After six successful celebrations, the already legendary KTM Festival (4th-7th May) must be crossed off the 2005 calendar of events. The reason is the strong resistance of neighbours who want to prevent the seventh edition of the Festival from taking place. That’s too bad, because the KTM Festival has gone full throttle in the past and become one of the national racing highlights, especially for all the KTM fans in this region. Over 1.500 enthusiastic visitors from thirteen nations were able to see the fascination of KTM motorcycles for themselves at last year’s KTM gathering in Mattighofen. They celebrated with the stars of the racing scene and personally twisted the throttle on the MX, Enduro and Supermoto courses. The organisation of the Festival took place in close harmony with the local authorities by the way, with whom a very good basis had been established. The cancellation is a hard blow for more than KTM – the thriving company is the largest employer in the Mattighofen area, with more than 1.600 employees – it is also disappointing news for regional tourism, because both Festivals in ’03 and ’04 gave the region international recognition. As there is no readily available alternative to Mattighofen as an event location, the KTM community must take comfort in next year: for the above-mentioned reasons, the 2006 Festival will take place in Hungary…