MINI United Festival Roundup

Olivia Harrison and Paul Weller at the MINI United Event at Silverstone

The MINI United Event has been with us for a couple of years now, but with this year being the 50th Anniversary of the Mini, the event exploded in to something pretty huge.

Held at Silverstone over this weekend there were cars, and people, from the four corners of the earth. Over 10,000 Minis, and 25,000 people, made the pilgrimage to Silverstone to celebrate all things Mini (and MINI) in style.

But the MINI Festival wasn’t just a showcase for Minis old and new, it was a race event, a car show, a fashion show and a concert (featuring the ‘ModFather’ himself – Paul Weller) all rolled in to one, on what actually turned out to be a generally good-weather bank holiday weekend. And you don’t get many of those in the UK.

BMW took the opportunity to showcase its two new limited edition MINIs – the MINI 50 Camden and the MINI 50 Mayfair – as well as the already announced MINI JCW F1. But they also attracted a smattering of celebs, including the aforementioned Mr Weller; George Harrison’s widow Olivia (who was there to promote the tribute George Harrison Psychedelic MINI that will be auctioned for George’s charity – the Material World Charitable Foundation) and Mary Quant, designer of the Mini-Skirt, who revealed that the mini-skirt’s name was inspired more by the Mini car than its length. Well, you learn something every day.

There were also a bunch of customised Minis featuring artwork by the likes of David Bowie, Paul Smith and Kate Moss, together with original Minis from The Italian Job and Austin Powers.

At times it almost seemed like the Summer of Love had been re-born.