It’s their Glastonbury': Truckfest boss says goodbye to East of England Showground after 40 years

Festival boss, Bob Limming, has paid a fond farewell to hosting Truckfest in Peterborough on its 40th year.

A £50 million regeneration plan for the East of England Arena and Events Centre has left major events - like Truckfest - looking for a new venue.

But Bob is hopeful Truckfest – which headed to Peterborough for the first time back in 1984 – will go out on a high as he gets set to mark the biggest Truckfest yet before it moves to Lincolnshire.

The festival – known for once flying in celebrities by helicopter, including George Best, Vinnie Jones and Noel Edmonds – was started in a novel way.

Bob said the first festival was much bigger than he and managing director Colin Ward ever expected it to be.

With no internet, mobile phones or social media to promote their lightbulb idea, they had to think outside the box.

The pair dreamt of Truckfest as a concept after talking to family members who were in the road haulage industry.

Truckfest ‘huge gamble’ 40 years ago

Bob said: “After deciding there was a gap in the market, the very first Truckfest was one of a huge gamble in many ways, we virally marketed it.

“We couldn’t afford the national press to get it going, so we used CB radios [short-range radios].

“We sat at the side of the motorways and talked it up, basically.”

Bob and Colin very literally sat on the verge of the A1 and used radios to intercept the radios of lorries going past.

Their innovative idea caught the imagination of drivers - and most importantly their attention - so-much-so, the first festival attracted 300 trucks.

“We spent hours and hours doing it but we wanted it to work,” Bob told the Peterborough Telegraph.

“The first Truckfest was held at Easter and it snowed the night before, we thought we were dead ducks.”

“But by 9am in the morning, we must have done the marketing right, because the police were getting very excited because we blocked the A1. So we knew we had made a success of it.”

Although Truckfest hosts eight festivals across the UK, Peterborough’s is the largest.

He added: “Truckfest is an institution.

"I was coming out of the main arena last year and someone asked if I was Bob from Truckfest, he introduced me to his grandfather and son and told me they hadn’t haven’t missed one.

“It actually brought a tear to my eye, " he said ‘we have grown up with Truckfest as a family and we’ve never missed one and we are here each year’.”

Why is Truckfest leaving Peterborough?

AEPG, which owns East of England Showground Services Ltd, has embarked on a £50 million regeneration plan to develop the site into a ‘purpose-built leisure resort’.

Proposals include a golf driving range, a health and fitness centre, hotel, adventure golf, sports pitching, family entertainment centre and ‘enhanced arena’.

The leisure development, to be known as Cultera, is forecast to create an additional 500 jobs.

Land had also been earmarked for a housing development as part of the Peterborough City Council Local Plan.

It means these new plans, which haven’t been submitted for planning permission yet, will mark the departure from the site's history as an outdoor event space.

Bob said he was sad to say goodbye to Peterborough and it’s loyal supporters over the past 40 years.

“It’s been a huge part of our lives, and my family's lives, as well as all the truck and road haulage people - it’s their Glastonbury.

“It’s the pilgrimage.”

The festival, which will take place between 30 April and 2 May 2023, will see 3,000 trucks arrive throughout the weekend at the East of England Showground for the very last time.

Organisers are expecting 65,000 people to descend on the site – 10,000 of whom are camping.

This year the festival will showcase many vintage classic trucks from 1984 – with special appearances from USA ice road trucks and an outback truck flying in from Australia.