The world of automobiles is said to be deprived of a cult event: the Carinthian municipality of Maria Wörth announces the end of the legendary GTI meeting in Reifnitz, which belongs to it. Since 1982, the event had attracted a large number of car enthusiasts and spectators from all over the world to the Wörthersee on Ascension Day.
And the VW group didn’t splash out either: VIPs from the car scene were invited to Carinthia and the stage was used to present sophisticated vehicle studies. The GTI meeting was also a fixed date in the calendar of auto titan Ferdinand Piëch, who died in 2019.
But the car festival also had its critics. While tourism and gastronomy benefited, some residents felt their peace and quiet in the garden disturbed. The police also acted more and more restrictively over the years, searched for unregistered vehicle modifications and busily issued fines.
In his broadcast yesterday, the mayor of Maria Wörth, Markus Perdacher from the ÖVP, even tried to “explain the effects of climate change, the responsibility of political decision-makers for the preservation of ecosystems and the need to act on the principles of sustainability at all levels to align”. Some of the vacant areas are now to be used for the “Local development program Reifnitz 2030 / Sustainable living at the lake”.
However, it is doubtful that the Wörthersee will now become a GTI-free zone with the mayor’s declaration. Numerous unofficial meetings had already taken place in the past three years, when no official event had been held due to the corona restrictions. (aum/jm)
