A POPULAR three-day family event celebrating countryside life and vintage transport took place in South Cerney over the weekend.

The Gloucestershire Vintage & Country Extravaganza returned to the 200 acre South Cerney Airfield site between Friday, August 4 and Sunday, August 6.

Families, couples and friends flocked to the airfield to enjoy three days of countryside fun to celebrate the event's 47th anniversary.

Photographer David Broadbent captured some colourful pictures of visitors dancing in the hay, exploring the site and enjoying the vintage vehicles.

This year's extravaganza featured 1000 classic cars, 300 motorcycles and scooters, 70 bicycles from 1903 - 1980, 30 miniature steam engines, 70 stationary engines, 60 full size steam engines and 150 tractors.

Stroud Vintage Transport and Engine Club (SVTEC) chairman Martyn Slater said: “I am immensely proud and grateful to our team of volunteers for all their hard work both during the weekend and on the build-up to the show.

"The show has been running for nearly 50 years, and we have never ever experienced such biblical rain and weather conditions.

"We wholeheartedly apologise if the show wasn’t fully functional throughout the weekend, and any disappointment this may have caused.

"The measures taken of limiting vehicle movement to preserve the grounds for public safety, along with the willingness of people pulling together, enabled the show to continue albeit restricted.

"We did have a robust strategic plan in place for traffic management, but the best laid plans were marred by the weather.

"Our advance day tickets are transferable, which enabled ticket holders to use on either Saturday or Sunday.

"Naturally pretty much everyone opted for the better weather day, on top of the ‘on the gate’ visitors which caused traffic delays on the Sunday. 

"We understand the frustrations caused, and apologise profusely to those caught up in it.

"We will be working with all agencies including police and local authorities to mitigate any future traffic problems.

"The aim of the event has always been to provide a safe and happy environment for everyone to celebrate our unique transport history, in hope that we can inspire future generations to get involved in the preservation of historic vehicles as well as raising money for numerous charities."