Peace. Tranquility. The smell of cool grass in the morning air. Its highly unlikely that you would have experienced any of this during the fun that was Southern Wrthersee, the fastest-growing annual gathering of VW enthusiasts in the U.S.
Now in its fifth year, Southern Wrthersee is held in the same spirit as Europes original and largest VW fanfest, Wrthersee. The organizers have even found their own unique slice of Bavaria to hold it inthe quaint town of Helen, Georgia. Back in the late 60s, this great place decided to model itself after the picturesque villages in the German countryside.
We were lucky enough to spend some time with Matt Bounds, cofounder of Southern Wrthersee, and talk about what makes this event so special:
Q1: How did Southern Wrthersee come about? How did the first event go?
Matt:
It started a couple years ago. We have a club called H20 Tuning-just a local group of enthusiasts here who enjoy modifying cars out of the VAG line. Wed found a new club member who had just moved to the area. We had monthly club meetings, and he showed up at the meeting one day and we went through our whole list of cruises we were going to do and what big projects we were going to do next, and he said, I have an idea for this car show in Helena, GA.
Were all from Alabama, so our first thought was, What is this Helena, GA, place?. He said it was an Alpine-themed town, and we hadto go check it out.
So a couple of us hopped in the car and drove over to Helen, and once we saw the town, we said, Oh man, we have to find a way to make this work. We started calling local businesses, saying Hey, can we use your parking lot? Can we take over this portion of town? Can we borrow this for the day? So once the town got word that we were trying to put together something, some of the local owners came together and said they had some property they wanted us to look at. They said if we could make it something impressive every year, they would give us a little bit more.
The first year we shot ourselves in the foot. We planned this great big weekend and, not thinking about the way it landed, ended up being on Mothers Day. So we get there and we have this whole event laid out, just a big parking lot hangout. Mothers Day weekend rolls around and we show up thinking this is going to be a disaster, that were going to have five cars show up to this event for Mothers Day weekendyet we had 250 cars show up the first weekend. And I thought if we can pull 250 cars for a first-time show, weve got something. So each year we just build and build on this event to what it is today.
So we get there and we have this whole event laid out, just like a big get-together just a big parking lot hangout. Mothers Day weekend rolls around and we show up thinking this is going to be a disaster were going to have five cars show up to this event for Mothers Day weekendwe had 250 cars show up the first weekend and I thought if we can pull 250 cars for a first-time show, weve got something. So each year we just build and build on this event to what it is today were coming up on the fifth year.
Q2: How does that compare to last years event?
Matt:
In year four we registered just over 1,300 people. We are impressed as to how many people show up to our event each year. Again, were just this little group of enthusiasts out of Alabama, so we never expected for this to get as big as it is. We really never expected for the type of participation weve seen from other clubs, from sponsors, and especially from the city of Helen. Every year the city of Helen does above and beyond what we could ever imagine.
Q3: Generally how far do people travel to attend Southern Wrthersee?
Matt:
One thing thats really excited us the last couple of years is the people who have come from abroad. This gentleman [Matt Ryder] who Performance Volkswagen wrote about a couple years ago, and who weve become great friends with, comes over from the U.K. for our event. Last year he brought five guys from the U.K. with him [from] South Hampton, I believe.
Weve always given away a trophy for the furthest distance driven, and now weve begun giving away a trophy called the Furthest Distance Traveled. Weve had someone from Shanghai, China and someone who came on their military leave from Afghanistan during RR.
Weve also had a group of three from Reifnitz, Austria, where the original Wrthersee is held. They came over to our event to check it out, and then traveled home for their event in Austria. So were super excited about that because theyll get to see how our event is modeled after theirs and then, in turn, myself and about 10 other people are travelingafter we leave the city of Helenwe will be traveling over to Austria to go check out their event because its their 30th anniversary and our fifth anniversary.
Stateside, people come from Ohio, Maryland, even Canada. We also had someone who drove from Washington last year coming across country in the U.S. and started out a week in advance and just drove on over. We get excited when we see how far people drive, you know. They come to this little bitty town in the middle of nowhere-in the nestled cup of the mountains here-just to come to our show. So we really try to go above and beyond to let them know how much we appreciate their support.
Q4: Talk about the Sunday Cruise and the Helenring.
Matt:
In year three, we expanded the event a bit to include a mountain cruise. Its a cruise route we created and call the Helenring, which on a map looks similar to the Nrburgring. It is just a 40-mile drive through some extremely twisty mountain roads you have to take to get to the famous Tail of the Dragon. If youve ever been on the Tail, this is what they call the backside of the dragon.
Q5: Whats your hope for the event in the future?
Matt:
We hope that we can convince VW, in years to come, to treat our event similar to how VW of Europe treats GTI Treffen Wrthersee, which is to use it as a catalyst to bring new vehicles. They (VW) use that event to really demonstrate some of the new ideas and creative things that are out there. And Im hoping, Im pushing real hard for them to be able to use this platform (Southern Wrthersee) as something like that for the U.S. And that may be years down the road, but its something Im really hoping to see.
So there you have it. Car builds, killer German food, the Helenring cruise, and tons of VW-inspired fun. What more could you ask for in celebrating springs arrival?
Related Links:
http://southernworthersee.com/
http://www.facebook.com/southern.worthersee
http://www.helenga.org/events/southern-worthersee-vw-audi-show-presented-h20-tuning