The Classic and Retro Vehicle Show 2019 is organised by two lads from the Stockton-on-Tees area with a love for classic and retro vehicles. They came up with the idea of organising the show to give a different type of event to the community, the event that wasn’t specifically for your usual vintage cars and instead offered something more pre-millennial.
The event organisers had secured land at Durham Tees Valley Airport with the appropriate facilities to host the show and everything was full steam ahead. Event sponsors were sought, posters were printed and the advertising had officially begun, with over 300 vehicles entered, a strong man organised and food facilities sought, park and ride organised, the building bricks were falling into place for what was going to be an amazing event. However, disaster struck on Saturday 30th March when the previous land occupiers, Goosepool House & Cafe, informed the organisers that the event simply couldn’t go ahead. They had been issued with a letter from Durham Tees Valley Airport to state that this event was simply too big for the area and had a number of risk factors involved, the organisers were told to cancel the show with immediate effect.
Whilst the organisers were quite simply gutted, they decided that they couldn’t just cancel and they didn’t want to give up.
Instead they went about finding another venue with just over a week until the show. They placed a mayday post on their Facebook event page which was shared by local people and organisations. By Saturday evening, one of the event organisers struck gold after contact with Neville Jones, from Community Spirit Newton Aycliffe, who put him in touch with local businessman John Finley who owns activity centre ROF59. By Sunday morning at 9am the event organisers had hit the road together to look at the venue. They were more than happy with the results and by 11am were given the green light from John Finley to host the show on his land.
The Classic and Retro Vehicle Show 2019 had been saved and the show was very much full steam ahead. However, with just a week to go, printing posters simply wasn’t an option and they have relied on social media and word of mouth to spread the new location of The Classic and Retro Vehicle Show 2019.
Work continued in the background throughout the week to help the show to reach its maximum potential and place all the correct and relevant procedures in place. The organisers say: “Whilst it’s been a stressful weekend, they’re very much looking forward to what promises to be a fantastic event. We can’t thank John enough for offering his land at such short notice.”
The event takes place on Sunday 7th April 2019 at ROF59 Activity Centre, South Durham Way, Newton Aycliffe Business Park, Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.
Entry to the show is FREE with donation buckets on-site raising money for local charities.
Classic and Retro Car owners wishing to attend the event are asked to contact “The Classic and Retro Show” on Facebook or turn up on the day prior to 10am to be parked.