event hosting

i want to host a soapbox derby

i recently watched a william osman 2 video where he hosted a little camp where people would go and build go-karts. i wanted to do something very very similar.

building a go-kart would be so cool, right? having your own and then driving it around would be so badass. but of course, i dont know how to weld metal, and i dont know anything about engines, so, the next best thing is to make it out of wood, like a soapbox derby car! so i did a little bit of research, seeing if there are any soapbox derbies nearby i could participate in and..

there are none.

nothing in toronto, nothing nearby, what are people doing nowadays other than having soapbox derby races?

i want to take it upon myself to host my own soapbox derby.

of course though for something this big, you need a lot of funding, permits, construction, advertising, so on and so forth.

funding

of course, i could just put all my own money to this event, but that would cost a LOT, for the course, advertising, everything.

companies sponsor events, right? ive seen a few, dominos, no frills, etc.. but how would I reach out to a company like that to sponsor something? just, “hi, im a student who’s trying to put on a zero profit event where people race dangerous wooden cars down a hill, money please?”

i’d have to find a really open minded person.

permits

unfortunately, this is something i certainly cannot get around, maybe if it were a smaller event that could take place in a park, i could get away with it. if i wanted an actual track, i would have to get a permit from the city to close off a street for this event, hopefully a road that goes downhill to actually make the cars go.

construction

making a track would be so damn hard, especially if they close off the street the same day of the derby, as the whole track would need to be constructed in just a few hours, with barriers, obstacles, a start and finish, as well as gates to hold people off the track and out of harms way.

one of the biggest problems is money, as equipment is expensive, from barriers, gates, wood, paint, pillows, helmets and such, it would cost in the thousands to get it all together, money i just dont have.

advertising

advertising is another hard part, as i would have to get all the permits first, for a day far far in the future so people would have time to construct their carts. how would i even advertise? just keep putting up posters for months around the city and bus stops? word of mouth? hope someone with a big audience picks it up?

back to thinking

it would just be a lot to take on, especially as a first event. i desperately want to put on something like this, and maybe one day i will. we’ll see.

heres this post’s song, Racing Gloves by Plumtree.