Cars, new and old, lined parking lots and several streets in downtown Mars during the 2024 Mars Rumble Car Show. This year’s event has been canceled. Morgan Phillips/Butler Eagle

This year, for the first time since the COVID-19 year of 2020, a Rumble car show will not be hosted in Butler County.

Event organizers John Podolak, of After Hours Tattoo Studio, and Natasha Smith, of Social Club Barbershop, announced the cancellation of this year’s event on social media Thursday, May 8. They also announced the cancellation of the Mars Spooktacular Halloween event. This year’s event would have been the third annual.

Mars Borough Council had already granted permission for both events to take place this year. However, Mars Mayor Gregg Hartung said the organizers had made the decision to cancel the events some time before it was announced.

“From what he told me weeks ago, he wasn’t doing it this year,” Hartung said.

Podolak and Smith stated the future of their events was uncertain due to a series of policy changes regarding local events that have been proposed over the past year by borough council, including one that is presently under discussion.

“New changes being implemented for next year have led us to this difficult decision,” the two wrote on the barbershop’s Facebook page. “We want to be clear, these events were never about us. They were about bringing joy, visitors and positive attention to Mars. We've poured our time, energy and resources into making them successful.”

Hartung says a vote on a new event policy by borough council isn’t expected until June, at the earliest, and that all events in the borough in 2025 will take place under the event policy currently in place.

While Podolak doesn’t expect his tattoo parlor or the barbershop to be adversely affected by the cancellations, he couldn’t say the same for other Mars small businesses that benefited from the massive car show.

“A lot of businesses will lose money this year,” Podolak said. “A lot of businesses in the area did very well while the Rumble was here and they also got to display their businesses.”

Podolak also ruled out taking the Rumble to another town, as he did in 2023 when the Rumble moved to the Saxonburg Volunteer Fire Company carnival ground.

“The Rumble was designed to be in Mars. That's what we’re all about,” Podolak said. “We make nothing off the Rumble financially. It’s there to support Mars and so is the Spooktacular. They're designed to support the town and bring business to a small town.”