CANBERRA, Jan. 4 (Xinhua) -- Australia's biggest celebration of cars has opened in the nation's capital city, drawing thousands of visitors.
The 36th edition of Summernats began in Canberra's Exhibition Park on Thursday.
Held annually since 1987, except for 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the four-day festival is a celebration of modified specialist cars, featuring competitive driving events as well as music, exhibitions and trade shows.
The 2022 edition of the festival was the biggest yet, attracting over 120,000 visitors and 2,700 vehicles but was marred by poor crowd behavior that forced police to close the cruise circuit early due to safety concerns.
Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing at the time criticized organizers of Summernats for inadequate crowd control.
Despite those concerns, Summernats co-owner and managing director Andy Lopez has promised a bigger and better event in 2024.
"What the Summernats promises to bring to Canberra is more of the same fun and color that we do every year, as well as over 30 million Australian dollars (20.1 million U.S. dollars) in economic impact," he told online publication Canberra Daily in December.
"It's a great event for Canberra, and a great event for a quiet time of year."
At midday on Thursday, hundreds of Summernats vehicles will depart from Exhibition Park in Canberra's north to cruise around the city.
Alongside the main festival at Exhibition Park, the Braddon Fringe Festival will run for three nights, bringing vehicles, live music and food and drink to Canberra's inner-north.
Andrew Barr, chief minister of the ACT, said in December that the festival would "kickstart" a big year of tourism in Canberra, with 5.5 million people expected to visit the Australian capital in 2024. ■
