January's Summernats street machine festival in Canberra will kick off with the biggest-ever city cruise down Northbourne Avenue, with 500 cars approved to participate and a special dispensation granted to halt light rail movement while the event rolls out.
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Getting such a huge volume of cars in and out of Exhibition Park will demand a near-military operation for the event organisers, who expect this year's Summernats 34 to be one of the biggest on record.
Entries for the January 6-9 event, Australia's largest gathering of street and modified vehicles, currently sits at 2450 vehicles, just 80 short of the record set four years ago.
And with four weeks still to go, event promoter Andy Lopez said that a flurry of late entries may just see the record fall.
"Getting that last 80 or so [entries] over the line is always tough, but you never know," Mr Lopez said.
"But there's already the feeling that this Summernats will be a special one.
"I think what we've seen in the past 12 months or so of border lockdowns and restrictions and people working from home, there's a real sense of anticipation building for this event."
A major attraction will be the unveiling of the newly built cars which have been the subject of intense work for years in workshops and garages around the country, and will be seen for the first time in Canberra.
There will be 25 of these first-time "reveals" at Summernats.
The arrival of the new Omicron COVID-19 variant into Australia just over a week ago has sent a frisson of concern through national event organisers, with the federal government putting a two-week travel ban on some international visitors.
Summernats was put on hold early this year during the first wave of the pandemic, as was a planned follow-up event in March, but there appears no sign as yet of fresh border closures or restrictions ahead which would prevent visitors, of whom around 80 per cent come from interstate, travelling into the ACT.
"We meet once a month with the ACT government officials throughout the year and then more frequently as we get closer to the event," Mr Lopez said.
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"From what we understand, we are all on track. But if there are tweaks that are needed to our COVID-safe plan, then we will happily work with that.
"Because the end result is we just want to bring everybody together again, the whole car community from around the country - and have a great event."
Canberra's historic connection with Summernats goes back to January 1988, when the original promoter Chic Henry - who has held entrant number two ever since, with the reigning grand champion as number one - first brought the event to Exhibition Park, then known as NATEX.
The early days of Summernats were bawdy and boisterous but its popularity didn't pay the bills, and Chic Henry had to take a job at the Queanbeyan pool to make ends meet.
