Back to the Bricks Keeps Growing

Crowds fill downtown Flint at night for Back to the Bricks. (Photo courtesy of Flint on Full.)

Despite some rough weather the final day, last weekend's Back to the Bricks car fest in Flint continued to break attendance records. Kristen Longley of The Flint Journal reports:

From its humble beginnings just six years ago, Back to the Bricks is now estimated to be 60 times as large as its inaugural event in 2005.

On the final day of the downtown Flint car show Saturday, organizers said the five-day Back to the Bricks extravaganza is estimated to have attracted more than 420,000 people — over 40 percent more than last year.

It's easy to say this now, but I've always thought a modest, well-run auto museum that expanded on the Sloan Museum's great car collection would have made sense for Flint. It certainly would not have "saved" the city, but it could have been something that would bring out of town visitors to Flint. Back to the Bricks demonstrates just how crazy people are about old cars, regardless of the economy. Then again, there's no shortage of auto museums across the country, so there would be a lot of competition.

Back to the Bricks is Back

Want to see downtown filled with people? Back to the Bricks starts tomorrow.

Scott Atkinson of The Flint Journal reports:

"Now in its fifth year this car show has grown faster than a revved up muscle car. Last year, an estimated 20,000 cars and 125,000 car lovers rolled into town. And, this year organizers expect it to draw even larger crowds."

Back to the Bricks

A crowd gathers for last years Back to the Bricks. (Photo by Stuart Bauer/The Flint Journal)

As the Back to the Bricks Cruise Weekend draws to a close, there's further proof that visitors will come to downtown Flint, provided it's the right kind of event. (A classic car extravaganza, for example, rather than Autoworld, a glorified food court, or a fancy hotel.)

Organizer Dave Wood told The Flint Journal that roughly 25,000 to 30,000 spectators graced several downtown city blocks and about 3,000 cars were parked there.

"It's all more than we expected," Wood said. "We have extra streets we didn't plan on filling that are all filled. People arrived at 5:30 a.m. for the 10 a.m. show."

This event makes me think that all the money that was wasted on Flint's pie-in-the-sky tourist schemes would have been better spent expanding the car collection and facilities at Sloan Museum, while promoting smaller-scale events. People like actual cars, not car-themed amusement parks.