JEC Oxfordshire - Attended The Inaugural JEC South Midlands Festival @ Chiltern Open Air Museum, Sunday 21st June 2026

Many parts of the UK have established traditions of annual festivals, so a number of Regions came together to add a new, South Midlands, Festival to the Club’s events diary. This event was a year in the planning and saw 7 JEC Regions coming together to make it happen. The 21st June was adopted as the date in the hope that, being Fathers’ Day, we could achieve a good turnout. Recommendations then led to the Chiltern Open Air Museum being selected as the venue. It was a happy coincidence that the Museum, home to 40 preserved buildings - from an Iron Age Round House to a WW2 Nissen Hut - was also celebrating their 50th anniversary.

The name was chosen in the hope that this was sufficiently ‘open’ to not discourage Members to come to the event from far and wide. Fortunately, this proved true, with Members also coming from a further 11 Regions – Bristol & Bath, Cambridgeshire, Central West Midlands, Dorset, Essex & Suffolk, Kent, Norfolk, Surrey/Hants Border, West Sussex, Portsmouth and Wiltshire.

It was soon apparent that the Museum would be incredibly supportive, taking the attendance fees for us as well as underwriting many of the costs. Indeed, they also quickly agreed to the idea of £1 of each person’s (already 50% discounted to £7) entry fee going to the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust as a contribution to the Trusts’ operating costs.

We all wanted the event to be much more than yet another instance of ‘just cars in a field’. Lots of ideas were batted around, and it’s true to say that securing exhibitors was challenging, but the endeavour was ultimately successful. Skipping’s Field, that was right in the heart of the Museum and beside the Museum’s ‘village green’, easily accommodated all we had wanted it to.

A significant contribution was made by the JDHT who sent us their 1994 Jaguar XJ12 Coupé Concept, the Austin Powers / Union Jack XK8 and the last-of-the-line XKR (X150).

Other displays were provided by StarterMotor, U17 Car Club, Mission Motorsport and E\&E Services. Our Club Sponsors, SNG Barratt, kindly provided ‘goody bags’ for at least 100 of the JEC attendees. Automotive artist, Katherine Rogers, was also in residence, doing commissions and selling some of her work. And again, a % of her sales were then donated to the Museum.

At least 153 JEC Jaguars & Daimlers and >325 Members, Family & Friends attended. We were also pleased to have at least 10 Jaguars and 17 Members, Family & Friends that were not already aligned to any of the Club’s Regions with us. Perhaps that might have now changed ?

The Museum additionally had >500 members of the public on site for the day. Of these, it felt like at least half toured the Festival, as had been hoped. Having run a Club recruitment ‘kiosk’ throughout the day, we have reason to believe that about a dozen new Club Members will, in due course, have resulted.

We were able to mount a ‘Jaguar Timeline’ display with cars running from a Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’ to a F-Type R P575 brought together.  Alongside the 18 Region displays, the Festival’s ‘piece-de-la-resistance’, and thus a centrepiece of the day, was our ‘Jaguar {or Daimler} I’d Most Like To Take Home’ Competition. Each Region present was invited to nominate 1 car to go into the final round – a nice pay back for those Regions with a single representative from far away !– These were then voted upon by the Museum’s collective visitors, with more than 200 votes cast. Our Club Chairman, Peter Leake, and Regions Director, Ian Newman, who had both travelled long distances to join us, kindly gave out the prizes. The competitions final three were (3rd) Cliff Latimer of Portsmouth Region with his 420, 2nd was the beautiful light blue E-Type of Paul Gapp from Bucks & Herts Region and the stand out winner was Keith Vincent, long serving founder-Member of our Club and Surrey/Hants Region member, with his stunning 1955 XK140 Drophead Coupe. But well done to all the competitors.

All too soon the 1st running of this event was over. Was it worth it ? : For Sure ! Were there lessons to learn for any next time ? Inevitably ! What was the feedback like ? Very Positive. And how did the fund raising go  ? Brilliantly ! A total of £304 was raised for the JDHT and turnover for the Museum was anticipated to have been at least £9,000.