All Air Cooled Gathering Sept 19, 2021, Sold Out - No tickets sold at gate. Options

[dcheek]

To all 914 enthusiasts.

Due to Covid concerns, we were forced to limit the number of attendees at the 2021 All Air Cooled Gathering, Flanders New Jersey. We simply could not predict what restrictions would be in place at the time of the show. As a result, we offered only 400 tickets via Eventbrite which sold out in less than a week Consequently, if you don't have a ticket you will not be able to enter the show, and you cannot purchase tickets at the gate. NO EXCEPTIONS.

While we appreciate the disappointment from those who have supported the Central Jersey Volkswagen Society and this event in the past, we had no choice but to take these steps to insure compliance..

We will continue to review the situation for 2022 and hopefully return to a more normal event moving forward.

Thanks again for your support.


Dave
Central Jersey Volkswagen Society

[dcheek]

Here is a concise explanation of why we did what we did. Thanks Mike Buckholtz!

TICKETS TO THE 2021 AACG ARE SOLD OUT!!!

For 2021 the Central Jersey Volkswagen Society made the decision to limit the attendance for the entire weekend for pre-sale ticket holders only. This means that unless you are one of the 400 people that already purchased a ticket when we announced the sale you will not be able to attend this year’s event as a camper, vendor, show car, or spectator. Anyone that shows up at the venue without a pre-paid ticket will be turned away - no exceptions.

Some of the common questions the organizers have been asked in light of this change for 2021 and our feedback:

Why are we announcing this on thesamba if we are sold out? After fifteen years of having the AACG on the third Sunday of September and knowing that a lot of VW enthusiasts aren’t on Facebook or aware of the change to the event, we felt it was necessary to spread the word to try and prevent anyone from showing up at the venue as they have in the past expecting to be able to buy a ticket at the gate.

What caused the event to change to pre-sale only? There were a number of factors that played into our club membership deciding to make this change. Most significant among them were concerns over potential mandates due to COVID-19 and the financial commitment required to put on the event with 2000+ spectators, recent and ongoing issues with individual spectators (including refusal to wear wristbands, theft, and lack of general respect for the Swim Club grounds as their guests), outgrowing the maximum capacity of our spectator and vendor parking areas, and our club membership wanting to take a break from the extensive amount of preparations and days of work needed to organize the event.

Were pre-sale tickets advertised and why didn’t I hear about them? In July we chose to give our club members an opportunity to buy tickets first, of which around 300 sold out immediately, and then about a week later announced on our Facebook page that the remaining tickets would be available to the public on a first come first served basis, which sold out shortly thereafter. Due to the tickets selling so quickly there was no opportunity to advertise in additional locations.

Why would you take a successful event and limit it to less people, vendors, and show cars? This has been a question asked repeatedly, sometimes angrily, by many of you that have been loyal attendees of our event for all these years. We knew when we decided to scale back the overall size it would be met with criticism, but given the current unpredictable climate with COVID and our own desire to make the event more manageable this was the end result. We understand that the swap meet will be smaller and there will be less customers, activities over the weekend will be reduced, and fewer show cars will be attending. It is up to those the chose to buy a ticket and still attend if that mattered to them. The AACG has never been a for-profit event, but rather is run by volunteers that donate 100% of the proceeds to charity, so this was not a financial decision but more a practical matter for us. We also understand that there will be unhappiness among those who still want to attend that weren’t able to get a ticket. Unfortunately this is a situation where we simply can’t make everyone happy and we elected to do what the majority of our club membership felt was a safe compromise to still hold an event and have an enjoyable weekend.

We can’t express the appreciation we have for all the support the AACG has had from all of you for all these years and we hope that you will bear with us through these changes while we recalibrate for the future. We will do our best to answer any questions you may have on this forum, on our Facebook page, or via email (I can be reached at mikebuckholtz@gmail.com).

Thank you again!