Beach Bums Corvette Club may be forced to change location, date of annual show due to Hop Sauce Festival

Photo by Jack Reynolds
Car show participants enjoy showing
off their flashy vehicles.

The Beach Bums Corvette Club, a nonprofit group that has held its annual car show on Taylor Avenue at Bay Village and Schooner’s Wharf in Beach Haven the first Sunday in June for nearly 10 years, will have to either change this year’s event location or push it back due to a scheduling conflict with Hop Sauce Festival, which is held at the same location.

Hop Sauce has been planned for the past two years on the Saturday following Memorial Day weekend, which means this year’s festival falls on June 4 – the day before the Corvette show. Because the popular festival has grown significantly since its inaugural event in 2014, vendor cleanup will not be completed in time for the car show, Regina Lotito-Starin, Hop Sauce chief organizer, stated during the borough council’s organization meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 6.

Although special-event requests are not normally discussed in public, Municipal Clerk Sherry Mason brought the issue to council since both applications were submitted within a couple of hours of each other.

The council suggested moving the car show, which typically draws around 150 Corvettes, to Veterans Park. But Lou Sivori, Beach Bums Corvette Club treasurer, who chairs the event, said the grassy area is not suitable for parking the expensive, well-maintained vehicles.

The participants “are very fussy about where they park,” he said.

Although Sivori noted he preferred to use the same lot on the rain date the following week, on June 12, he said doing so would most likely result in a decrease in participation. He fears this would cut proceeds, which are donated to local charities, by about a third.

Last year’s show raised approximately $3,000, $900 of which was donated to the Beach Haven Police Department for a bullet-proof vest.

If the club wants to keep the car show on the same day, the borough council suggested moving it to Second Street near the bay, which Sivori said he would discuss with the club board.

— Kelley Anne Essinger


This article was published in The SandPaper.