I was also surprised like you all when I heard for the first time last week about "Power Big Meet" which was to be held in Västerås. This was one of the many events which I found people to be waiting for since so many days. The first impression I got was that the heads of the world's superpower nations are probably having one of their tea-time meetings here. Quite natural, this is a small and beautiful place and the weather has been great. It is only when I
started inquiring the details of this so called meet that I came to know what it is about. It is a meeting of the big cars - the cars of the 50s and 60s and 70s which used to be huge in size. They are supposed to go on a rally through the main streets of Västerås. Oops !! What a shock. I think, in India, we basically term such rallies as the Vintage Car Rally. But there's more to it than the rally itself and the details are available in this link http://www.bigmeet.com/. The meet is usually held over the weekend during the first week of July. Can you imagine that the event in 2008 had 14,200 cars and had participation from 42 countries !!
Its almost a month since I landed up in Västerås and I have not been able to take good rest over the weekend. There's something or the other happening which is keeping me engaged. I had never expected that Västerås is the most happening place in Sweden. I had initially thought that this rally of old cars is something very simple like the vintage car rallies in India and I was not planning to go and see today, i.e. Friday. But I don't know why, I came to my apartment and decided to go. I walked down to the city center and I could see several people 
rushing towards the city on the sidewalks - both on foot and on cycles. It was around 5:30PM and my friends had told me that the rally was supposed to start at 5:00PM. Fine, I went to the city center and I could see many many people lined up on the sides of the road. I slowly started to have this feeling as though this rally is something which is really "big". I also stood along with those people and then saw a few of the old cars being driven down. Well, it was interesting to see the cars but to me I didn't find it so interesting as to wait for them on 
the sidewalk. I stood there for quite sometime and then decided to go towards the railway station and near the lake. I was already told that the major gathering happens near there only and I could also see lot of people moving towards that side. As I started nearing the road which runs close to the lake, I could feel that the number of people were increasing exponentially. The enthusiasm levels of the people were also on the higher side. Most of the people were having beer and they had brought chairs and were seated on the side of the road. Many of the families 
were in a picnic mode as I could see them on the grass, with sun protector umbrella, lot of beer and of course food. This, I found was a nice and different atmosphere for me. I kept on walking till I could find a vantage point from where I can have a good view of the cars coming down. The point was a slightly wide divider right in the middle of the road and this point was good to take pictures. There were quite a few photographers with long lenses there and I also got into their midst.
If you have ever thought about what the branded cars of the modern era looked like during its 1st or 2nd generation, you got it all here. You name the car, you can see it - mustangs, lincolns, chevrolets, street Rods, corvettes. Somebody told me that there were 16,000 such cars this time !! Can you imagine? There is though a big difference between the "Power Big Meet" and any other vintage car rally and its 
in the people who are inside the cars. Every car has few people with each one of them dressed in style which suits their image with the car. For the macho cars, you can see the macho guys and gals.. Gals? Well, they are probably the major attractions during this meet and you can see some of the bold and beautiful ladies inside those cars. Unfortunately, I did not have my long zoom lens with me, else the present story would have been a different one. Each of the cars had the occupants in many different 
styles and it was very interesting to look at. And of course, I can proudly say that this indeed was a sort of an attraction with a difference. I was at one point for almost an hour in the centre of the street when cops came up and told us to go to one side of the street. I started walking on the sidewalk. I can call this event as a festival. The sidewalks were all lined up with small makeshift shops selling memorabilia stuff related to the cars or food items. The sidewalk was totally full and it was difficult to walk. The stretch of open space between the sidewalk and the road was totally filled up all along the length of the road as far as I could see. Since it was a friday evening, I would rather think that most of Västerås would have been out 
there at some point of time or the other. I spent more than 2 hours at the venue, sometimes looking at the cars and sometimes at the people. It was a nice experience. I could not wait to watch all the 16000 cars coming, so just moved out of that place, went towards the harbor for some time, came back to the city center, bought few mangoes and came back home. Thats it - the end of a beautiful evening. I should actually thank the weather God for this wonderful opportunity since it had rained in the afternoon and I was planning to have a nice time at home watching some movie ! Västerås is truly a great place.Adjö....
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