Festival of Motoring · Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit · Saturday 29 August 2026
Day two.
Ninety eight
per cent.
648 seats on the board and 637 of them sold. Two release windows, the second of which emptied 270 seats in seventy seconds. Here is how Saturday ran, what broke, and what is already fixed for Sunday.
637 of 648
completely full
including 108 walk ups
after a session filled
afternoon release
The 12:30 release
Seventy seconds
Friday sold out by mid morning and left the afternoon with nothing to offer, so Saturday held six sessions back until 12:30. This is what happened when the lock came off, measured directly against the live availability feed.
All six sessions full inside seventy seconds, with 76 more people joining waitlists in the same minute. The morning release behaved the same way: 105 bookings in the first five minutes from 07:45:00, and the whole morning gone by 08:40.
Session board
Saturday, in running order
Volkswagen’s three afternoon sessions were lifted from 45 seats to 75 at 13:00, which is why they carry a larger number. Waiting counts people who asked to be told if a place opened up.
| Session | Stream | Filled | Seats | Sold | Waiting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08:30 | Volkswagen | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 1 |
| 08:30 | Audi | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 1 |
| 09:00 | Motorsport | 0% | 3 | 0 | — |
| 10:15 | Motorsport | Sold out | 3 | 3 | — |
| 10:45 | Volkswagen | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 15 |
| 10:45 | Audi | 98% | 45 | 44 | 15 |
| 12:00 | Motorsport | 0% | 3 | 0 | — |
| 12:30 | Volkswagen | 98% | 45 | 44 | 15 |
| 12:30 | Audi | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 15 |
| 13:25 | Motorsport | Sold out | 3 | 3 | — |
| 14:45 | Volkswagen | Sold out | 75 | 75 | 15 |
| 14:45 | Audi | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 15 |
| 15:15 | Motorsport | 0% | 3 | 0 | — |
| 16:10 | Volkswagen | Sold out | 75 | 75 | 15 |
| 16:10 | Audi | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 15 |
| 17:30 | Motorsport | Sold out | 3 | 3 | — |
| 18:00 | Volkswagen | Sold out | 75 | 75 | 14 |
| 18:00 | Audi | Sold out | 45 | 45 | 15 |
Friday to Saturday
What the changes bought
89% sold. Everything opened at 06:00 and the day was gone by mid morning.
98% sold, on 65% more capacity, with the afternoon deliberately held back.
Desk entry shipped mid afternoon, first one signed in at 13:47.
Nearly triple. The desk absorbed demand the page could not hold.
What happened, and what was done
The afternoon fault
Confirmed emails the scanner refused
Adding 90 seats at 13:00 promoted 45 waiting people. They were emailed a full confirmation with a QR code, while the system still recorded them as awaiting a claim. They arrived holding proof the desk could not accept.
A state nobody could leave
The claim step those guests needed did not exist anywhere in the product. No claim page, no claim link, no route. Promotion could only ever put somebody into a state they had no way out of.
Everyone confirmed, nobody displaced
All affected guests were confirmed outright and scanned cleanly from that point. No seat was lost and no seat was given to anyone not entitled to it.
The half confirmed state is gone
Promotion now confirms immediately. A QR code is only ever produced for a genuinely confirmed seat, so a waitlisted guest has nothing to show at the desk that could be mistaken for a booking.
Sunday 30 August
Set and verified
678 seats, the largest day of the three. Everything below is already live and needs nobody at 07:45.
65 a session, no waitlist
390 seats. A full session says so and stops, rather than building a queue behind it.
45 a session, waitlist on
270 seats, unchanged, and its queue still promotes automatically when a seat frees.
07:45 and 12:30
Morning three at 07:45, afternoon three at 12:30, on both brands. The pattern that produced today.
987 seats sold
Of 1,719 across the three days, with 709 marketing permissions captured, 62% of everyone attending.