AUREN RUVINSKY
writer@pqbnews.com
This weekend Parksville Beach will play host to one of the biggest open car shows on Vancouver Island which more than 500 vehicles have attended in the past.
This year, after the Oceanside Overdrive Summer Show and Shine was almost cancelled, it will have the added distinction of not being hosted by a car club.
“This is definitely an interesting position, we picked it up late and it really is a huge event,” said Jesse Schroeder who is taking the organizing lead with Nanaimo’s campus radio station CHLY 101.7 FM.
Schroeder said he did organize it once about seven years ago when he was vice president of the Kinsmen Club, but this time they don’t have the official organizing involvement of any community group or car club.
Despite the lack of formal group involvement, he said it is amazing how many people step up and do their part and almost magically pull everything together.
“People think that because it’s such a big event it puts itself together, but it takes a huge amount of work,” he said.
They are getting help from Thrifty Foods, the Kinsmen Club and many other local businesses, organizations and volunteers, Schroeder said.
He sees the 24th annual show on the beach like the community throwing a big party, and once you invite all the guests, he wants to be a good host.
He likes the way Qualicum Beach community integrates their big Father’s Day car show into the whole town and hopes Parksville will continue to support the Overdrive Show as an unique event that brings a lot of money and attention to the city with as many as 10,000 spectators on the single day in the past.
Schroeder points out the irony that he is not a big car fan and sees car shows as the sort of nostalgic way we should be looking at the internal combustion engine, but he’s excited about the day as an important community event which he points out lines up nicely with Beachfest, the long weekend and the schedule of other car shows around southwest B.C.
As always there will be a whole range of custom, classic and modified cars, trucks, hotrods and motorcycles taking part in the Saturday Night Cruise and the big show Sunday.
There will be a live entertainment stage with a range of classic cruising tunes from the CHLY-FM DJ’s plus a live performance by up and coming local blues-rock band The Distributors.
Schroeder praises The Distributors as “a huge classic blues-rock sound that does Led Zeppelin better than Led Zeppelin and they have some great originals as well.”
Both days will also be broadcast live on CHLY-FM 101.7 radio and video streamed online at www.tv.chly.ca.
The cruise begins Aug. 3, with an assembly of hundreds of vehicles at the Parksville A&W. They will leave at 6 p.m. for a meandering drive through waterfront neighbourhoods to Qualicum Beach.
The next day registration starts at 8:30 a.m., the public show opens at 10 a.m., judging starts at 11 a.m. and trophy presentations start at 1 p.m. followed by the live music. Registration is $20 and is open to all classes of vehicles, no charge for spectators.
While late comers are invited to show up in Parksville Community Park Sunday morning, pre-registration is encouraged at www.oceansideoverdrive.ca.
The sand sculptures of the Quality Foods Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition are also open for viewing next door. Check www. parksvillebeachfest.ca for more information.
Schroeder points out the irony that he is not a big car fan and sees car shows as the sort of nostalgic way we should be looking at the internal combustion engine, but he’s excited about the day as an important community event which he points out lines up nicely with Beachfest, the long weekend and the schedule of other car shows around southwest B.C.
As always there will be a whole range of custom, classic and modified cars, trucks, hotrods and motorcycles taking part in the Saturday Night Cruise and the big show Sunday.
There will be a live entertainment stage with a range of classic cruising tunes from the CHLY-FM DJ’s plus a live performance by up and coming local blues-rock band The Distributors.
Schroeder praises The Distributors as “a huge classic blues-rock sound that does Led Zeppelin better than Led Zeppelin and they have some great originals as well.”
Both days will also be broadcast live on CHLY-FM 101.7 radio and video streamed online at www.tv.chly.ca.
The cruise begins Aug. 3, with an assembly of hundreds of vehicles at the Parksville A&W. They will leave at 6 p.m. for a meandering drive through waterfront neighbourhoods to Qualicum Beach.
The next day registration starts at 8:30 a.m., the public show opens at 10 a.m., judging starts at 11 a.m. and trophy presentations start at 1 p.m. followed by the live music. Registration is $20 and is open to all classes of vehicles, no charge for spectators.
While late comers are invited to show up in Parksville Community Park Sunday morning, pre-registration is encouraged at www.oceansideoverdrive.ca.
The sand sculptures of the Quality Foods Canadian Open Sand Sculpting Competition and Exhibition are also open for viewing next door. Check www. parksvillebeachfest.ca for more information.