From Thursday, the 15th July through to Sunday, the 18th July, 1999 all Laverda enthusiasts were welcomed to the 1999 Big Party. The venue was the Wirral Rugby Football Club, at Thornton Hough, Wirral. This is between Liverpool and Chester in the North West of England.

With 1999 being a very special year in the history of Laverda motorcycles. The International Laverda Owners Club invited ALL Laverda enthusiasts for a weekend to remember:

• 1999 is Moto Laverda's 50th Anniversary of production motorcycles (1949 - 1999).
  

• It is also the I.L.O.C.'s 25th Anniverary (1974 - 1999).
  

As such we held our 'Big Party' to celebrate these events. A guest list was compiled from the 'Who's Who' of Laverdas history and many were able to attend.
We had hoped to have the V6 Endurance Racer brought to the UK for this event, but unfortunately this never materialised :-(

The venue on the Wirral was chosen because it had been a popular venue for the ILOC's 1996 International Rally. For 96 we had a fancy white 60ft x 30ft marquee. This year we needed a bigger one with more people expected so we got the one below - 100ft x 40ft. Enough for our 250 guests at tables with room for the dance floor and stage:

• The Wirral venue on the Wednesday prior to the arrival of our early guest.
  

With luxury camping on a very smooth cricket pitch visiters started to arrive on the Wednesday afternoon (much to my surprise:-) for those travelling from afar who want to attend the Track Event. My pleasant surprise was that by Thursday evening about 100 had turned up - I was expecting only 50 for that night! Happy days :-))
We had a caterer at the rally site from Thursday afternoon onwards with a choice of meals, including vegetarian options. And the bar was open to serve good ale. What else could we need?

• Laverdas arriving at the Wirral on the Thursday afternoon.
  

Our normal International Rally theme was supplemented by the inclusion of a visit on the Friday to Three Sisters Race Circuit near Wigan, Lancashire for an Anniversary track day. Over 100 Laverdisti attended on what was a very warm and sunny day. A great time was had by all, and very few spills and no injuries.

Three Sisters is a small tight circuit and there was track time for the lucky ones on a first book first served basis. For those not wishing to circulate the track there was the opportunity to see a large and varied number of Laverda models being ridden on the track, some with famous riders onboard. For the rest of the time it was a relaxed social gathering, with some wondering how others could get around so quickly.

Friday evening was a return to the Wirral venue with a barbeque and (late ;-) drinks, a very good blues band - Atlanta Roots, from Manchester. Talk with many friends, new and old.

For Saturday there was rides to places of interest via entertaining roads.
The main rides went into the mountains of North Wales with a lunch stop at the model Italian village of Port Meirion. This was the filming venue for the cult TV series, The Prisoner.
Other chose to ride through Cheshire and the Cat and Fiddle Pass for a luch stop in the Derbyshire market town of Buxton.
The rides were split up into small groups with local riders as guides, where possible. Both of these routes took in demanding roads through some of the best scenery in the UK, and to a man they returned with big smiles all round :-)

As far as I know there was no problems in the form of bent/broken bikes or with the Law - and they all returned unscathed.
The only exceptions to this as far as I know, and worthy of a mention were:

• Alvan Thomas who in the early hours of Friday morning whilst on route to Three Sisters met up with a blind milk man only yards from his home. The RGS Corsa was repairable, but a mess and certainly unrideable. Not that that was possible as Alvan had to be taken to hospital. He was fortunately to be ONLY battered and bruised.
  By Saturday he had persuaded his mother to loan him her automatic car - he could drive that with one arm! ... Yes, congratulations to Alvan - he turned up on Saturday afternoon.
  

• The 2nd bad luck story is for Gerald for the Netherlands who's long wheelbase Laverda 750SF (with mono wheeled trailer!) gave up the ghost and blew it's engine also en route to Three Sisters from the Wirral.
  

For the Saturday evening there was our anniversay dinner (with lots of wine %*), a rock band - Hooker, with light and smoke show and disco plus much late merryment. In fact so much merryment that some of didn't get any shut eye ;*)

• For a glimpse of this event click the below image link to go a page with more photos. Party time! - to see more go on to the next pages
  

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