Ken Paton would be proud.
Paton, the visionary behind the Penticton Historic Automobile Society and then just two years later the Peach City Beach Cruise, passed away in 2011 after the latter proved for a full decade that a well-run car show in the city's northern quadrant was a heck of a concept.
The first Beach Cruise, 23 iterations ago, attracted 250 classic and antique cars. That number, and the popularity of the event, has only skyrocketed since.
Today it brings in just short of 800 slick machines every year, shuts down Lakeshore Drive from the Sicamous to the Peach for two full days, gobbles up Gyro Park for entertainment and munchies and, by the estimate of current Cruise VP and entertainment director Donna Reimann, fills the streets with up to 25,000 attendees annually.
The event survived a two-year pandemic shutdown with a big return and big numbers in 2022 and everything seemed to be falling into place for its post-pandemic future.
But then, in the midst of the 2022 show, the Cruise fell victim to the ludicrous actions of a small flock of burnout-happy rowdies. It was pretty serious stuff. There was even talk that the event may have met its match -- that the actions of a few numbskulls might threaten its very future.
But months later when the Cruise board reconvened, it was decided that the Cruise would continue on -- that the malicious behaviour of a few wouldn't ruin the party for everyone else.
So the folks in charge hired a few more security people, tightened up any potential frailties and strode into 2023.
Smart move. This year's event held last weekend from Friday through Sunday morning, was as awesome as any before it. Indeed, the crowds may have been bigger than ever.
Yes, Ken Paton would be proud.
"We do this in memory of Ken," said Cruise VP Donna Reimann less than 24 hours after it closed. "It was his vision that this show was created."
Reimann, a Cruise director for 23 years, called the 2023 edition "absolutely fantastic."
"We couldn’t have had better cars, nicer cars, better weather."
This year, the number of entrants was capped at 785. And make no mistake. Seven hundred and eighty-five vehicles strung along the Okanagan Lake waterfront, many of them sinfully unique and/or incredibly valuable and/or bizarrely wacky and/or tweaked to the moon and back, are a lot of vehicles to see in a single afternoon.
And that's why so many come back for a second go.
"Everything worked out so well," laughed Reimann, "and no burnouts!
"We did increase security this year. And people may have noticed a little more RCMP presence, which we were grateful for. And all of that definitely contributed to the well-behaved crowd. Lakeshore is so locked down now."
PenictonNow sauntered around for nearly three hours in all and is happy to report we didn’t notice any troublemakers. Nor did we notice a heavy-handed security presence.
It was simply…a great time.
We did, however, chat with people who came a very long way to be there. Like the couple from southern California in their cool Chevy SSR. They, like many out-of-towners, came strictly for the show, bringing their dollars with them to spend where they saw fit.
This year, the winner of Best in Show was a '59 Impala owned by Kent, Washington's Rod Sutton. Second place went to Aaron Smith of Maple Ridge with his '64 Malibu convertible.
For a complete list of winners, head here and click on the link.
Going forward, the Beach Cruise board will take some well-deserved time off.
"We go a little dormant for the summer so we can all rest and relax," said Reimann. "It really is a year-'round process to arrange the show, for all of us.
"Then we'll meet again in September. And the show, if it's going on again next year, will be the weekend after Fathers Day, like it usually is."
Here's hoping 2024 unfolds just like 2023. It can’t get much better.
