International Festival of Speed autos coming to Miami Beach

The City of Miami Beach is hosting Goodwood’s International Festival of Speed starting in 2024 as the first five-year contract has been approved for the third week of March.

The Goodwood festival, which was established 30 years ago by the Duke of Richmond in his Goodwood House in Chichester, West Sussex, South of England, is the largest celebration of motoring sports and car manufacturing and design in the world, said Tim Bulley, international director of The Goodwood Group. “Absolutely delighted that this has passed,” he said. “We have some of the world’s greatest and most important cars appear at the festival.”

Organizers of the event have been working with the city for over two years to bring it to Ocean Drive. Now, the city is to negotiate details of the contract, which start with a five-year period, starting in March 2024, with an additional five-year period. Goodwood organizers are to reach out to the event’s partners to canvass support from them. “The ones we have spoken to already are very excited about it,” said Mr. Bulley.

The event would bring celebrities from the world of racing, car collectors and car exhibitors. The 2024 show would focus on themes of the future of transportation and the end of fossil fuels usage, Mr. Bulley previously told the city commission.

Expanding from parts of Ocean Drive and Lummus Park – from Fifth to 15th streets, including Collins Park – the event would host its Concourse d’Elegance, an auction of historic vehicles. In addition, Future Lab, a build-out on the sand in Lummus Park, would be an “innovation pavilion with dynamic, interactive technology to inspire everyone in the industry, from enthusiasts to the next generation of scientists, inventors and explorers… on sustainable development, electric cars, motors and robotics,” according to the Goodwood website.

The festival would also be part of Miami Beach Live, a city initiative to bring arts and culture audiences for the Spring Break period. “I think it will be the next version of Art Basel,” said Commissioner Kristen Rosen Gonzalez.

For the festival to take place, City Manager Alina T. Hudak said, the city has a tight timeline for negotiations because there is a financial component. Goodwood Group is requesting that the city cover security services and other city costs, such as waste management.

Mr. Bulley previously told the commissioner that Goodwood Group engaged with sports consultants, who calculated the economic impact would fill about 121,500 hotel room beds, worth about $17.8 million per year, with $27.6 million in non-accommodation gains, $6 million in non-local sponsor activation, and $12 million in media revenue, expecting about 102,000 public attendees and 69,860 spectators.

“We will tie that financial ask to our budget process, so it’s certainly our hope that by the time that we come to [the commission] to discuss next year’s budget (in May), we will be in a position to recommend [a drafted contract],” Ms. Hudak told commissioners last week.

“We need this to be seen as a benefit to the local residents,” said Mr. Bulley. “We will be working on education programs about the future of mobility, science, engineering, technology and math; residents’ programs that will provide benefits, and a whole host of other things that we will hopefully see residents look forward to.”