Anew lease of life is being breathed back into a oncepopular Mount Gambier tradition with the return of the “mainy”.
A group of car enthusiasts have come together to kickstart the tradition, made popular several decades ago before the days of social media.
Mount Gambier’s Commercial Street used to be the place where younger people would gather in their vehicles on Thursday, Friday and Saturday vnights, making it quite the social meeting place to catch up with friends.
In honour of the mainy, Mount Gambier’s Mat McKinnon initially created a Facebook page called “Chuck a few laps on a Thursday night”, hoping to attract a few fellow motorists to revive the tradition.
“We thought we might get a few people come along and chuck some laps,” he said.
“But within the first couple of hours the page had 40 likes and it just grew from there.”
Tonight will mark the fourth gathering of the group, after more than 30 cars turned out last Thursday night to parade their vehicles.
“We really just put it out there for people to bring their cars out,” Mr McKinnon said.
“Back in the day it was a lot of fun, even if you did not have a cool car you could see a cool car driving around.
“We chuck a few laps and then pull over and have a chat, it’s becoming a social occasion.”
Mr McKinnon’s mate Matt Laurenson has joined with him in organising the event, with the page quickly swelling to more than 400 members.
“It’s a great way of bringing people together, there are so many people with great cars in town so it gives them an opportunity to bring them out,” Mr Laurenson said.
“It’s nice to see so many of them cruising the streets, and what’s even better are the people who come out onto the main street to watch them cruise past.
“The whole thing just has a really nice feel to it.”
Mr McKinnon said everyone was welcome to come along and join on the night, with all makes and models of vehicles encouraged.
“It’s nice to see people just getting together, catching up and just having a chat,” he said.
“The idea has really caught on, people are enjoying it no matter what kind of vehicle they drive.
“Some of us just bring our everyday vehicles while others have been going to a lot of trouble to bring their pride and joys out.
“We’d love to see people out along the main street just checking out the cars, anytime after 7pm on a Thursday night.
“We are just enjoying trying to bring back Mount Gambier’s street car scene.
“Get your car out of the shed and on the street.”
Anyone interested in chucking a mainy, or just checking out the vehicles, should head to Commercial Street tonight after 7pm.
