Street event attracts ‘sea of people’ to city

Cars were on show, flags were waved and the no vacancy signs were up in New Plymouth.

Americarna 2019 exceeded event director John Rae’s expectations.

Saturday saw classic cars parked along the length of Devon St, and good weather helped to bring out the biggest crowd Rae had ever seen at an Americarna event.

‘‘There was a sea of people on Devon St,’’ he said.

Hotels and motels had a bumper week with Americarna and the New Zealand Stockcars Teams Championships in Stratford.

The Devon Hotel was ‘‘chokka’’ all week, a woman there said. ‘‘People had come for Americarna and the speedway in Stratford. The speedway people said Americarna was a bonus.’’

Amber Court Motel manager Raewyn Waiwiri said it had been a very busy week. ‘‘It’s been an excellent few days.’’

She estimated she had turned away about 50 people between Tuesday and yesterday morning.

Americarna attracted 882 entries, Rae said. ‘‘We usually have a 10 per cent no show. This year it was about three per cent. A lot of vehicles have two people, so about 2000 people, 90 per cent from out of the region. And 227 entries had never been before.’’

The weather put a dampener on Friday night with events being cancelled for safety reasons, he said. ‘‘I was disappointed for Mangorei Rd and the town centre.’’

But the event ‘‘went off’’ in Stratford and Ha¯wera and Inglewood was ‘‘phenomenal’’, he said. ‘‘The US ambassador, Scott Brown, and his wife Gail came on Thursday. He’s one cool dude.’’

Brown spent time with Stratford Mayor Neil Volzke and South Taranaki Mayor Ross Dunlop. And talked to one South Taranaki business about how they could get a foothold in the US, Rae said. ‘‘He got up and played guitar last night. That Crowds and cars at the Americarna street event in New Plymouth on Saturday. Ethan Clark, 11, of Wellington, tries out a 2014 Chevrolet Corvette owned by Lois Ritson, of Egmont Village. made him a hit with the people.’’

Americarna is a great event for the city, he said. ‘‘It 100 per cent free for the public. The only cost is for food or shopping. Thousands of people were very happy.’’