Organizers for the Rock’n August car show in St. Albert are planning a summer event that complies with COVID-19 health restrictions.
Bill Isley, the president of Rock’n August, said the show will go on, although it will look much different than in the past years.
For the 24th year of the event, Isley said they didn’t want to miss the opportunity to connect with the car owners and St. Albert community.
“We really owe it to the St. Albert community and our long-standing relationship with classic car owners to have something for them this summer that will remind them, if nothing else, about the good old days when we could do more than we're doing this year,” Isley said.
The group also didn’t want to lose momentum and important connections before their 25th year celebration, planned for next summer.
This year's event will be more informal, Isley said, and won't include some of the hallmarks Rock'n August is known for. Typically, residents turn out for food, live music, a big show'n'shine and a cruise of classic cars through the city – but COVID-19 restrictions mean none of those are possible this year.
Instead, the event will include two informal cruises through the city over two nights. Each cruise will go through neighbourhoods in St. Albert, with one happening on the east side of St. Albert Trail and another happening on the west side. The cruises will be informal, won’t have a police escort, and all drivers will be required to follow the rules of the road.This year’s event will also include a drive-in movie night so residents can come out and watch a family-friendly movie followed by a second movie about cars.
Isley said despite the restrictions, the organizers are still trying to make the event fun for the whole community.
“We've got the drive-in to do a little bit of festival atmosphere, and we're looking at how to add the festival atmosphere after the events each night of the week. And then music right now has sort of been shut out all together,” Isley said.
Isley said the group is still finalizing its plans with Alberta Health Services to make sure it is in compliance with all public health orders.
The group is also still exploring ways to add to the event. Just five weeks ago, the organizers thought the event was going to be cancelled altogether, and they've had to rebuild the celebration from scratch following a completely different set of rules than usual. They are still trying to find ways to engage the community and plan events that are safe and won’t attract too many people or risk community safety.
Isley said to keep track of what is happening with Rock’n August, residents can visit the website at rocknaugust.com to see the final list of events before the week.
The group is looking at creative ways to encourage car owners to come and stay in town, as well, since they know the local businesses will likely appreciate having the economic boost from the event.
The event is slated to take place from Aug. 4 to 8.
Jennifer Henderson covers rural Alberta matters under the Local Journalism Initiative, which is funded by the Government of Canada.
