mean really really big. The type of big you only realise when you hear the person next to you say, “My word, this is happening in Durban.” Indeed Durban has often been known as South Africa’s apathetic city, with big events passing the coastal town by leaving Durbanites being un-phased. Well maybe it’s more that Durban isn’t the artsy music capital of South Africa, but this past weekend it was definitely the motoring capital of Africa.

This year’s festival was planned to allow petrol heads maximum exposure to the events before entering the stadium to watch the main show. The streets were turned into an incredibly tight street circuit with the tarmac graced by motoring legends; Tiff Needell, Jody Scheckter, Sabine Schmitz, Gugu Zulu and Sam Bird.

The lads also graced the Durban streets in typical Top Gear fashion as Clarkson, May and Hammond sought to prove their racing abilities, with Clarkson taking many of the corners sideways – much to the crowd’s amusement.

The presence of MSA brought added excitement to the day’s events. Spectators were treated to some skilled and not so skilled driving throughout the day. Crashes seemed to be inevitable on the street circuit – even Sam Bird and Jeremy themselves coming very close to the barriers on a few occasions.

Brilliant touches to the festival included the presence of the Top Gear set (Cool Wall included), allowing fans to briefly experience the hot seat in the world’s most envied job. A few of the boy’s Top Gear challenge cars also made their way onto South African soil, with their road worthiness giving some of our local bangers a run for their money. The challenge favourites included the Hammerhead Eagle I-Thrust and James’ Alfa Romeab.

Tiff and Sasha MC’d the street circuit this year and were complimented by the presence of the stunningly beautiful Rikki Brest.

This year’s stadium show saw Jeremy, James and Richard take the reins in running and presenting the show. The addition of an oval track inside Moses Mabida stadium is an element local government should consider keeping, I mean can you just imagine how much more popular soccer matches would become if you had a McLaren MP4-12C power sliding around the pitch?

Perhaps what impressed me most about the stadium show was that it appeared fresh and spontaneous, no easy feat considering it was performed four times over the weekend. The guy’s kept the content relevant to South African’s with a few placed comments about political paintings and a questionable understanding of Bunny Chow.

I now get to the point where I am sure many readers are wondering what was wrong with the festival. I am hard pressed to think of anything to add to my ‘wish list’ as such. With the festival confirmed to be in Durban again next year I would love to see things get even bigger. One element which I’m sure many fans would agree with would be the addition of more grandstands. The presence of Tiff, Sasha, Sabine and Gugu added valuable energy to the day’s events, however it would be great to see the four take on more and become an even bigger part of future festivals.

All in all it was a brilliant weekend, filled with all the fun and excitement one would expect from an event involving the Top Gear team – and more. Thanks guys.

Justin Stephenson