Summernats

Summernats

Burnout at Summernats in 2005
Genre Car festival
Date(s) January
Frequency Annually
Location(s) Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC), Canberra
Inaugurated 1988
Attendance 103,000 (2014)[1]
Website
http://www.summernats.com.au/
Contestants for "Miss Summernats 2012"
Sabrina Damiano (Miss Summernats 2012) and Rob Shehadie

Summernats, short for Summer Nationals, is an annual car festival held in Canberra, Australia since 1987.[2] Summernats, which is usually held at the start of the year, is the best known car festival in Australia, and an event which attracts many tourists to Canberra, bringing in excess of $20 million in economic benefit to the ACT economy.[3] It has increasingly been promoted as an event for families. The Summernats attendance record was set in 2005 with 119,000 people.

Summernats features many street machines with airbrushed artwork, and restored and modified cars. It is held over a four-day period, with many events, with prizes in competitions such as for burnouts, parades of cars around the track, a Miss Summernats competition, and fireworks at night.

Promotion and partnerships

Between 1987 and 2009, Summernats' promoter and organiser was Chic Henry. Henry sold Summernats in 2009 to Out There Productions, a company led by Andy Lopez.[4][5] The naming rights sponsor of Summernats is Street Machine magazine, and the presenting sponsor is Rare Spares.

The ACT Government has expressed its strong support of Summernats, praising the significant benefit it brings to Canberra's economy.[6]

Venue

Summernats is held at Exhibition Park in Canberra (EPIC), corner of Flemington Road and Federal Highway, Lyneham.

Awards

Many awards are given during the course of the festival.

Grand Champion

The most prestigious award is the "Summernats Grand Champion".[7]

The Grand Champion award was introduced at Summernats 6 - with Peter Fitzpatrick being the first recipient (the first of Peter's six Grand Champion awards). Prior to this the top award was; Top Street Machine Overall.

Miss Summernats

Show and Shine

The Summernats holds one of Australia's most prestigious Show and Shine events. Vehicles from around the nation use the Summernats to announce their arrival on the Australian scene. There are the following categories:

In addition there are some awards that are highly coveted amongst the Australian vehicle modifying community:

Air brushing

Custom Air brushing is also celebrated at the Summernats, where numerous awards are handed out.

Driving events

There is a multitude of awards handed out to entrants in cars, which are in the following categories:

Dyno challenge

In this competition cars are strapped to a device that measures Horsepower at the driven wheels. During the course of the Summernats many awards in different categories are handed out in the 'Dyno-cell' and outright power reads of over 1000 and 1200 hp at the wheels have been registered.

Controversy

A crash at Summernats 2006 injured a number of people (various sources indicating four,[10] five [11] or six[12]).

Street cruises were stopped after the 2005 Summernats, following crowd control issues, however thanks to the support of the ACT Government and several years of exemplary crowd and entrant behaviour the City Cruise was re-introduced in 2014.

However Summernats spokesman Chic Henry was quoted as saying "The situation could be compared to so many other situations in life where people may have been having a bit too much fun, maybe having a bit too much alcohol."[13]

Violence against women

The festival has experienced frequent complaints and allegations of sexual harassment and other violence towards women by participants,[14] including having a history of women being shouted at to 'take your top off'.[15]

In 2008, a mob of up to 400 men was observed by journalists surrounding and harassing women, leading Australian Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Elizabeth Broderick to comment that such conduct fosters an environment that may lead to rape. Security staff were described as "powerless" to stop the mob, although event organiser Chic Henry stated that he was happy with the performance of security.[16]

In 2011, another mob was alleged to have occurred.[17]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Westcott, Ben (6 January 2014). "Police happy with record Summernats crowd's behavior". The Canberra Times. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 20 November 2015.
  2. ↑ Fuller, Glen (6 May 2006). "ASMF History". Event Mechanics. Event Mechanics. Retrieved 6 January 2014.
  3. ↑ Barr, Andrew. "Summernats returns to CBR in January 2016" (Press release). Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  4. ↑ "Summernats sold, future in ACT uncertain". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 16 July 2009. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015.
  5. ↑ "Summernats to stay in Canberra till 2012". Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 July 2009. Archived from the original on 4 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "From Schools Spectacular to Summernats – Andy Lopez on big events". Australasian Special Events. Backalley Production Company. 5 December 2012.
  7. ↑ Summernats Grand Champion (PDF), Summernats, archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2006
  8. ↑ Summernats Elite Results at the Wayback Machine (archived 28 April 2006)
  9. ↑ "Summernats 28 Official Results" (PDF). Retrieved 22 March 2015.
  10. ↑ http://canberra.yourguide.com.au/detail.asp?class%3Dnews%26subclass%3Dlocal%26story_id%3D450058%26category%3DGeneral%2520News%26m%3D1%26y%3D2006. Retrieved 8 January 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  11. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060111031414/http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,20281,17761193-5001028,00.html. Archived from the original on 11 January 2006. Retrieved 8 January 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. ↑ "Stunt smash prompts safety review". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 8 January 2006. Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.
  13. ↑ http://www.abc.net.au/news/items/200701/1822615.htm?act. Retrieved 17 January 2007. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ "Summernats car festival: Canberrans vent frustrations about noise, sexual harassment on social media". Australian Broadcasting Commission. 5 January 2015. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015.
  15. ↑ "Women abused at Summernats". RiotACT. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
  16. ↑ Maley, Paul (8 January 2008). "Summernats 'could lead to rape'". The Australian. Archived from the original on 5 April 2015.
  17. ↑ Christopher, Knaus. "Summernats 'mobbing' denied". Canberra Times. Fairfax Media. Archived from the original on 11 June 2015. Retrieved 23 March 2015.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Summernats.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/30/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.