WHY MAJOR SHOW ORGANISERS ARE STRUGGLING
Closed venues make it impossible for small and medium shows to re-start
The UK’s leading traditional car show fixers say that coronavirus restrictions have killed off any chance of running their events in 2020.
Cautious venue owners are cancelling with little to no notice, intently aware of spikes in COVID-19 infection curves; elderly attendees, acutely aware of the risks (and who had to self-isolate in lockdown) are also staying away.
Mark Woodward of Mark Woodward Classic Shows said: ‘I have had people ringing up asking why I haven’t restarted my events. It’s pretty impossible for us to run our events sensibly and safely right now. We do small to medium sized classic shows at historic houses, ten a year. They are all shut down, because we can’t run them. And it’s not just us. The government guidelines are very prohibitive, so to do it, you have to do it properly to keep in line with your public liability insurance, that means track and trace, sanitisers everywhere, constant toilet cleaning, two first aid points, all of that.
‘A large portion of exhibitors and visitors are elderly and don’t want to come out. I spoke to seven clubs when considering what to do about our last three events and none said that they would have come anyway. The only places that can really run events are big showgrounds and museums. There’s no point doing shows this year – our season ends in a matter of weeks. We’ve run out of time for this year’s outdoor show season. We will adapt next year, but it wouldn’t have been viable now anyway because older attendees wouldn’t come out.’
Other show organisers are waiting to see if sites will confirm; Santa Pod’s Japfest Lite had its camping cancelled by Bedfordshire Borough Council, owing to a spike in coronavirus infection rates, with an evening’s notice ( Classic Car Weekly, 19 August).
Matthew Harvey of Classic Shows, which took over the running of various events previously run by Greenwood Exhibitions four years ago, said: ‘ We are not blaming the venue owners and absolutely understand why they are hesitant.’
Matthew has not put on a show since March, with events such as the Malvern Festival of Transport re-scheduled (provisionally for 11 October) or cancelled.
Matthew said: ‘It’s a very uncertain time for organisers and venues and we are delighted to be able to confirm the event at Capesthorne Hall (Cheshire, 30-31 August) will take place’ he said.
‘However, The Thoresby Park Classic Car and Motor Show (Nottinghamshire), also on the Bank Holiday Weekend, 30-31 August, has had to be postponed due to a local COVID-19 spike.’
Other event organisers are also trying to keep in touch with exhibitors. Mortons Events had to cancel this year’s 16 August ‘Normous Newark Autojumble because of worsening infection levels in the Newark and Balderton areas. Nigel Hole, its commercial director, said: ‘ We received a communication from the venue, Newark Showground, which had been contacted by the local council saying that because of an outbreak of COVID-19 at a local dessert factory, the autojumble couldn’t go ahead. ‘Obviously we couldn’t contest this, and it would be irresponsible to have risked the safety or our staff and other people attending the event.’ Mortons now hope to stage a ‘Normous Autojumble on 20 September instead. Nigel said: ‘Everyone we have contacted was very understanding.’
Nick Larkin
❚ markwoodwardclassicevents.com
❚ classicshows.org
❚ mortonsevents.co.uk