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Case study: free-event registration & voting
From 5,000 free guests to 720 verified voters: how Defile Classique runs on Blend
Defile Classique is a classic car show and parade with music, held free over four days in Jounieh, Lebanon. Around 5,000 people came, and Blend turned 720 of them into registered, email-verified voters with a live leaderboard, without charging a single ticket.
- 720 verified voters
- Free entry, 4 days
- Live leaderboard
Published and last updated
- Ticketing & votingBlend
Defile Classique at a glance
Defile Classique is a classic car show and parade with music. Held free over four days, from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 September 2026, in Jounieh, Lebanon, the event drew around 5,000 attendees.
Blend (blendapp.ai), an event ticketing and registration platform for organizers in Lebanon and the UAE, ran free registration, a car-voting system gated behind that registration, email verification for every vote, and a live leaderboard, turning a free event into one with 720 known, registered attendees.
- Defile Classique is a classic car show and parade with music, held free over four days in Jounieh, Lebanon.
- Around 5,000 people attended, and 720 registered on Blend in order to vote for their favorite car.
- Nobody could vote without registering first: the car-voting system is what gave a free event a reason to collect real attendee data.
- Every vote is tied to a real registered person through one-time email verification, so the leaderboard reflects real, known voters.
- The leaderboard updated live, showing organizers and attendees which car was winning throughout the event.
| Event | Defile Classique |
|---|---|
| Event type | Classic car show and parade, a large expo with music |
| Editions on Blend | One, held over four days (Thu 17 to Sun 20 September 2026) |
| Location | Jounieh, Lebanon |
| Ticketing | Free, with registration on Blend |
| Numbers | Around 5,000 attendees (organizer estimate); 720 confirmed registrations on Blend to vote |
| Blend's role | Free registration, car-voting system, OTP email verification, live voting dashboard and leaderboard, sponsor and exhibitor management, invitation portals |
| Main Blend features used | Free registration, voting system with live leaderboard, email (OTP) verification, invitation portals |
Defile Classique in photos
What is Defile Classique?
Defile Classique is a classic car show and parade with live music, held in Jounieh, Lebanon. This edition ran four days, Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 September 2026, and is free to attend, drawing around 5,000 people. A previous edition in October 2025 brought 150 classic cars through the souk over two days and drew about 20,000 attendees, giving a sense of how much the event has grown year over year.
Collectors and car fans bring their vehicles to be shown and voted on by the crowd, with winners announced across several categories. 720 of those attendees registered on Blend in order to take part in the vote.
The problem before Blend: a free event with no way to collect data
Before Blend, the organizers were genuinely skeptical that voting and registration could even work at a free event. With no ticket to buy, attendees had no obvious reason to hand over their details.
A car show and parade this size, around 5,000 people over four days, needed some way to know who actually came and what they cared about, but a free event gives organizers none of the natural checkpoints a paid one has.
How Defile Classique runs on Blend
Defile Classique now runs free registration and a full voting system on Blend, from one event page. It is the same event ticketing platform organizers in Lebanon use for everything from community runs to exclusive parties.
Free registration on Blend
The event was free to attend, and registration ran entirely through the Blend event page, giving every attendee a real, known record.
Car voting system
Attendees could vote for their favorite cars, but only after registering: nobody could vote without a registration behind it.
Email verification (OTP)
To vote, an attendee enters the email they registered with, receives a one-time code by email, and then votes. Every vote is tied to a real registered person.
Voting dashboard and leaderboard
A live view of which car was winning, visible to organizers and reflected back to attendees throughout the event.
Sponsors and exhibitors
Managed as part of the event alongside registration and voting, rather than as a separate, disconnected process.
Invites and invitation portals
Used to distribute invitations to sponsors, exhibitors and guests.
The leaderboard in action
The Crown Car: Mercedes 600 SWB, Avak DemirdjianThe event's top honor, decided by the voting system built on Blend.
The Timeless Grace: Oldsmobile Toronado, Carlo AyoubOne of several category awards drawn from the live leaderboard.
The People's Choice: Porsche 911 T Tech-ArtVoted on directly by registered, email-verified attendees.
Best Restored Car: Jaguar XK 140 SE, Gilbert KhouryAnother category tracked on the same live dashboard as the rest of the field.
The moment that proves it: a free event that collected real data anyway
Defile Classique is proof that a ticketing platform can get real registration and data out of an event with no ticket to sell, by giving people a reason to register that has nothing to do with paying.
Edge cases Blend handled
Collecting data at a free eventWith no ticket to buy, people had no reason to register. The vote gave them one.
A feature the organizer asked forThe voting system with dashboard and leaderboard is exactly what the organizers wanted, and Blend delivered it.
A general audience using techCar fans registered, verified by email, and voted from the event page without trouble, at a show built for enthusiasts, not early tech adopters.
What running on Blend showed
Across four free days, Defile Classique went from a show with no attendee data to one with 720 registered, email-verified voters and a live leaderboard tracking real engagement, car by car.
~5,000people attended over four days
720registered on Blend in order to vote
4days, one edition held on Blend
Every votetied to a verified, registered person by email OTP
| Award | Car | Winner |
|---|---|---|
| The Crown Car | Mercedes 600 SWB | Avak Demirdjian |
| The Timeless Grace | Oldsmobile Toronado | Carlo Ayoub |
| The People's Choice | Porsche 911 T Tech-Art | |
| Best Restored Car | Jaguar XK 140 SE | Gilbert Khoury |
Why this case study matters
Defile Classique shows that a ticketing platform does not need a price tag to be useful: a free, 5,000-person classic car show turned into an event with 720 known, verified attendees, simply by giving people something worth registering for. The organizers now know which cars and which exhibitors their audience actually responds to, going into future editions with real data instead of a guess.
Questions about Defile Classique and its ticketing
Defile Classique is a classic car show and parade with music. It is free to attend and runs four days in Jounieh, Lebanon, drawing around 5,000 people.
Before Blend, the organizers were genuinely skeptical that voting and registration could work at a free event: with no ticket to buy, attendees had no obvious reason to register.
On Blend, Defile Classique gated its car-voting system behind registration: nobody could vote without registering first, which gave a free event a real reason to collect data.
Around 5,000 people attended Defile Classique, and 720 registered on Blend in order to vote.
Attendees register on the Blend event page, then vote for their favorite car from a live leaderboard. Voting is gated behind registration, so every vote comes from a real, known attendee.
Yes. On Blend, each Defile Classique vote requires email verification: the attendee enters the email they registered with, receives a one-time code, and votes, tying every vote to a real registered person.
Yes. Blend powers a live voting dashboard and leaderboard, showing organizers and attendees which car is winning in real time.
Blend (blendapp.ai) is an event technology platform for organizers in Lebanon, the UAE and the wider GCC. It combines online ticketing, access control with QR door scanning, white-label event websites, and live sales and entry data in one system.
From the show to your event
Take what ran at Defile Classique to your own event
- The entryCollect real data without charging a ticketThe same setup Defile Classique uses: free registration through one event page, turning a no-cost event into one with a real, known attendee list.See free registration
- The voteGate an interactive feature behind registrationThe same trick Defile Classique used to get people to register: a live leaderboard nobody can take part in without signing up first.See voting and leaderboards
- The proofVerify every submission with one-time email codesThe same email (OTP) verification Defile Classique relies on, so every vote, entry or submission is tied to a real, registered person.See email verification
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Free registration that still collects real data, a live voting leaderboard, and email verification on every submission: the same system that runs Defile Classique. Free to start, no card required.