From the fast and the furious to the luxurious and limited, cars of all shapes and sizes will be congregating in Newcastle for the city’s 2nd annual NE1 Newcastle Motor Show on the weekend of the 9th and 10th July.
Last year’s event put the festival on the map with Newcastle’s Grey Street taking centre stage for the festivities. This year, the event is bigger with more exclusive exhibits and more fun and free activities for people to enjoy. To accommodate all the new elements, organisers, NE1 Ltd has extended the Motor Show to other parts of the city including the Bigg Market, Old Eldon Square, Northumberland Street and High Bridge with different activity zones mapped out across these new areas.
This year, nine of the top north east’s motoring brands will be bringing their show-stopping exhibits to the festival to be displayed in the Brand Display zone at the top of Grey Street, around Grey’s Monument.
The dealerships Aston Martin, Bentley and Porsche, Jaguar, Tesla, Infiniti, Lloyd BMW and Mill Volvo, as well as Enterprise Rent-a-car with their luxurious and unusual rental offerings, have all promised to scour their forecourts and beyond for truly remarkable vehicles for the event. Like last year, the event will give the public a rare opportunity to get up close to the cars, many previously only shown at VIP invitation-only motoring events.
In addition to the new and luxurious models, the Motor Show will provide a stage for vintage and classic vehicles which were a big hit with the public last year, these privately owned vehicles will be displayed on Grey Street where they will line both sides of the entire street.
New to this year’s line-up is an area devoted to the cult classic scooters, Lambrettas, where private owners will display their much-loved vehicles off the cobbled street on High Bridge. Another new section, positioned on the Bigg Market, will be devoted to Modified vehicles catering for the growing interest in souped up cars like those that feature in films such as the Fast and Furious series.
Another new addition to this year’s festival is ‘Screen on the Green’, an open-air cinema that will be positioned on Old Eldon Square for the duration of the celebrations. The large screen will broadcast the Formula 1 British Grand Prix live from Silverstone and during the breaks in the F1 action, children’s films with a car theme and classic car movies.
The event is designed to entertain the whole family, with Fanzone areas on Grainger Street providing fun, free things for young people including a treasure trail, face painting and the Doodlebug, a one off, customised blackboard car. The old-style VW Beetle has been painted entirely with a special matt black paint so the public can leave their mark in chalk on the car.
Stephen Patterson, Director of Communications of NE1 Ltd, the organisers of the NE1 Newcastle Motor Show commented:
“Clearly the North East is passionate about cars, this was evident last year when over 100,000 people descended on the city to take part in the Motor Show festivities. This year, we wanted to give people more things to do and to see with new additions to the programme, different types of cars, vehicles and with more free activities like Screen on the Green and the Fanzone. We just hope we are blessed with the same weather as last year.”
Scott Stevenson from Bentley and Porsche Centre Newcastle who are part of the JCT600 Group added; “We were completely overwhelmed by the response to last year’s Motor Show, the event delivered beyond our wildest expectations. We got a true sense of the North East’s love of beautiful and fast cars when we lost sight of the cars through the crowds. When you were sitting in the cars, you were truly surrounded by faces pressed up at every window! It was great to be able to give people the chance to get up close to Porsche and Bentleys and to see first hand some of the finest models in our collection. We’re really excited for this year and we’re planning to unveil some of the new additions in our luxury collection.”
The event runs from 10am – 4pm each day. More announcements on the exhibits and event line up will be made in the run up to the weekend.
For details of the full event schedule visit www.getintonewcastle.co.uk/ne1-events/ne1-motor-show To keep up with all the social media activity surrounding NE1 Newcastle Motor Show follow the hashtag #NE1MotorShow.
Highlights from 2015
- Over 100,000 people visited last year’s event.
- The event showcased cars that had never been seen before in the region including the Aston Martin DB9 GT, on only its second outing internationally; Sebastian Vettel’s 2013 Infiniti Red Bull Formula 1 racing car and hundreds of privately owned rare, vintage and classic vehicles all displayed around Grey’s Monument and Grey Street.
- Businesses recorded average sales increases of 43%, with some reporting triple that with business up 200% on the usual weekend trade.
The impact was felt wider than the immediate environs of the show with Northumberland Street enjoying a 10% increase in footfall over the course of the weekend
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