Hospitality & Tourism

Sell-out crowd for the ninth year in a row as more than 24,000 visitors make tracks for TANKFEST 2024

The FV4005 in the TANKFEST Arena.

By Andrew Diprose [email protected]

Published: July 2, 2024 | Updated: 1st July 2024

The Tank Museum’s flagship fundraising event, TANKFEST, welcomed more than 24,000 visitors from all over the world this year.

Held from June 28 to 30, the three-day display of the world’s best historic moving armour was a total sell-out, for the ninth year in a row.

The Tank Museum logo

TANKFEST 2024 showcased the public debut of the FV4005, a quirky Cold War prototype that boasted the biggest ever gun fitted to a tank.

The FV4005 was restored in collaboration with event sponsor World of Tanks and AW Hewes after the tank community answered the call to raise £20,000 to bring it back to life.

Tom Holmes, The Tank Museum’s Events Manager, said: “TANKFEST has sold out every year since 2016, and this is down to the team that innovates the programme every year to offer an incredible line-up of vehicles, our sponsors, and the tank fans who support the event.

“It was incredible to see and hear how the crowds responded to the debut of the FV4005 and we are already making exciting plans for 2025 with a new project to revive the M47.”

TANKFEST showcased an unparalleled line-up of historic and modern running tanks from the museum’s collection, guest armour and the British Army, which debuted the next generation of armoured fighting vehicles, Ajax, in a showcase of military force.

Visitors were able to explore the living history encampments, trader’s village and listen to the lectures on the speaker stage from guests including military collector and TV star Bruce Crompton and the History Guy, Lance Geiger.

TANKFEST also saw the launch of the next fundraising project, the M47.

The American M47 is the only one of its type in the museum’s collection.

The restoration will enable the museum to add a missing piece to the story of Cold War tank development.

TANKFEST 2025 tickets are now available here.

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