Spencer Hill Festival 2025

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From 4th-7th September 2025, the largest Bud Spencer and Terence Hill fan festival took place once again in my old hometown of Ilmenau. My buddy Tommy was there last year, and I thought it would have been a good opportunity to exhibit K.I.T.T. there as well, since a US car meet is also part of the event.
In December 2024, Spencer Hill World had a booth at the German Film & Comic Con and so we got talking and agreed that I would exhibit K.I.T.T. in 2025.
Due to time constraints, Saturday should be enough for me. Experience has shown that this is the day with the most visitors. In addition, there should also be a parade of all US cars through Ilmenau in the afternoon.
The organizers had pulled out all the stops: in addition to numerous other US cars, a cinema, fan shops, and exhibition stands in the festival hall, there were two stages, numerous food stands, a large area with tables and benches, a sports field for the Hector Games, a playground, fairground games, bumper cars, and even a high-altitude carousel in the outdoor area!

My buddy Tommy and his wife Anke were allowed to accompany me 🙂
We arrived at the festival grounds at the Ilmenau Festhalle around 9:30 and set up K.I.T.T. in the adjacent city park - power connection, steering wheel, license plate change, voice output... the usual routine.
Here we met Steffen Anton, whom I know as a Barney Stinson impersonator from various comic cons. He was hosting the Hector Games here and immediately signed up for the afternoon trip with K.I.T.T., so the car was full.
After admission at 10:00, the grounds quickly filled up and K.I.T.T. became a crowd favorite, as always.

A few celebrity guests were also in attendance. Among them were e.g. Giuseppe Pedersoli, son of Bud Spencer, who also starred in some of his films. He had also brought along his sons Carlo Pedersoli Jr. and Alessandro Pedersoli, as well as his sister Cristiana Pedersoli.
In addition, the "Bulldozer" team Ottaviano Dell'Aqua, Giovanni Vettorazzo, and Enzo Santaniello were guests... and even Terence Hill's last movie horse from "Un passo dal cielo" 😀

In addition, Germam dubbing voice actors Dennis Schmidt-Foß (German voice of Ryan Reynolds, Chris Evans, John Cena, Freddie Prinze Jr., Michael C. Hall, Josh Duhamel, Eddie Murphy), Gerrit Schmidt-Foß (German voice of Leonardo DiCaprio, Jim Parsons, Jeremy Renner, Giovanni Ribisi) and Charles Rettinghaus (German voice of Jamie Foxx, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Billy Zane, Jean-Claude Van Damme) were also in attendance, all of whom have worked on the German version of the Terence Hill series "Don Mateo".
And finally, Marcus Zölch and Jorgo Papasoglou from the fan documentary "They called him Spencer" were also guests.
All of them jumped at the chance to take photos with K.I.T.T. or even take a seat behind the wheel.

In the afternoon, the big US car parade was on the agenda.
Steffen, Tommy, and Anke were allowed to ride along. The parade was secured by the police, so I was allowed to drive with running scanner light, gullwing steering wheel, and myKITT.de license plate for once 😎
Thousands of Ilmenau residents did not want to miss the spectacle and lined the streets!

The festival also offered an extensive program. Various Spencer/Hill movies were shown in the cinema, there was live music and autograph sessions on stage, and in addition to the fairground games, there were the Hector Games.
At 19:30, we took the "big picture" with everyone present - captured by a drone - and then I headed home, while Tommy and Anke stayed for the evening concert.

Conclusion: The Spencer Hill Festival in Ilmenau was a huge success. More than 15,000 visitors came to my old hometown, which can be proud to host such a great event.
The next Spencer Hill Festival will take place from 3rd-6th September 2026 in Ilmenau again! We'd love to come back!