Riverside Chattanooga 2021
When SF started I wanted to provide a place for my peers to showoff their builds and expose more of our automotive scene to everyone. At the time most of the automotive content was coming from the west. Over the years it slowly evolved and here we are now.
Fast forward to the last few years there has been an increase of other groups hosting events in the southeast. Most of them are not willing to put in the ground work with the core of the community to be able make a successful return.
The constant growth and success of Riverside Chattanooga is because the creators have spent years around the community and understand how their peers likes to gather. There isn’t a special secret to anything that Riverside does, its just that they did the ground work to make it successful.
This years Riverside Chattanooga was by the far the largest turnout they have ever had. As usual the team was able to keep everything organized and the event seemed to run smooth from a spectators perspective. Vendor lines were long, and the layout of cars were photographer friendly and spaced enough for spectators to get a good look at them from every angle.
Since 2016 the team has strived to bring the quality back to events. And this year the bar has been raised. Without any awards they have been able to force people to make Riverside the big event to have your build done by. The team has managed to turn this one day event into a week long vacation for some.
Another big draw to Riverside is the location. Being in the heart of a somewhat small city. Riverside completely takes over the downtown area. Its been a long time since I have been to a large event and it felt good to be outside amongst people. I am still somewhat sketchy about being around large groups so I limited myself to being outside as much as possible. But as crowded as the venue was there were not as many people in large groups as it seemed. 
The last few years hosting events and being apart of things has not been my priority. I set aside this year to be more active in being at events rather then spending time planning and hosting. Riverside was what I needed. It made me realize there are others that will continue to do things the right way for us and continue to provide quality events in the Southeast.
