'This year we saw a change': Has the rowdy, risque Summernats of old turned a corner?

The Tomas family usually dread the arrival of Summernats in Canberra.

Kirsty, her husband and two young kids, have lived on Phillip Avenue in Watson for eight years now, not much more than a stone’s throw from the smouldering, throbbing, screeching heart of the annual petrolhead festival.

“Cars would be parked all down the street, across front lawns, down the median strips, and you could guarantee a weekend of burnouts and loud cars up and down Phillip Avenue, rubbish discarded over our front lawn, and endless foot traffic up and down the street,” Kirsty says.

Not so this year.

“This year we saw a change,” she says.

For instance, during the traditional parade up and down Northbourne Avenue that kicks off the event, not only were cars “respectfully parked in designated areas along Phillip Avenue” but it seemed to be “mostly families” out with the Eskys and camp chairs to watch the passing cars.

“Yes, there were still a few hooligans with the loud muscle cars, yelling out the windows at their mates in neighbouring cars, but overall, it seemed to be a more wholesome crowd,” Kirsty says.

“We spent the Thursday and Friday in the front yard gardening so we witnessed the comings and goings of the crowds, and this year people made supportive comments on the hard work and wished us a happy new year.”

Would she go?

“Not for me – too many people, too loud, too dusty and too hot.”

But is Summernats’ bark worse than its bite? Could it actually be Canberra’s biggest family event, ahead of Floriade and Enlighten?

Certainly, of all the cars that descended on Canberra for Summernats 37 last weekend, with their shimmering chrome and gleaming paint, the one that emerged as victorious was big on family.

Sydneysider John Fenech won the Grand Champion’s sword for his family’s green Holden LJ Torana, after the heartstrings of all the judges were twanged by its emotional backstory.

John’s father Sam Fenech had bought the car from one of the customers of his engine-building business, and over many years, transformed it from a streetcar into a full-time racer.

“He raced it for years,” John recalls.

“But then probably 10 to 12 years ago, when I was still a kid, he parked it up for what was meant to be a two- to three-year thing, but life just got away from him.”

Sam was killed in an accident at the Willowbank Raceway in 2023, but his son decided to dust off the Torana and restore it in his honour.

“Dad went through a few different engine combinations while he had it and got it to go faster and faster, and once he passed, we took over the body side of it and pretty much brought the body back to how it should be, and probably a bit further, to be honest,” John says.

John says it was “very overwhelming” to see “so much respect for Dad and for the car” at Summernats.

The Fenech family might be “more racers than burnout guys”, but Sam began attending the festival in its earliest days in the late 1980s. And Sam’s brother (John’s uncle) has been at “every one since about the third”.

“I myself started going again about four years ago,” John says.

“Even then, I thought it was a bit rowdy for us, but it’s definitely turned into more of a family-friendly event, for sure. It’s much more regulated now.”

Andy Lopez took over Summernats from founder Chic Henry as co-owner in 2009, and within a few years, several of its more adults-only features had disappeared (including the infamous wet T-shirt contest).

After an ugly brawl last year, organisers again stepped up security with more guards and an “event control centre” with near full CCTV coverage of Exhibition Park.

“Anecdotally and observationally, we see the increase in family and kids year on year,” Andy says.

“We really got the tone right, with lots of visible but friendly and professional security guards around the place making people feel safe and comfortable.”

Andy says many of the rowdy young guys who might have attended the early events are now coming back with their partners and kids and are “looking for a different experience and a great time as a family”.

“One dad I saw took his daughter to Summernats for the first time, and she said it was the best day of her life, and now they’ve agreed to start a tradition where that young girl wants to come to Summernats every year with her dad,” he says.

“And that’s far more emblematic of the experience we want to offer.”

It’s estimated more than 130,000 people attended Summernats 37 over the four days.

ACT Policing says it was “generally happy” with crowd behaviour, both inside Exhibition Park and at the Braddon Fringe Festival.

A “small number” of arrests were made for matters including assault, breach of bail, failing to comply with a police direction and assaulting police.

Officers also issued almost 30 ‘move-on’ directions, more than 95 traffic infringement notices, and 32 vehicle defect notices. Three vehicles were also seized, and five drivers tested positive for illicit drugs while driving.