Event Coverage Another Large Car Show Dissapointment

While some of you may scoff at this, it just shows one more reason why us "Retired Folk" and limited income car lovers are attending fewer large car shows, in favor of the smaller and local town snows.
I received my Beloit AutoRama folder in the mail this week, and was anxious to get all signed up...
But after reading it all, I may just decide not to go...at least the night Cruise, which has always been a highlight for me, as I physically can't do much walking....and enjoy cruising a bit, then parking in the lot and casually walking around, or just sit and watch the cool cars come in and out...
And to my dismay, they now have moved the cruise night and cruise parking back down to South Beloit...and also are now charging $12 pre registering and $15 at the gates....
This is just plain Bullshit...
Yah, I know the usual "Well it cost more these days" crap, but they pay nothing for the current set up, and the police set up an awesome burn out pit right on the street. A very well organized and supervised deal.
Sorry for the rant...anyone else get there paperwork yet ?

 

15 bucks, out here in California they want 40 bucks. Your getting off cheap.

 

Rent for property
Electicity and hookups
Sani-pots
Liability insurance
Ambulance on grounds
Rent for specialty buildings and their water/sewage fees
Cleanup and garbage collection fees
T shirt sales startup/promotion/advertising/mail
Trophies?
Walkie talkies/golf carts/security
Groups assisting the event never work for free
....

Just some of the fees associated with sponsoring an event.
It's nice to attend a show that benefits the participant.

 

This is where the import/younger crowd is doing something right. Instead of relying on some greedy sanctioning body to tell them where to cruise, they just go online and say "let's all meet somewhere at a certain time" and make the car show themselves. Makes a lot more sense

 

WRONG...re read my post.
Those are all included in the fees for the car show...I am talking about an unorganized cruise the night before...they get the parking area FREE..also the burn outs are sponsored by the local Police department, and they charge $5 as well as give you a picture of you burning out...all these fee's go toward the local Crime Stoppers..
Of course I know you can't run a car show this size with out costs....
This cruise cost the organization NOTHING..and to now charge $12/15 dollars just to park is just plain bullshit.
And for others that may not read my entire post, don't bother giving me that "well if you don't like it don't go"...believe me, I may not..

 

You say that it don't cost then to do this. So why don't you find out what they are doing with the money. They might be using the money for trophies or taking the money and helping someone in needin the community . Like what Torque Fest car show does. I do know it sucks that everything has went up in price so much. It does cut into what you do anymore.

 

$12 - $15 and the money goes to Crime Stoppers? Considering all the threads on car thefts and shop break ins, I'd give 'em $20 and thank them.

 

Good answer..
I think I will try to find out...
It is just a big ticket to swallow, when they charge "Fair" fees for the AutoRama itself, which I have no problem with at all, then out of the blue with no explanation tag on a a fee for parking in a parking lot when cruising.
Cheers....

 

I've become a MUCH bigger fan of cruise-in's than car shows.
There are plenty around, every week, and most of the time THEY PAY US to come (with food, or food discounts, beverages, whatever).

Demonspeed, that's an interesting point. We see that a lot down where I live, BUT it seems the cops make their lives miserable, which pains me to see.
There are many good-sized empty parking lots around here you'll see maybe 10-20 of those rice grinder tuner-whatever-thingys, or Fox Bodied Mustangs and the like, just hanging out. Pass by the same lot half hour later and the cops are booting them out.
But I like their concept.

 

Haha, I had to pay nearly that to park my daily to walk across the street to go to the autorama in Omaha. That's not a cruise related parking that's a parking related parking. But I think your surprise is more at the it wasn't there last year and now this year the fee is there.

Given the sue happy nature of people these days it's probably going to event insurance, I agree if your curious go ask!

 

Yea I'm a cruise in kinda guy myself went to the street rod nationals in okc a couple weeks ago and was very disappointed still a lot of Easter egg cars out there

 

The $5 burnout pit goes to crime-stoppers the $12-$15 fee for the free parking lot is what he isn't finding any explination for ,

I don't have a problem with shows and gatherings covering their asses and costs .... lets not just try to do it all out of the first 15 guests / attendees, 40 + bucks a head x 20,000 people plus reg. fees for entrants ... you do the math and tell me its just to cover costs... somebody is making some bank and its not always the charity,

the last few I've been to the promoters aren't even involved in our hobby

 

If the money is for some noble charity. Like local kids or something, I am in, if its for some other BS I shy away as well.

I am always for some local small town charity type event, or ST Jude, but the rest..... Forget

 

I get asked if I am going to enter any of my cars in a car show ever....

My response "No, I just drive them. I'm not gonna pay to show them to someone else. You should pay me. anyways you can see it while I'm driving.."

 

Every friday all year round in Toluca Lake Ca, Bob's Big Boy, Cruise, car show and free.
I like driving it more than showing it.

 

i like to drive mine more than show it.........just my 2 pennies

 

At that cost they won't last long. We had a show start above Ocala called the Pumpkin Run,outrageous,vendor spot prices and robbing the public at the gate. They found out quick without the vendors,swapmeet vendors and public they are dead in the water.

 

Hell, parking in Chicago is OVER $12 an HOUR.

You've got it made

Seriously, the money, if it goes to charity, is not that much.

Cosmo

 

I was going to rant on this but no I will say this only I pay taxs I live here and pay local taxs I should not thave to pay to use a street i pay for 365 a year just saying

 

The cost of gas today leaves little to do much else now, so cruise ins are my thing now.

 

Might be time to promote your own cruise?
Best of luck.

 

I won't take a $70-$100k car to a "cruise-in" with unsupervised children
dripping melting snow cones into my engine compartment, kids riding bicycles
between the cars or the inevitable tall skinny girl trying to restrain (badly)
two four foot tall dobermans wearing lots of chains. I call these "baby stroller
cruises". Too many non-car people just out for all the wrong reasons.

National caliber marque specific or Good Guys events only from now on.

 

Hell I quit taking my 5000 dollar truck to some cruise nights or middle of town shows for the same reason.

There are a couple of cities/towns in this area I won't take any vehicle to a show on just because the locals have no clue how to behave around other peoples cars or property/.

On the cost of events. True many venues have high costs for the organizations (club or promoter) who put an event on at their venue and every year it seems that they want a bigger chunk of the gate and add in extra costs to the people putting on the event. Some are legit but some like putting on extra "security" personnel or adding extra fees for trash pickup seem a bit outlandish.

Then again the added cruise night fee for the event that is the primary subject of the thread may simply be because there are a pot load of extra cruisers showing up who aren't registered at the car show and only come out to cruise and may actually outnumber the cars in the show. After we left Billetproof in Chehalis Wa last year we met whole clubs of ot enthusiast cars and trucks heading up the back road to Roy. four to twenty rigs in a group headed down for cruise night.

The Cool Summer nights has a closed cruise loop that you can't enter unless you are registered in their show . It's a wide open show that you can put your wife's 2013 Camaro in so that eliminates any car not being eligible.

Then again the club putting on the event that the op was talking about may have just decided it was a way to raise extra money for the club Christmas parth.

 

Who owns the parking lot? Maybe the owners of the lot are leasing it out or in on a cut so parking can't posibly be free.
You could always cruise and not park.

Paying to park at most events is a reality, at least in Socal.

In Socal, you end up paying about every darn time you park.
MLBB, NFL, Disneylad-$15-$20. Downtown is all metered or pay lots. Even the local hospital hits you up for $3 an hour to visit a relative that had $25k in surgery.

 

...could be they're tryin to limit the number of cars showing up by adding the fees; Freeport Cruise nite also charges to park in the main parking lot, which I refuse to do...I just park outside the lot on the street.

 

"There are a couple of cities/towns in this area I won't take any vehicle to a show on just because the locals have no clue how to behave around other peoples cars or property/."

I feel the same way Mr48Chev. I went to a show last year that is hosted by a club that I used to belong to. Some idiot with a dog let it jump on my truck and I now have a scratch on the front fender. Went to another show a couple weeks later, and came home with sweaty handprints all over the truck. I used to think that my attendance was helping the community, but now I won't support these shows. I enjoy shows like Symco Shakedown, Rumblefest, and this year Mississippi Mayhem where the attendees and spectators have more respect for the cars.

 

All good answers here.
I probably should have qualified my post a bit.
The Beloit AutoRama http://www.beloitautorama.com/ has been a great show for years, and I am not criticizing the show itself..
It usually brings in up to ~1200 cars for the show itself, and is a well organized event.
The cruise night is kind of an associated/non associated event the night before.
What bothers me is that not only have they added fees this year, but also moved it back to it's previous location that was outgrown, and had problems...
Also as I think of it, I may be WRONG on the free parking...yep Ol' HD is wrong a lot...
It may have been $5 to park last year...
I believe Crime-stoppers is the organizer, and made over ~$10K last year...
Cheers....

 

I just got that flyer myself. I didnt read through it yet. Ive never taken my car to the cruise but have attended as a spectator. I wouldnt pay that to park my car. Like Rusty1 Id park outside the lots.

 

I've been in favor of cruise inns for a few years now. We used to plan out weekend shows and travel as a group to them and really have a good time! Then the entry fees started going through the roof the shows started getting smaller and smaller so cruise inn's are my main destination now other than just gassing up and taking what I call therapeutic crusies! Factor in the non entry fee and I can get an extra half tank of fuel! The bonus is you meet the nicest people in a HOT ROD!

 

Just find some activity you like,car related of course,and pursue it.

It doesn't cost to much to get together with a few friends and make your own show. HRP