Pending a city contract, the Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​is coming to Miami Beach, promising to bring heavyweights from the world of racing, car collectors and exhibitors with a focus on the future of transportation and the end of fossil fuel use does.

Established 30 years ago by the current Duke of Richmond at his Goodwood House in Chichester, West Sussex, in the south of England, the Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​is the largest celebration of motorsports, automobile design and car culture in the world, said Tim Bulley, The Goodwood Group International Director of “It’s the largest collection of cars in the world,” he said. “Attendance is by strict invitation only. The car gets the invite, the owner doesn’t.

The event will include parts of Ocean Drive and Lummas Park from Fifth to 15th Streets, including Collins Park, because that’s where the Concours d’Elegance — a world-renowned auction of historic vehicles — will take place, said Marcia Monserrat, Miami Beach chief of staff. . “They anticipate that only their partners and their vendors will [most of] Hotel rooms on Ocean Drive,” she said. “They can really change what our march will look like. It will be exactly the audience we’re looking for, at a very family-friendly event.”

The festival is planned to be held during the third weekend of March 2024. The heaviest construction is to take place on the sand, where the team will set up the Future Lab, an innovation pavilion with “dynamic, interactive technology to inspire everyone in the industry, from enthusiasts to the next generation of scientists, inventors and discoverers,” Goodwood According to the website, the technical pavilion will highlight sustainable development, electric cars, motors and robotics.

The festival is to come as part of targeted programming that the City of Miami Beach has announced in 2021 as “Miami Beach Live!”
Next year’s programming for March begins with the ITF Beach Tennis World Cup qualifiers, March 1-4; Miami Beach Brazil v Colombia Tennis Challenge on March 4; Miami Beach US vs. Brazil Beach Soccer Challenge, on the beach from Sixth to Ninth Streets; March 8-12, King of the Court Crown Series; March 10–12, Major League Baseball “World Baseball Classic FanFest”; Lummus Park, Sixth to Ninth Streets and Ocean Drive; March 17-19, Little Havana’s Kiwanis “Art on the Drive: A Carnival Miami Experience” at Lummus Park, 6th to 13th Streets and Ocean Drive; March 24-26, Miami Beach Fitness Festival powered by M Athletes at Sixth and Ninth Streets on the beach.

For the next year, the city partnered with the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB) to “explore what large-scale events we could host to bring Miami Beach, and South Beach in particular,” Ms. Monserrat said, “And the GMCVB and Miami-Dade County connected us to Goodwood.

With more than 30 car manufacturers on display, “this was an event we wanted to bring that highlighted the future culture of transportation, and it’s not just automobiles, but boats and anything going into the future that uses fossil fuels. is not fuel-based, said Jose Sotolongo, director of sports and recreational tourism at the GMCVB.

“The fact that they are going to be involved in the educational aspect of it with our kids in the future is also very exciting to us. Because of the amount of hotel room nights [generated]Employment opportunities for our local residents, we are fully behind it.

During the 2022 Festival of Speed ​​event at Goodwood House last June, “we had Edison’s first electric car from 1908,” Mr Bulley said. Other legendary cars include the James Bond classic Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, Jaguar 3.5L Roadster, Mercedes SLS AMG Coupe, Force India F1 car and Ferrari Dini GTS. Celebrity attendance included former football player David Beckham, TV chef Gordon Ramsay, and NFL players Danielle Hunter and KJ Osborne.

This year’s event supported the Race Against Dementia charity founded by Formula 1 world champion Sir Jackie Steward. “Every year, we celebrate a theme, an anniversary or a moment in time, which makes no festival similar to another,” said Mr. Bulli.

He said, Goodwood Group has worked with sports consultants and calculated the economic impact to reach 121,500 hotel room beds, worth approximately $17.8 million per year, $27.6 million in non-accommodation, non-local sponsor activation $6 million and $12 million. media revenue. Organizers expect approximately 102,000 attendees and 69,860 spectators, “in addition to the $45 million we will be spending to pump the event into the local economy.”

If the contract is signed, the city has to agree to cover security services, amenities, and other city items, such as waste management and a clean zone, Mr. Bulle said. Goodwood Group will also require a long-term commitment from the City of a five-year agreement over five years.

“We have ambitions to take this event around the world,” he said. “We have explored many options in the US to date, but the city of Miami Beach ticks all the boxes. It is a world-leading glamorous location that our owners’ clients and customers will want to travel to. It is close to South America, And very importantly, for Florida Technology.