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Cardiff Castle. This year's event saw our return to South Wales to restart our four region venue cycle again. The format also followed the formula of combining the Great Griffin Run on the Saturday afternoon followed by an evening meal / social gathering and a full National Day programme on the Sunday.
The individual venues for the weekend's events held a particular significance for the Gilbern marque as the Griffin run took in the 'valleys' around Pontypridd where it all started; the pub chosen for the evening meal was just up the road from the Llandow race track where the first Gilbern was tested in 1959 and Cardiff Castle was the impressive backdrop chosen by Gilbern for two Genie publicity photographic shoots back in the sixties.
The South Wales team did a sterling job in attracting a huge amount of media interest in our weekend starting with a Friday night feature in the South Wales Echo. We had the BBC, S4C with us on the Sunday morning, and two media production companies from Llanelli stayed all day.Bryan Mote also arranged for Professor Garel Rhys of Cardiff University Business School ( formerly Director of the Centre for Automotive Industry Research) to attend in the afternoon to give perspective on the Welsh motor industry positioning Gilberns place in its history.
Cardiff Castle was a fantastic venue in which to hold our National Day. It heavily promotes itself, and the special Welsh orientated events that take place there, on its website. We were positioned on the lawns adjacent to the South Gate public entrance and the newly opened restaurant / visitor centre, ensuring a lot of interest. The castle itself is steeped in history dating back to the first century, being built by the Romans and continually developed by the Normans and various wealthy family owners culminating in a nineteenth century interior revamp. Even the weather was almost rain free if not a little windy, which according to the locals represents a full blown Welsh summer! What a fabulous and historically significant setting in which to spend a day.

In all 49 Gilberns were present (also a third of a Genie, our cutaway display car) with 18 entered for the Concours event and all were of a very high standard. We were blessed with an almost completely dry day save for a robust wind that kept the clouds on the move and the sun even shone late on for the presentations. Our Welsh members assured me that this constituted a balmy summers day!!
The day was a great success and we attracted huge media interest from the BBC, three film production companies and a feature page in Friday night's South Wales Echo. I would like to thank the South Wales organising team and the Committee team and any others who contributed on the day for putting together such a terrific event.

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