The Sydney Harbour Concours d’Elegance is pleased to announce its dates for next year. The ninth edition of the Southern Hemisphere’s leading internationally recognised concours will take place on 26th – 28th February 2027. Once again the venue will be iconic Cockatoo Island in the heart of the idyllic Sydney Harbour, surely one of the most picturesque venues of any of concours event worldwide, in one of the most beautiful and vibrant cities on earth.
This is what James Elliott, editor-in-chief of Octane Magazine had to say about this year’s event on LinkedIn recently, “What’s more important to a concours – the venue or the cars? “Obviously the cars,” you shout, but a rotten venue can put the mockers on even the most astonishing display of metal. Plus, you wouldn’t think that any event that can attract top tier cars could struggle for an appropriate canvas on which to display them, yet I have seen much-vaunted concours make terrible relocation decisions, sometimes out of necessity, but occasionally by choice. And some venues, even some high-profile ones currently in use, should work but somehow just don’t. Atmosphere, flatness, the angle the wind blows through at, or any other combination of factors can make somewhere that looks great on paper feel desolate on the wrong day, a few gaps in the line-up very quickly starting to feel like a raft of no-shows. Speaking of which, you also need somewhere that can ride out whatever the weather gods throw at you (big thumbs up for ModaMiami there).
I always loved the Hurlingham Club as a venue (maybe because I can walk to it), but no event seems to be able to really put down roots there. There are golf courses all over the world that are spot-on, too, but I also want a different kind of wow and no traffic jams – there’s nothing worse than feeling flustered, harassed and angry before you have even got into a concours.
Both Salon Privé and Concours of Elegance score highly on the traffic jam avoidance front by separating the parking from the event, but perhaps the best way is to entirely take away the option to get stuck in traffic in the first place. The London Concours does that pretty well (you can drive into the City of London, but why would you when there are several tube stations in easy walking distance?), but nowhere does it better than the Sydney Harbour Concours of Elegance.
Because it is held on a 44-acre UNESCO world heritage site – formerly a prison and a shipyard – in the middle of Sydney Harbour, there are no roads or bridges to it. The concours cars (and everything else from sound systems to catering) arrive by barges, while the visitors must also get there by watercraft. The locals are pretty blasé about this aspect, they don’t get how cool it is as a tourist to take a ferry to such an event, to tour the harbour, go under the bridge and pass in almost touching distance of the Opera House, and all for the price of a bus ticket. Of course, you can arrive by superyacht if you prefer.
I know I am a bit of a cheerleader for this event, but I have always had a soft spot for Australia and the ferociously passionate car culture there (a pre-war Bugatti and a Ferrari 275GTB both drove 1000km from Melbourne to be shown this year) and just wish more people could see it and experience it as I have. Sydney in late summer and no traffic jams, what could be better?”
