But who is Maxime Flahaut, the person nominated by Future of Artois readers as Artésien of the year?
Readers decide. It was Maxime Flahaut, with his many car rallies at the North Gate of Bruay who was elected Artesian of the year. He talks about the past year and the upcoming projects for 2023
Reading time:
3 min
Lhis race will be breathtaking. But in the end it was Maxime Flahaut who crossed the line first. You voted the Artésien car enthusiast of the year with 42% of the votes, or 3,124 votes. In 2022, Pernois was able to shine in many exhibitions of vehicles of interest in the North gate car parks in Bruay-la-Buissière. Thousands of vehicles for thousands of people have made Maxime Flahaut a recognizable leader in the sector. He looks back on a very good year and looks forward to 2023.
Looking back, how do you view the past year?
It started hard with a breakup. It was not easy. In March of April, the monthly events took place and that’s when everything changed. Many have discovered them. I was regularly in press articles, I did two TV shows, two radio shows… At first, I was very surprised by all that. I was surprised, even a little stressed. My friends even told me they were tired of seeing me on their newsfeed to tease me. All this popularity made me want to diversify.
Where did your first Christmas market at the Cave du Kraken come from?
Exactly. It was a huge success. Unfortunately, there was some snow which may have kept some people out. But for a first, we still gathered between 30 and 40 exhibitors with several hundred people constantly present, this is a source of pride.
Does it support your idea of diversification?
Absolutely. I renamed all my networks Max.events and no longer Max car events. It’s more satisfying when people who come to my automotive events come to see the Christmas market and give me good feedback. I was a bit stressed about the placement of the stands. In this first Christmas market and in the various discussions I had with contacts, I understood that I have the means and knowledge to diversify.
How do you see the coming year?
I’ll do a Christmas market in December, that’s for sure. If not, I can think of other events like manga and cosplay world gatherings. I also want to build events in fancy places like La chartreuse with nice cars to show there and people will pay the entrance. We will continue the monthly car rallies at the Cave du Kraken. But we will put one theme at a time to limit the number of participants. The Halloween gathering, we were 6,000 people with 2,000 cars.
Is it difficult to manage such a crowd?
I don’t know if it’s hard. But all this must be done in a proper way. I didn’t expect so many people, no one for that matter. After the event, I had a series of administrative meetings in the town hall of Bruay-la-Buissière, in the sub-prefecture of Béthune. They made it clear to me that I could not continue gathering so many people without an “official organization.” This is why I am working on creating an association. Events managed by the prefecture, the town hall, will be easier to organize. All the people who will help me will be volunteers, members of the association. It allows insurance by status. And the association will allow us to earn for other events. It’s still a bit unclear at the organizational level but this will be the job this year.
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