I’m from the generation that spent my youth on car forums, and early YouTube watching OG videos of H2Oi held at Ocean City, Maryland in the USA, and GTI-Treffen at Lake Wörthersee in Austria. Long before I had a driver’s license, I’d ride my bike to the local gas station just to catch a glimpse of cars passing by.

That’s why, a few years down the track, the annual vacation to Velden am Wörthersee for GTI-Treffen was such a thrill.

But when Covid hit in 2020, Wörthersee’s town hall venue decided it would no longer host the Volkswagen-centric event that had been held in this small lakeside location since 1982. Even though the writing had been on the wall for GTI-Treffen for a long while – not everyone in Wörthersee loved having the town overrun with visitors for the event – it still came as a huge shock.

Now, whenever I travel through Austria, I always make it a point to stop by Velden am Wörthersee. This year’s stop struck me harder than ever.

That’s because my visit coincided with what would have been in years past the week before GTI-Treffen. A few years ago, the area would have been absolutely brimming with cars and people from all over Europe and even further afield. What I saw this year was very different.

I remember cruising around the lake, hitting the Faaker See parking lot for an evening meetup, and grabbing late-night coffee with friends at the iconic Mischkulnig gas station after accelerating around ‘Turbokurve’ corner.

When my friends and I visited Wörthersee for GTI-Treffen, it felt like a bad cheat code in GTA – modified cars of every style were everywhere.

While it’s understandable that some residents had grown tired of the event – the sounds of VR6 engines at full throttle on the way to the Pyramidenkogel Tower lookout and rev-cut bangs and down the town’s casino strip for around a month every year will have that effect – the implications of its loss seem to extend further.

Velden am Wörthersee felt very quiet, with vacant storefronts, empty restaurants, and little trace of the modified cars that once defined it, save for some memorial rubber marks on the road. I sat on the boardwalk, listening to the lake, trying to remember how special coming here once was for modified car enthusiasts.

To that end, throughout this story I’ve included photos from my visits to GTI-Treffen in the summers of 2017 and 2018 – the event’s peak years for me.

Now, the last vestige of Wörthersee automotive glory is the luxury vehicle dealership on the main route and the stone ‘Granit Golf’ statue. It’s real shame.

I’ll keep coming to remember the good times. Who else has fond memories of Wörthersee around GTI-Treffen? Feel free to post them in the comments section below.

Jakub Vít
Instagram: somal1sh

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