![North West Autofest finally set to take off North West Autofest finally set to take off](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/177678904/713097b7-09bb-4287-becd-e2b95f462135.jpg/r1_0_2444_1374_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Skies and roads will come alive with the thrum of motors for the arrival of the North West Auto Fest this weekend.
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Kicking off with a flight show at 10am, motoring events are running throughout the day on Saturday.
A show and shine will be at the centre of it all, however event organiser Shaun Faulkner said the schedule is absolutely packed.
"The Barraba Air Club have organised the fly in breakfast so there'll be some light aircraft on display," he said.
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"There will also be market stalls on the grounds and later on in the evening there'll be a rather large fireworks display.
"We like to think it's probably one of the biggest in the region."
Assistant event organiser Peter Dwyer said they've got satellite events here, there, and everywhere to get people moving around town.
"The markets at the historical society have sort of come about because of our event but they're their own thing," he said.
"There's an exhibition at the Fuller Gallery and Ron Hiscock is opening his Shed Of Knowledge, which is a kind of eclectic museum."
For Mr Faulkner, the festival is all about giving families a quality day together.
"We put it on as a free event and that way families don't have to spend a fortune to go and have a good day out."
Mr Faulkner said there's also something for the younger visitors, who are yet to get classic car fever.
"Joblink Plus have also sponsored a kids' corner. There are some amusement rides ... and some face-painting," he said.
As for the main event, the vintage cars will congregate at the Barraba RSL Club with awards being given out at the end of the day.
A mechanic by trade, Mr Faulker has made the trophies himself using an array of car parts.
"We're expecting a good roll up of vehicles from around the region," he said.
"We've had a bit of interest from the hotrod clubs and the vintage car clubs from places like Tamworth, Armidale, Inverell, Moree."
But despite the size of the event Mr Faulkner said they've only really had a two person committee behind it all.
"The committee's sort of a one or two person committee ... since COVID we didn't want to get too committed because we've had to cancel twice," he said.
And while the show might still seem very sizeable, Mr Faulkner said they've yet to see the show's full potential thanks to COVID cancellations.
"Two years running we've had to postpone so we thought we'd do it over one day to see how we go," he said.
"And hopefully we can grow the event in the future."
According to Mr Faulkner, the show is going ahead in large part because of the outstanding support they've received despite their cancellations.
"Everyone that's supported us in the past has jumped on board again and been extremely generous because of the past years," he said.
"Our sponsors are the ones that have made it possible so far as funding the event [goes]."
Fireworks will cap off the event at 9pm.
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