The Midwest’s hottest classic car and rock ‘n’ roll festival.

Three days of classic cars and bikes and many hot rockin’ bands.

That’s how the inaugural Rock This Town event planned for May 3, 4 and 5, 2024, in downtown Seymour is described on the first draft of a flyer recently shared with city officials.

After Gina and Attila Tüzün detailed their plans with the Seymour Board of Public Works and Safety, they received unanimous approval to use parking spots on Second and Chestnut streets and close Indianapolis Avenue for the classic car show, use the B&O Railroad Parking Lot for three food stands, 15 market stands, two beer stands, two bars and a stage for music and the Crossroads Community Park parking lot for classic car parking if needed.

Next, the couple, operating as Morosey & Partner, will need to submit a facility use request for the park’s pavilion with the Seymour Parks and Recreation Department for more bands to have a venue to perform.

Plus, they learned they will need to contact the Indiana Department of Homeland Security with their evacuation plans and stage inspection and apply for any other needed permits along the way.

“It’s also been very helpful to us,” Gina, a Seymour native, told the board of works after she and her husband were thanked for sharing more details about the event. “We’re very excited to do this.”

The Tüzüns recently moved to her hometown from Switzerland, which is Attila’s home country.

“We have also a club in Switzerland where we started with the rockabilly music, so we have 11 years of experience with that, and we wanted to branch out and bring it to Seymour,” Gina said.

“Because we thought that’s where music and culture actually come from, the Midwest and South, the rockabilly culture. It’s famous in Switzerland where I come from,” Attila said.

Gina said they expect around 2,000 visitors per day for the nonprofit event supporting the rockabilly music culture and classic cars. Admission would be free.

“We’ll bring a lot of people because classic car owners come from all over, and they are always looking for a place to bring their cars. They work on these cars all year and are very proud of them,” she said. “Also, rockabilly music, these bands that we book, they come from all over, so it’ll bring a lot of traffic to Seymour.”

The plan is for the first 250 cars to sign up to have a reserved parking spot along Chestnut Street, Second Street or Indianapolis Avenue or at the park.

Attila said the idea is to have people guide classic car owners to spots and still allow thru traffic, not closing down the streets. Gina said in Switzerland, the town provides a few experienced traffic controllers, usually firefighters, on the main streets to separate classic cars from regular traffic, but she wasn’t sure how it works here.

Mayor Matt Nicholson, who also serves on the board of works, said the fire and police departments have provided people for downtown events, but they have volunteered their time. Clerk-Treasurer Darrin Boas, who helps organize Cars and Guitars in downtown Seymour, said a police officer spends about an hour helping with lining cars up for that event.

The mayor told the Tüzüns the chiefs of the two city departments could ask personnel to see if anyone is interested in volunteering for their event.

Nicholson said the only worry he had was for the two restaurants in the area of the festival, but he was told the food booths would be in the B&O parking lot, not in front of the restaurants, so people could still access them. Fire Chief Eric Roll told them if they are not local food vendors and haven’t been inspected by the fire department before, that will have to be done beforehand.

Board of works member Dave Earley asked the Tüzüns if they were OK with thru traffic flowing through the classic car area, and Nicholson encouraged them to consider closing the streets because of people crossing back and forth to view the vehicles.

“If it’s better for safety concerns, we can close these streets down, but if it’s going to create a problem, we can also leave them open,” Gina said. “For visitors and pedestrians, it might be a better idea to close the streets.”

Nicholson suggested closing Indianapolis Avenue since it’s narrow and leaving Second and Chestnut streets open for thru traffic, and Earley said barricades could be on hand if they are needed.

The Tüzüns were good with those suggestions.

Before the vote was taken, Earley asked the couple if the event is successful, do they see it becoming an annual event.

“I think that would be great,” Gina said. “We’ll see how it is the first year, and then if people like it, we would love to bring it back every year.”