Minifest 2011 was a great success all round with a great turn out and a 30+ degree day.

There are plenty of photos and lots of talk from the day to be found all over our face book page at http://www.facebook.com/groups/115830335101408/

Thanks to everyone who helped organise this event and to all those who turned up with or without cars on the day for supporting us :)

Below are a couple of articles from some people who attended the day!

For Amy & I, Minifest started a few weeks before the event with preparation of the photo displays that were in the main Marquee. During this time, we also were asked by the MCCT Committee members if we could ‘put up’ Craig Watson, (Mini Experience Magazine Editor) for 3 nights at our place. So, a couple of days later I attended Club Night feeling pretty good about the whole situation as we had the photo displays under control and I had met Watto before and he’s a nice bloke so all was well as far as I was concerned! It was at Club Night, in front of a room full of people, that I was asked/volunteered to be M.C. for the event too. I thought I would give it a crack, my main concern being that Minifest was 2 days away and I knew absolutely nothing about the plan/order of events for the day, special guests (if any), other speakers etc! Friday arvo and Watto turns up in the new MINI Ray, (not named after Ray Thomas as he would tell you), and he settles in and we start talking Minis of course. Strangely enough, Watto showed much more interest in my Morris 1100 than he did in my 3 Datsun 1600’s! Friday night we dressed up and headed to the MINI Garage Minifest Cocktail Party (thanks again to Craig Bennett and the team) which was great fun, swanning around amongst all the nice new MINIs & Beemers whilst sipping on an Icy cold Beer, (is that how all customers are treated at the MINI Garage Craig?!) After the Cocktail Party, some of us headed up for dinner to North Hobart and it wasn’t until we were all seated that we realised that it was the first time MCCT members had attended a proper ‘sit down’ dinner in our good threads! It proves that we can eat something else other than BBQ’s! Saturday saw around a dozen members arrive at the Cenotaph mid arvo and we started setting up and marking out the site and a few Minis also appeared too and took up places ready for the big day. Amy & I spent most of our time setting up the photo displays and there were plenty of other things going on like setting up tents, building the Rocker Cover Racing ramp and putting all the other gear in place required to run the event. From what I saw things went fairly smoothly, (except Mick & Pete’s improvisation of a step ladder!) and a few members stayed at the site overnight to ‘guard’ our Marquee and the Minis etc! Sunday morning and it was a fairly early start for the dedicated team of helpers putting finishing touches to everything and making sure we were ready to greet the drivers as they arrived. With a forecast of 27 degrees and possible late rain, we weren’t sure how the day would turn out so we just plodded on regardless and by around 8.30am, a steady stream of Minis started rolling in. I grabbed the wireless microphone and thought about whatever dribble I could come up with and as I am useless without a ‘to do’ list, I started by at least writing down topics that I definately would mention. Things like flogging, I mean selling!, the MCCT raffle tickets, promoting our sponsors, reminding people of events etc. In between all of that, I planned to walk around and ‘interview’ owners and get them to talk about their Minis, (shouldn’t be too hard I would have thought), but every time I tried to broadcast away from the Marquee, there was terrible feedback. No worries, I will just go and grab the owners and bring them over to me. This proved more difficult than you would think as most owners are happy to talk about their Minis when they are standing inconspicuously next to them, but not in front of the Marquee!! Luckily for me, there was a break in my MC’ing over lunch so I could have a look at some of the Minis. As in the previous Minifests, there was a fantastic display of all forms the Mini comes in with everyone putting in an effort with their Mini presentation. Some members like Josh & Lester put in an extra big effort bringing multiple Minis with accompanying information boards etc. Along with a few Mini trade stalls, Ice Cream, Coffee Mio, Rotary with snags etc, free face painting & tattoos and the ‘Chalk’ Mini for the kids, there was something for everyone. At 2.00pm we presented a total of 28 various trophies with some owners taking out multiple awards, this was followed by the drawing of 15 raffle prizes with everything from Food to Automotive tools on offer! The day appeared to go very well, it was a bit too hot for a while there, but the rain kept away and we then cooled down with the drive to Cambridge. This was to prove to be a very expensive drive for Amy & I (more about that later!) About half of the attending Minis went on the drive which was great fun, Marcus kindly let me drive his modified 1275 round nose and I had a ball. After stopping at Cambridge to photograph the long line of Minis on the side of the road, Amy decided to travel back with Mel in her ‘Tas Rail’ Moke. This is where the drive became expensive for us as upon returning all Amy could say over and over were the words, “I want one, where can we get one, how much are they?” This was followed by Amy looking very closely over all of the Mokes and driving a couple of them around the cenotaph! During the week after Minifest, we worked out that we don’t use our little Caravan much and that would pay for a decent Moke! To our surprise, the following Saturday there was a neat Moke in the Mercury (they are never in the Mercury these days) and we went and checked it out (with the help of James for his knowledge of who has owned every Mini in Tas! and Andrew who put it on his hoist and checked it over). We purchased it and are now proud Moke owners which is not a bad effort to go from wanting one to owning one in 6 days!! Now we just need to sell the Caravan! Sunday night we had the ‘After Party’ dinner at the Civic Club which was attended by around 25 members and we were treated to a superb buffet of roast meats, vegies and yummy desserts. There were a few Tomato Heads around the dinner tables after our long hot day out and by the end of the night everyone was completely knackered, but we had a great time! I think the final attendance was about 160 Minis, which whilst down on the previous 50th Anniversary Minifest, it is still a terrific turnout for the size of our club. A huge thank you to all of the MCCT members who contributed towards the running of the event, it is a lot of work but I think you will agree it is worth it when you see all of the fantastic Minis and hear owners proudly talking about their loved ones! Thanks also to Watto for coming over from the Big Island to cover and support our event. Of course Minifest will be on again in 2013, the Committee have already had a ‘de-briefing’ session and have started coming up with ideas/improvements for next time. Don’t be afraid to pass on any of your ideas for the event to a MCCT Committee member, all suggestions will be considered! Happy Mini-ing, Stuart Franklin.

More Mini Fest 2011! The last few weeks of planning for this event involved some of the most hectic times I have ever been through! The committee was almost running fulltime during their spare time, but the results of all our hard work paid off with another fantastic event, which had many people talking about it for weeks beforehand. Volunteering club members and some of their families who are not on the committee all did fantastic jobs, and include Brett and Lynne, Stuart and Amy, Cyrus, Chris, Lou, Kelsey and Christy. Mini Fest had obviously reached (or surpassed) its best effort at the 2009 event, but even with about 2/3 of the cars arriving this year, the enthusiasm was just as great! Hot, windy weather was said to prevent more entrants from turning up, which is understandable! I certainly didn’t escape unscathed, but I sure did last a lot longer than I thought I would, now that the hay fever has started! Once again, Craig Watson attended, which is always greatly appreciated by our Club. - Ray Thomas (Life Member)

MiniFest was on 1 November 2009 at the Hobart Regatta Grounds, and celebrated the 50th birthday of the birth of our beloved Mini!!

We had Craig Watson of The Mini Experience join us, plenty of trophies, birthday cake, temporary tatts for the kids (and big kids!), you name it!

Any Mini, any condition!

A day of all things Mini in Tasmania. And what a day - the forecast was uncertain, the day started with wet roads, leaden skies and mist in the hills. But it cleared up, the rain and wind were mercifully absent, and we ended up getting sunburnt! What's more we had 210 Minis registered, plus a few new MINIs on display, plus some others that snuck in before we were ready - so in all about 220 Minis!!

Yes, the target was 204, so that we would beat the Victorian effort, and we did it!! And what a day it was... Free entry, free trophies, free birthday cake, free souvenir programmes, free tattoos - but you had to pay for the coffee and the food (sorry...).

Here are some photos of the event - you can find all the trophy results here.