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| 2016 Highway 11 Cruisers year end show will be at Green Lane Go station on Sept 18, 12 - 5 pm |
If you're a classic / car fan from the area, you may be familiar with the various
car shows in and around town.
The Highway 11 Cruisers Car Club
host the bulk of them, including a Father's Day Saturday event held in a
parking lot at Yonge and Mulock where one of their event sponsors,
Parts Source, sits, while on Main St., on Father's Day Sunday, the
Newmarket Car Club
has previously featured the cars for the show there - however the
number of cars in the smaller club limits Main St.'s event somewhat in
size although the long running club has attendees that travel in from Barrie and elsewhere as well.
But imagine my surprise to find out my mom Mabel Pearson actually sat on the board many years ago!
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| Highway 11 Cruisers C.C.'s Upper Canada Mall show got too big for the Mall to host |
I'm a bridge builder. Having been
acquainted with both Car Clubs
for a number of years now, and having promoted Cruisers' annual New
years Eve bash particularly, I believe I'm just the guy that can broker
having them together on one street - Main St - for the area's
biggest annual car show and attraction the town has ever hosted - on Fathers Day weekend no less!
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| Former location for end of year Cruisers show at Upper Canada Mall |
In fact I've spoken to both the downtown B.I.A. Chair
Glenn Wilson and to the Highway 11 Cruisers President
Danny Fachini
in the past about adding the latter club to the Main St. mix since
their two shows are so close together, as they kind of compete against
one another so it would make sense, if possible, to do just one big
show, and that is exactly what I've been working on! And they are both receptive to the idea.
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| Imagine 300 plus cars on and around Main St and some spillover Sponsors |
So much so in fact, the
Cruisers could be willing to stop holding their
Parts Source show that same weekend and bring
300 cars to Main St.
to make it one of the biggest car show attractions in the G.T.A., if
not the biggest, also drawing from all over York Region, Barrie,
Brampton and the G.T.H.A.. Imagine a car show on Main with over 300
cars, entertainment and booths! The patios and shops would rock!
On top of that, I've even configured a way to add more parking! How?
The Cruisers end-of-season Sept show attracts up to 1500 people, and
it's grown so large they were told they'd have to move from the
Upper Canada Mall parking lot where they'd been for a number of years and so moved it to the
Go parking lot on Green Lane. But, filled with cars for the show there is then limited parking. So what to do?
They created a shuttle service provided by one of their sponsors -
a car dealership in town - and this is exactly what we'd do for an
event on Main as excess parking could be added by
shuttling people from the HUGE Tannery Mall parking lot on Davis Drive which sits empty mostly on weekends and evenings. Light bulb moment!
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| Tom Pearson id proposing to bring sponsors and show to Main instead |
Yes, that's right, in one fell swoop and no $,
I've just added hundreds of additional parking spots and dollars to the event for Main. We could even have the
Tim Horton's Train making additional shuttles along Tom Taylor Trail which would make for a short, but fun, and scenic ride to the edge of
Riverwalk Commons, where visitors can easily walk over to the event.
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| Lucas Oil, among others, sponsors this local car |
I, in fact, see the car show getting so large and renowned, it may be
wise to add Riverwalk Commons to the mix for cars and booths, as I'm
sure their various event sponsors including
Parts Source,
Maple Leaf Sports and
New Roads would
love the opportunity to be included for more exposure there. In past
big shows the Cruiser's have brought attractions like the
Toronto Rock (MLS) and other goodies to their shows along with their spectacular variety of cars and this show would become
a flagship town and Main St. event for years to come, attracting hundreds more to Main St from out of town.
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| Cruisers at U.C. Mall in 2014 |
I'm very excited about this and am itching to make it so. These types of
special events are right up my alley having put on dozens of events
myself including 20 in the past 10 years at Riverwalk and Fairy Lake and
also at Canada's largest (Toronto) convention centre. Danny knows it,
and he is excited about the possibility too, and I'm sure so too the numerous club members many of whom were in attendance when I addressed the issue at the Tuesday Cruise Night on their mic and who seemed like the idea of being in a show on Main. And we can look forward growing it each
year, adding much needed extra revenue to the town coffers and the
businesses - and is attractive to young and old alike!
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| Remember Gremlins and Pacers? |
Monday Madness meets Motor Cars
Danny and I also discussed the possibility of once a month car shows on
Main St. that would again include live street entertainment, like
Bill Nadeau, which we could run on an
off night such as a Monday or Tuesday to bring additional business again onto Main through the summer. Who knows? all we can do is propose it.
Tom Pearson... until next time!
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| Cool vendors too |
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| Silent Auctions @ Highway 11 Cruisers events |
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| Happy New Year! |
If you're a classic / car fan from the area, you may be familiar with the various car shows in and around town. The Highway 11 Cruisers Car Club
host the bulk of them, including a Father's Day Saturday event held in a
parking lot at Yonge and Mulock where one of their event sponsors, Parts Source, sits, while on Main St., on Father's Day Sunday, the Newmarket Car Club
has previously featured the cars for the show there - however the
number of cars in the smaller club limits Main St.'s event somewhat in
size although the long running club has attendees that travel in from Barrie and elsewhere as well.
So much so in fact, the Cruisers could be willing to stop holding their Parts Source show that same weekend and bring 300 cars to Main St.
to make it one of the biggest car show attractions in the G.T.A., if
not the biggest, also drawing from all over York Region, Barrie,
Brampton and the G.T.H.A.. Imagine a car show on Main with over 300
cars, entertainment and booths! The patios and shops would rock!
