Last weekend’s ambitious, blast-from-the-past music festival ‘Acceleration 2014’ – which had Baywatch hunk David Hasselhoff as the face of the event – was deemed a success by organisers who picked the region’s racetrack as the venue. But the turnout was far lower than expected, festival-goers told us.
The event – billed as an “entirely new way to look at racing and music” and headed by Knight Rider David Hasselhoff – featured a variety of races and performances from top artists from the 80s and 90s, including “page three model”-turned-English dance-pop singer Samantha Fox.
Loek Bodelier, CEO of Acceleration 2014, said on the event’s website: “It was a successful sportive weekend. There was a good atmosphere and it is nice to see that we have finally started the series after two years of preparations.”
He admitted that while “there are things to improve” in the coming weeks, “luckily we have a lot of talented people with us”.
The Resident’s Sarah Young, who attended the festival on Friday, said “there were definitely fewer people than what was expected by the organisers”. Organisers could not confirm the actual number of people attending the festival at the time of going to press on Wednesday.
The festival kicked off on Friday, with ‘The Hoff’ welcoming Portimão Mayor Isilda Gomes to the circuit, where they watched the practice of the Formula Acceleration 1 cars together.
Later that evening, he finally hit the stage in his usual amusing style assisted by ‘Baywatch babes’ in red swimsuits. There were also performances by Twenty 4 Seven, Turbo B / Snap, Samantha Fox, DJ Sash, Haddaway, 2 Unlimited and Portuguese rock favourites Xutos & Pontapés.
The following day brought a dance festival, with Djeff Afrozila, Kura, DJ Ride, Pete Tha Zouk and W&W providing the entertainment.
Adding to the fun were three racing events – FA1, Legend SuperCup and MW-V6 Pickup Series – held during the course of the festival’s three days, with a total of 33 participating cars.
The festival will now continue its tour through Europe, the next event being at the Navarra circuit in Spain between May 2 and 4.
