Thanks Peter. Well, if we were to attempt restricting it to one or two of each model there would be very few Maseratis there! About four this year I would think. Yes, it does get crowded at peak times but refusing an application just because there was one of the models already entered would seriously pee off many people. A lot of the entrants regard the Festival as the event to start the year with. To deny them a place on your proposed basis would appear a little churlish (to them) I think. To spread the cars out is not normally possible as the capacity is about 200 and we achieve that almost every year. This year we were about 50 cars down and for this reason St Nicholas Street was barely used for display purposes. Owners do not particularly like being in ST Nicholas Street, regarding it as a back water. If there were space to spare on Corn Street, St Stephens Street or Small Street and there were cars around the back in St Nicholas Street; you can bet your boots that there would be migration of cars out of St Nicholas Street. Indeed I have seen it happen even when we were at capacity - a Fiat Coupe owner objected to being 'around the back' and took it upon himself to relocate to Corn Street amongst the Ferraris. On top of that, next year we will have to pay for EVERYTHING (the council paid for the PA and vehicle lifts this year) and we will rely on a fairly full entry list in order just to break even. Next year the entry fee will inevitably rise but we will keep it as low as reasonably possible consistent with having a good chance of not making a financial loss.
As for being about 50 cars down this year - anyone got any ideas? It could be that we announced the date somewhat later than in previous years (for reasons largely beyond our control) and maybe some of the advance publicity went out late. Maybe the increase of the entry fee put some people off or maybe some people have become bored with it?
