Not trying to start a controversial tread just want to see what others think. The LARS has been updated to Friday & Saturdays due to the several years of low attendance on Sunday's, this low attendance has been prevalent with other shows that end on Sunday. I'm game, how about you ?
I think it’s a positive change for the show itself. It will definitely throw a curve ball in the various shops open house plans and schedules I think. The other question is what are the plans for the swap meet? Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.
John Kiley, President LA Roadster Club told me this last year, both days will be full on show days We have our plane tickets already, see you there
With Sunday not on the schedule it leaves the day open to visit the show on Rodeo Drive and or the Peterson Museum. Both of them are worth the trip if you are visiting the L.A. area. Hopefully the Roadster Show will have a better attendance than last year, the large parking areas in front of the buildings were empty, and the club members parked their cars inside of the main building just to fill up empty space.
There was not much in the way of cars or swap meet on Sunday last June. I wish I had gone a day earlier and left Saturday night instead of Sunday. Glad they will make it official.
I heard that they were moving the swap meet closer to the buildings and the grand stand and using the old swap meet space for parking.
JMHO Buck ran it into the ground last year. I know many who drove x country (me being 1, that has attended for over 40 years) that won't be back ever !
I'll be there both days. I like to look around and talk to the vendors on the first day and come back on the next day with funds to purchase the items I want but probably don't really need. I think the heat of the past few years had something to do with the low attendance and some will say the price to show your hot rod. I can also add that the L.A. County Fair Grounds has once again bumped their parking prices up to $12 per vehicle and that the food prices have also risen if you plan to eat inside from the fair food vendors. I found this out while at the GNRS this weekend. (A bottle of water was going for $4) But I plan on having a positive and good time.
I don't know where most of you guys have been, but a low/slow Sunday has been the norm for over 10 years. I am a former swapper/vendor and have seen the swap area moved all over the Fair Grounds. And a lot of the move has been from the Fair Board and the LAR trying to get the Roadsters be a bigger part of the show. For a while, the Swap was the show, but when asking prices went into the Stratosphere, even the foreigners stopped buying. The best Swap prices were walking the lines on Thursday night and Friday morning, then the mad dash to find the deal with early set-ups to bring back to the space to double the price. Then bail at 5pm Saturday. Leaving a Ghost Town for the Sunday crowd.
Hello, Friday/Saturday is a work day for a lot of people. Casual Fridays will be empty for many businesses. But, that changeover can be described in one word: WOW. What comes around, goes around. From the earliest times way back in the late 60's, early 70's there were communities and event people that wanted hot rods and dads to coincide with each other. The big, So Cal draw was the LA Roadster Show held on Sunday, Father's Day. That was a given. Boy, did it ever draw dads, families, cousins, etc. It got very big in the community and attendance grew each year. Other small So Cal cities tried to have hot rod shows on Father's Day to tie in the same community idea. Something for the dads to do with their families, locally. As if fathers weren't busy enough and wanted a day a total rest and relaxation. Some of those community shows worked for a couple of years and then had to fold. Why? The LA Roadster show, of course. That gathering drew so many hot rods and people in general that it got moved around So Cal to accommodate the masses. So, many communities just gave up and moved their events to sometime in the late or earlier June to "seem" like it was a draw for the dads. Jnaki But, now, the local, community councils have new things to worry about. So long standing traditions like Thanksgiving weekend, Father's Day and Mother's Days are now left open for the families to plan things together. Not for big time community events on a Sunday. That and religion play big parts all over the USA. (lets leave out Superbowl Sunday as that is its own giant) This family thing, seems like the main reason the LA Roadster show got moved. IMHO
I think everyone should read Jack Stewart's book on the history of the LA Roadsters. The whys and wherefore of how the meet got started , then restarted and why will open more than a few eyes as to how far off base Buck and company have gotten. Jim Travis was charged with redoing the show after the original failed. His foresight along with the support of the other members make the show we enjoyed for so many years. I will agree that there were tweeks needed here and there but not the wholesale cut and chop assassination he has performed in the name of the almighty dollar. I haven't met anyone, vendor, participant, or spectator who felt last year's changes were positive. One friend of mine has had a booth continously from 1974 until the booth spaces got tripled last year. Those that were there noticed a much lower turn out in many areas. Somehow interest must be regenerated other than a knee jerk reaction of price increases. I will continue to attend for as long as it survives. I hope that is for a long time but my gut feeling that last year we boarded the Titanic and this year we are rearranging the deck chairs as the water rises. The core of the show has always been the roadster exhibition and the appreciation for them coming. Since the shift in management and the deliberate destruction of the basic premiss on which the show was founded, I guess I will wear my life jacket and find a good seat to watch the imminent death.
Very well stated Deuce mac. I'm not gonna drive 2500 miles + R/T to watch it sink, grab my chair and put yer feet up on it and enjoy the circus
The swap meet sign up / space grab has always been a fiasco, and last year I heard many vendors say they won't return. I hope the promoter can pull out of this death spiral on the next round or it may die all together soon. Maybe a jolt like a price drop can lure people back before its too late.
The swap meet was way better now that you have to buy your spaces for what you pay for. No more holding 20 spaces for two guys. Yes last year was a shock to the system but I will be there again this year in the swap selling parts. I agree they need to consolidate it so you get the foot traffic of everyone. It was so spread out last year and the unofficial boycotting did not help either.
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