A scrap has broken out between the committee of the Nelson Car Show and one of its former members, who is the organiser of the new Nelson Motor Show.
Last week the committee of the Nelson Car Show issued a statement that they were in no way associated with the new show and claimed that its organiser Steve Steele stole their dates and location for the 2014 show, which will be its tenth.
Steve was a committee member of the Nelson Car Show and helped organise it for a number of years.
He and fellow committee member Rik Thomas left the committee in September and told the remaining committee members they were starting a new show.
“[Mr Steele advised] us that he was starting a new event, using our previously confirmed venue and dates,” wrote the remaining car show committee members, Karl Tompson, Justin Radford, Graeme and Wendy Blincoe.
“This event… has been given a very similar name to the original Nelson Car Show, and Mr Steele continues to make statements implying that his event is a continuation of the Nelson Car Show. This is untrue. The Nelson Car Show is no longer in any way affiliated with Steve Steele or his recently formed event.”
But Steve says he left because organisation of the Nelson Car Show Trust was shambolic and he didn’t want to be a part of it. He says the 2014 event was canned by the committee so he left to start his own show.
“They shut the show down and then they reopened it, in the meantime I’ve changed what I do and now I’m Nelson Motor Show. I went and got all the sponsors and kept the event going. The reason they shut down is because they were having in-house problems.
“So I said I’m outta here, I’m not putting my name to that.”
Steve says his new show is far from just cars and he already has planes, gyro-copters, boats and even a bus joining the hundreds of cars.
He says the new show is registered with IRD and has already attracted a grant from the Canterbury Community Trust.
The Nelson Motor Show will be held on February 14-16 at the Tahuna Beach Holiday Park, dates and a location that Steve says he booked under his name, not Nelson Car Show.
He says his move wasn’t disloyal and he worked hard for the Nelson Car Show, doing “most of the work” and the committee wanted to go in a different direction, “so I left them to it”.
The Nelson Car Show committee says their tenth show will be held the weekend before the motor show at Tahuna beach and it will be free.
“We find ourselves once again facing hurdles due to circumstances beyond our control. [But] the show will go on.”
It will be reduced to a one day event and stripped back from many of the other attractions at this year’s Nelson Car Show.
It says it will not accept any donations for the show because it doesn’t want to be the “target of rumours claiming monetary profit”.
“The Nelson Car Show Trust is still not for profit, run by a small group of committee members. The objective of the trust is to run the show in order to foster the general recreational hobby of motor vehicle enthusiasts.”
The Nelson Car Show letter also warned previous sponsors to be cautious of anyone approaching them and asking for sponsorship of the show. Although it does state: “This year we will only be working with a few key businesses as absolutely necessary to run the show.”
