Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend attracts record-breaking crowds and helps hit £500,000 target

Held last weekend at Calder Holmes Park, the Hebden Bridge Vintage Weekend, organised by the Rotary Club of Hebden Bridge, attracted over 700 vehicle and motorcycle entrants and more visitors than ever before.

Rotary Organiser Stuart Bradshaw said: “The event itself started in 1982 and we’ve been running it since 2006. Our last show because of the pandemic was in 2019, but we can safely say that this weekend we’ve attracted more visitors to the event than ever before.

"We were helped of course by good weather but there was fantastic array of mainly different vehicles on display each day for the crowds to admire, plus an array of stalls, different types of live entertainment, a children’s play area with face painter and a large food court.

"An added attraction this year was that Steampunk jointly held their Weekend Event in Hebden Bridge at the same time, so many of their colourfully dressed members walking around the site was a definite bonus to the event. Full details of the event, it’s entrants, attractions and winners of the different vehicle classes can be found on our website, www.hebdenbridge-vintageweekend.org.uk.”

The Rotary President for this year, David Clegg, added: “Even though we’d kept all the entry prices the same as in 2019, the record number of visitors and sponsors have helped us to raise £40,000 from this event, more than ever before.

Since 2007 we’ve awarded grants of nearly £470,000 to charities, community groups and projects, schools and good causes, with three quarters of that amount going to the local community.

"We’d now like more applications from those groups that are in need, so that we can pass our £500,000 grant figure and look towards the next target of £1Million! Hopefully it won’t take us another 15 years but we’ll get there!

“We’d like to say a big thank to everyone along the way who has helped us reach our target, with particular thanks to those involved with this year’s Easter Monday Duck Race and now this Vintage Weekend. The amounts raised have been tremendous.

"We are looking for people to help us continue with our fund raising activities and anyone interested can contact us via our website, www.hebdenbridgerotary.org.uk, where they can also see just where all our grants have been awarded over the years.”