Crowds gathered at the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit in Midrand at the weekend to attend the 2024 BMW M Fest.
The M Festival was launched in Germany at the famous Nürburgring circuit and exported to other countries, with the event hosted in South Africa for the first time in 2017.
It’s easy to see why the South African version is known as the largest of them all. Before the event kicked off on Friday, BMW SA announced that it expected 33,000 visitors. The event was sold out for both Saturday and Sunday shows. To give perspective, the first US iteration of the festival attracted only 4,300 visitors.
Attendees took part in various activities, including being taken for hot laps around the famed circuit by trained drivers. They could also experience drift rides or buy BMWs in a dedicated showroom section where the brand’s new products, including the new BMW 1 Series and X3 were on display. The new BMW M5 and M3 Touring were also launched at the event.
There were top-shelf musical performances by renowned South African disc spinners. A popular area with the throngs was the skid pan area of Kyalami, which had been turned into an arena for spectators to witness jaw-dropping stunts. Performances included freestyle car and motorcycle stunts and drifting, with special appearances by international and home-grown driving talent.
Elias Hountondji, half of the famous Red Bull Drift Brothers duo, brought out his monster E30 BMW 3 Series for showcasing followed by the tyre-shredding spectacle of spinning. The session had the crowd on their feet as South Africa's best spinners, former Red Bull Shay’imoto champions Katra Mokgoshi and Samkeliso “Sam Sam” Thubane, displayed daring moves in their E30 3 Series.
The latter sensation was recently drafted into the official Red Bull athlete fold, joining 16 other South African stars including Springboks captain Siya Kolisi, cricketer Kagiso Rabada and motorcycle ace Brad Binder. Thubane is the first spinner to receive this accolade.
The event was a success for family entertainment and petro-hedonism. It was well organised with access to various sections seamless and the queues at the eateries and watering holes were long but not soul-sapping. The usual perils of attending large crowd events were at a minimum. The overall event gets a nine-out-10 score from this attendee.
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