UPDATE 4.30pm: Close to 20,000 people streamed through the gates of the Prince of Wales Showground to attend the Bendigo National Swap Meet this weekend, organisers say.
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Swap meet chairman Ashley Gray said much of the event’s lasting success was due to the continued focus on vehicles.
Mr Gray said that while there was some bric-a-brac and the like on offer, organisers worked hard to ensure it remained true to vehicles.
Sites at the swap meet were sold out each year, he said, with some 1700 to 1800 sites operating on the Saturday.
“It’s something Bendigo should be proud of, really,” Mr Gray said.
He also thanked the people of Bendigo for supporting the event and putting up with any inconveniences it might have caused.
EARLIER: Shepparton residents Chris and Charlene Seymour have been coming to the Bendigo National Swap Meet for 40 years now.
Chris is yet to miss one since then – even a quadruple bypass a few years ago could not keep him away, having been discharged from the Royal Melbourne Hospital just in time to make the event.
The couple are among thousands of people who have flocked to the Prince of Wales Showground already this weekend for the popular two-day event.
Like the Seymours, many visitors and stallholders alike are regulars at the swap meet.
Janet Sloan and Cheryl Morrison, from Mildura, have attended for about five years now.
They like to look at the vintage goods on offer, with Cheryl collecting white enamelware.
Read more: Crowds ready to haggle and swap
Mathew, Russell and Mitch Hoggan have travelled to Bendigo for the swap meet from Portland, Echuca and Warrnambool, respectively.
They are all interested in cars and own some of varying sorts, some already done up, some still works in progress.
They said they sometimes had an idea of what they were looking for at the swap meet, but they stumbled across surprises.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you need until you see it,” Mathew laughed.
This is the first year at the Bendigo Swap Meet for seller Doug Wilshire, although his wife Rhonda has been coming for about 25 years.
“It’s fantastic, we’ve had the best time,” Doug said.
He said he had found there was a real sense of community among the stallholders, and reckoned he had already made about 25 new friends because of people coming over to introduce themselves.
Brothers Brendan and Justin McNamara sell signs and advertising material, sourced from the USA.
Brendan said it began from selling Coca Cola memorabilia and grew from there, and they’d now been selling at the swap meet for about 10 years.
Like Doug, Brendan said the swap meet brought them back because of the sense of the community, and with their father and uncle also attending, it had become a bit of a family affair.
Antiques dealer Dave Hauswirth, from North Melbourne, said the Bendigo Swap Meet was the best in Victoria.