Because vendors come from as many as 30 states and Canada each year to the Food Lion AutoFair, the Hornets Nest group maintains a full-time office staff and a modern computertracking system to keep everything organized. The club follows a business-like organizational chart, in which members are divided into more than 40 teams that handle specific activities leading up to, and during, the show. Team leaders work together to solve problems through club tents based in the Blue, Green, Orange and Red flea market fields.
Most of the club?s 500 members participate to some degree in the show?s planning and execution, and a small army is mobilized on ?Staking Day, ? the official kickoff of AutoFair week.
?Staking Day takes place the weekend before the show starts, ? said Carson. ?Every one of the 10,000 vendor sites has to be clearly marked, and we drive short wooden stakes into the ground. Staking starts about 5:30 a. m. and usually takes about 11 hours. ?
Anticipating the needs of swap meet shoppers is one reason the Hornets Nest earned its reputation for putting on first-class events. Such a large show would be a sea of chaos for attendees if not for the comprehensive program the club distributes for free that breaks down vendor locations by field and site number.
The enormous car corral usually represents a century of automobiles, and the Food Lion AutoFair even includes an on-site North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles office to ensure each transaction has the state?s blessing.
As if this weren?t enough to keep a club busy, the Hornets Nest manages an AACA car show on Saturday of AutoFair, in which any factory correct automobile 25 years of age or older is eligible to compete. Spectators can expect to see everything from brass-era buggies to modern muscle cars, and everything in between. Because it is a regional show, participants do not have to be AACA members.
?Lowe?s Motor Speedway has been a great place to hold this event for the last 30 years, ? Carson said. ?It?s in a good central location, everybody likes coming here, and there?s still plenty of room for our show to grow. ?
Other attractions scheduled for the Food Lion AutoFair include a 50-foot limousine customized from a jet airplane; an Evolution of the Stock Car exhibit; prized rides of NASCAR stars Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart; a real-life version of ?Doc Hudson? from the animated hit movie ?CARS, ? NBA star LeBron James? customized Hummer and a 75th anniversary display of 1932 Ford hot rods. The Food Lion AutoFair features 50-plus car club displays and a collector car auction conducted by Tom Mack.
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