Eric,
First, thanks holding this event! You, your staff, and your volunteers do a great job of putting on this very popular show. The event is obviously a hit, and with growth comes growing pains. As a person who doesn’t display a car in the event, allow me to provide spectator feedback. Over the years, I’ve attended over a dozen of the shows with my kids and in my mind, there has always been a concern of safety. By 8:30am on a nice weather Saturday, the display area is packed with cars and people, including children. What happens is late cars attempt to squeeze in and as a result, I have seen situations where kids (and pets) have come close to being hit. Maybe an entry cutoff time on busy Saturdays would help with this.
As for the discussion on here, and previous threads in this forum, regarding unique vs. not-so-unique cars being allowed into the show, that’s a toughie. The event is for car enthusiasts, and the variety of cars that fall into that category is quite expansive. The more affordable and accessible the car, the higher volume we see at the event (e.g. Mustangs, Challengers, Corvettes, Camaros). Taking an exclusionary approach may do more harm than good.
What about holding two events a month: one domestic and one foreign? I think the C&C in a few other locations occur on a more frequent basis than once a month, so maybe that helps with reducing participation and thus prevents the appearance of 30 of the same car.
I wish you luck in arriving at a solution.
As a photographer, of course…I would prefer all cars be there by 7:30am, and spectators held at bay until 8:30am so that I can photograph cars without people getting in my way, but that’s a far-fetched fantasy. 😎
-Photographer Phil