Hi all, If this is ot or breaking any rules, sorry. I am writting a paper for one of my cl***es on Hot August Nights and i was curious if I could get some other people's views on the new location (Long Beach). Also, how much money did Hot August Nights make the reno area?? I know it was alot just was curious to find actual numbers. how many of you come from out of town and come to reno?? how many of you will just go to the long beach one now? what are all your thoughts??? I wanna hear 'em! thanks Luke
We attended Hot August Nights this past August. We have attended several years in the past also. Most years we fly into Reno from Ohio. Some years we register our car or truck and tow them there. Two years ago we won 500.00 and a free weekend for our stay last year. We also visit with relatives that live in the area. It is a great vacation for us. We love the town , the people and the cars. Last year we noticed a change. No more free or discounted meals for registered HAN participants. There was no free hotel rooms or money given away to HAN participants after the show. We also attended the expanded HAN show at Tahoe last year and I thought it went well with the Reno HAN show as both city's are close. It seamed to me that the HAN people cut some corners to expand their shows to other city's. Hot August Nights was founded in Reno and should stay there. The people running the show should not get greedy by upping entry fees and adding more city's and dates. I have heard that the swap meet may be leaving Reno for Long Beach also. With the prices rising and HAN cutting back on services prizes and exhibits we may not be back for a few years. If HAN wants to survive it needs to get back to what it was in the past. We don't live there, but its' just our opinion from the outside looking in.
Thanks for your opinion. yeah i agree, what i have heard some people say is that it is geting so big that they needed to move some of it but I was wondering if people thought that maybe in the far future that it may end up just all being in long beach. and yeah the tahoe one at least was close, i talked to someone who only did tahoe last year, they said they had fun but it wasnt nearly as much fun as the big reno event.
I attended for 15 years, but stopped going 2 years ago when they upped it to 5000+ entries. It is just plain gridlock! They forced the venues to close cruising @ 10:00PM. The hotels can give a rats *** about the participants because they make a ton of money off us car guys (sound familiar). As for the swap meet, the guy who originally organized it decided it was his swap meet not HAN's so when HAN asked him to make some changes he refused. HAN went out for bids & he refused to bid, so he moved to Sacramento the week before. The nail driven into the coffin was when the City decided the vendors had to apply for permits & possibly be photographed ( I'm not sure of the details). The vendors said "the hell with 'em" and moved to Sacramento. Politics, Politics!!!! The new format is probably aimed at distributing the cars, but Lake Tahoe is now Sunday, Monday & Tuesday then moving to Reno. It sounds like Lake Tahoe may turn out to be a 1 day show for people who don't want to hang around until Wed. for Reno. I've discovered Bonneville and am having a blast.
Hi Guys, I will answer any questions about the Reno Swap Meet via phone 916-955-8777 (the HAN CEO likes to sue people...) WE HAVE HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH HAN SINCE THE LAST 2007 SWAP MEET IN RENO .... We were "partners" since 1987... some 23 years HAN never owned the Reno Swap Meet . HAN asked us to move our June date to help them back in 1987 , after they ended up in the hole some million bucks after the first HAN show . They wanted an established swap meet to join them. The RENO SWAP MEET was started by William Harrah in June of 1965, after his death it was continued by William Finefrock We now have 2 swap meets scheduled for 2011 at the Arco Arena in Sacramento (now called the Power Balance Pavilion.. home of the NBA Sacramento Kings ) • April 17th - 6am-4pm Sunday • August 7th - 6am-4pm Sunday We are focused on the private swapper-NOT the Commercial type vendors .. but we do let Commercial type in at higher cost for spaces. but no yard sale stuff ... PLEASE Yes, we have just about doubled our size since moving from Reno's "Dust Bowl" Livestock Events Center. We are only one day. (Sat Night is "Wholesale night) we open up at 5pm to set up vendors and we allow vendors to sell a****st themselves and tell swap meet tales .. the general public enters on Sunday 6am ) Admission is $6, Free Parking I am proud to report .. that we have returned to a "true swap meet" .. without the "prom people" looking for us "rusty guys" to pay for their out of control overhead and staff. the main problem we now have is it can take 6 hours to walk the entire swap meet .. so bring your very best walking shoes .. and plan on seeing all the old sellers who were with us in Nevada .. they have joined us in Sacramento coming from all over the west and like us, are very happy with the 11,000 spaces at Arco... now if we could only turn the Kings around "IN RUST- WE TRUST" John Sweeney
I was living in Reno from summer of 65 until 68. The first swap I remember was about 20-30 booths at Washoe high school football field. Not a big one but fun anyway. There weren't many hot rods in town at that time. Just a handful and I was driving my 40 Ford coupe, which I still drive.
One of my main reasons for attending HAN was to go to the swap meet. I haven't been to HAN since the swap meet left. I can see nice cars locally without traveling to Reno, but a great swap meet is well worth a drive!
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