An annual car show tradition returns this summer to Greater Moncton.
The Atlantic Nationals are normally held in July, but as pandemic restrictions are slowly lifting, chair Bill Doherty says they had to plan a bit of a scaled-back version.
“The cruise will be July 24th and then bi-weekly thereafter until September 18th. The Atlantic Nationals Fun Run 2021 will be held at Centennial Park on August 21st and 22nd.”
Main Street in downtown Moncton is normally shut down for one day in July, as the cars park, and spectators gather. Doherty says they had to cancel those plans earlier this year due to COVID-19 uncertainties.
Doherty says they expect the big attraction this year will be at Centennial Park next month, which he says is one of his favourite parts.
“It is such a beautiful venue, with the cars nestled in the trees and people seeing friends that they haven’t seen for a long time,” he said.
With work being done on the lower bowl area of the park, Doherty says they also had to make a few planning changes on how the event is laid out at the park as well.
“There are some new areas that weren’t available to us in the past that we are going to take advantage of this year. As a result, we have some new areas that we’ve got as much space as we’ve ever had, just a different configuration,” he said.
Thousands of vehicles are usually registered for the event, from across the country and the United States.
Doherty says a few years back, they had more than 2,200 cars, but it generally ranges between 1,700 and 2,000 vehicles. At this point, he’s unsure how the pandemic will affect numbers for 2021.
But the chair has big plans for next year, with hopes for a bigger and better multi-day event.
There’s still time to register your vehicle for this year’s event.
