Despite recent controversy surrounding the Great Neck AutoFest/Street Festival, the annual event will continue this year, said Ron Edelson, executive director of the Great Neck Plaza Business Improvement District.
“The majority of the merchants want the AutoFest,” said Jay Corn, Vice President of the BID. “There were six to eight who did not want the AutoFest, but not even most of them were adamantly against it. I don’t want to hurt the village by giving the impression that a small majority is speaking for everybody.” Though a petition calling for an end to the AutoFest was signed by 52 business owners from Great Neck Plaza and Great Neck Estates, Corn said it was “really shoved in front of people’s faces” and presented as a way to get the BID’s attention.
Great Neck Plaza cannot survive on Great Neck shoppers alone, said Corn, who described the AutoFest as the No. 1 event showcasing the area to out-of-towners.
“We have done Promenade Night, we will do Promenade Night, but that does not mean that we have to replace Promenade Night with the AutoFest,” he said. “The AutoFest is still the No. 1 traffic builder that we do.”
With at least 20,000 people attending last year, Corn said he does not think that any other event could draw those numbers.
“I know that many people from Port Washington and Manhasset have been to the AutoFest and look forward to it every year, and I know they have come back,” he said.
Residents can expect to see some changes this year, possibly including exotic cars and motorcycles, exotic animals at the petting zoo and a talent show.
The antique show might have seen its last year.
“We are always changing the event,” Corn said. “This is nothing new.”
At a meeting on March 16 held by the BID to address the petition, several local merchants criticized the demographics of the AutoFest’s attendees.
Local merchant Steven Dann, owner of Steve Dann Shoes, described people who attended AutoFest as “hicks from God knows where” – not the upper middle class and high-end clientèle who he said shop his store.
Dann could not be reached for comment.
Phillip Meltzer of Spectacles, who was instrumental in starting the petition, also declined to comment.
Edelson said that the meeting ended on a more constructive note than the one on which it began.
“The concept was, how do we diversify it, how do we bring more people in,” he said.
For Edelson, the meeting was a success because it generated useful suggestions towards the end of the meeting.
“That’s all I wanted, to have some ideas that we could actually act on,” he said. “How we got there from my vantage point is unimportant.”
