Motorcycle Festival and Auto Show: a highly organized weekend in Noyon

This year the Noyon Auto Show wants to focus on vintage cars – Photo gallery by Timothy Eberly up Unsplash

Engines will be in the spotlight this weekend with two events focused on piston engines: a car show on Sunday May 14 and a two-day motorcycle festival on the 13th and 14th. The second event is organized as every year by the Macadam Rider Association, the auto show and association of traders. Its president, Patrick Gautier, tells us about it.

Patrick Gautier, after the first edition last year, the Car Show will return on Sunday. How will it be?

During its first edition in 2022, the car show filled the city center – Credit: Association des traders de Noyon

On Sunday, we close rue de Paris, place du Cordouan and place de l’hôtel de ville. We will focus, rue de Paris, on vintage and luxury cars with around fifty cars – maybe more -, Mini Clubs, 2CVs, Lamborghinis… People who own vintage cars are invited to come and show them for the day. or a few hours. Last year, we already had this type of car, but we decided to bet on it more. We see, with the old car gatherings every last Sunday of the month in Noyon, that things are still going very well.

Last year, the first version had already done well

We had many guests. The weather was good, there were many people on the terrace. The owners of the pubs Le Galway and La Gitane, for example, told me that they were delighted. Visitors and exhibitors use it and that’s the goal. The goal is to provide activity on Sunday, which Noyon is not used to at all.

Many Noyonnais traders will all be there?

Yes, we will have Noyon dealers in the town hall with half owned by Peugeot, Citroën and Hyundai and the other by Renault, Dacia and Alpine. Then we will have two new ones with Volvo coming from Saint-Quentin (Aisne) with five cars, and Fiat, Toyota and Nissan also coming with five cars. On the other hand, we will not have Mercedes and Mini from Compiègne. Our goal is to have a great day that will make them regret it and inspire them to come next year!

For businessmen, the goal is to communicate?

Patrick Gautier Noyon Chamber of Commerce — Patrick Gautier is the president of the Noyon Chamber of Commerce – Credit: Patrick Gautier / LinkedIn

It is exactly that. They state that they will not sign a sale in one day. But they also say that they are there all year round, their cars are in the market, but people don’t go around much. On the other hand, when they show in one day, they have more contacts. People see cars, make an appointment to test drive. Their goal is right there: to fill out their test books, and change them back.

You wanted to expand this show to the whole car world

Yes. Place du Chevalet we will have commercial activities and a luxury castle for children, catering, but also a local mission and Pôle emploi to direct visitors to the car business which is for some in tension, on the mechanics side. For example. There will also be an MMA stand in rue de Paris, insurance, LGB bodywork will come with display cars, Securitest with AC Auto Clean. They all come with cars, like ADA, the car rental company.

How many cars in total?

About 150, although it’s still hard to say because we don’t know what the vintage car segment will be.

The goal is also to make all traders work.

Yes. We will have many more businesses open this year after last year’s success. Owners of course restaurants, bars and terraces, but also a lot of clothing stores and various shops to do more than traders.

You wanted to make this the weekend of the most famous motorcycle festival…

The goal is to make this event last. And we think making it the same weekend as a two-day motorcycle festival is an opportunity for everyone. A motorcycle festival held in the central suburb of Noyon may be struggling to bring its visitors to the city centre. We think we can, with this event on Sunday, work for both customers: ours and those of the motorcycle festival who will definitely be tempted to come and see the cars in town. What we are trying to do this year is a full weekend dedicated to beautiful craft in Noyon.

Saturday May 13