Hilton Head Concours d’Elegance Motoring Festival canceled. Here’s what we know
Hilton Head Island’s 2020 Concours d’Elegance Motoring Festival has been canceled due to the coronavirus, according to a statement published on the event’s website Friday.
“After much internal consideration and review and important consultations with our strategic partners and leadership from Hilton Head Island and Savannah, we have decided we cannot, prudently, host our event this fall,” the statement, signed by president Lindsey Harrell and chairperson Merry Harlacher, said.
The 10-day event, typically hosted in Savannah and on Hilton Head Island’s north end, has been bringing hundreds of classic cars, planes and around 20,000 visitors to the island each fall for 18 years.
The 2020 event was scheduled to be held Oct. 23 to Nov. 1. On April 7, event organizers told The Island Packet that the event planning was moving forward full-steam.
“2020 has not been the year any of us imagined when we rang in the New Year,” the statement said. “We have all felt a massive sense of uncertainty and experienced the chaos caused by COVID-19. Never have we felt less in control, personally and professionally.”
The statement also addresses financial uncertainty for the event’s supporters and sponsors, which include The Westin Hotel, The Port Royal Golf Club, Castrol, The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce and local governments.
“While all of us will sorely miss seeing you in 2020, we are immediately shifting our focus to organizing an especially amazing event for the fall of 2021,” the statement says.
The 2021 event is scheduled for Oct. 29 through Nov. 7.
