About 450 vehicles filled Parkland Mall’s northeast parking lot for the first Red Deer Cruise Night of 2023.
The weekly car show, which runs every Thursday from 6-9 p.m., began its 23rd season on May 4 – this past Thursday’s show was cancelled due to rain.
“We had a really amazing turnout for the opening,” said Dave Burden, Red Deer Cruise Night CEO.
“Everybody seemed to be in a really great mood, finally being able to get out again now that the summer is upon us. It was a really hot day for a grand opening – nobody’s really used to 30 degrees on May 4.”
The event also featured vendors and a live band performance.
“Red Deer Cruise Night has always been about having pride in your ride. If you’re proud of your ride, we’d love to see it. It doesn’t need to be perfect by any means,” Burden explained.
“We end up seeing different project vehicles coming through at different stages. For instance, you might see a vehicle come in one week that’s all rusty and beat up. Then the next week, maybe it’s got new fenders or something. You get to actually see the progress of what somebody is doing with their ride. That’s always a neat process, especially for people who don’t have a lot of knowledge of that kind of thing.”
On average, each grand opening features about 400 vehicles. The biggest opening Red Deer Cruise Night has ever had, roughly seven or eight years ago, featured around 750 rides.
Burden said he expects there to be about 300 vehicles on display every week throughout the season, weather permitting.
“Everybody is welcome to come and we hope everyone has a good time,” he said.
“People come from all over the place. We get a lot of Central Alberta folks because it’s close to home. But we also get a lot of rides coming down from Edmonton and up from Calgary. We get rides from Lethbridge or Medicine Hat once in a while during the summer while people are on holidays.”
“They’re not able to bring their rides, but we actually get a lot of visitors who are coming from other countries to see our show … or they’re visiting in the area and want to check it out. A lot of times they’ll be flabbergasted by how much they can see compared to their home country.”
Red Deer Cruise Night also hosts weekly shows in Sylvan Lake each week. Sylvan Lake Cruise Night runs 6-9 p.m. every Friday from May to October in the parking lot across from the Nexus Centre.
For more information, visit www.reddeercruisenight.com.
sean.mcintosh@reddeeradvocate.com
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