CARY - Scores of classic automobiles will gleam along Cary’s downtown stretch this Saturday [the 24th] with the debut of a local car and motorcycle show. Wheels on Academy, a town-sponsored event, is the opening shot in a volley of new spring and summer events meant to draw new visitors to central Cary.
“The thought of a bunch of old custom cars up and down Academy Street – that’s just the coolest thing,” said Councilman Don Frantz, a car aficionado who advocated for the new event.
Frantz’s rebuilt ’91 Camaro Z28 will join about 150 other vehicles, many of them vintage, at the festival.
The town also will host several art displays, including the live art-ification of a car and a gallery of work crafted from car parts. Visitors also might get a glimpse of the town’s new hybrid trash truck, looking cleaner than it ever will again.
Joy Ennis, the town’s festivals coordinator, hasn’t guessed how many people will turn out for the brand new event, which organizers hope to repeat next year. The town has budgeted about $4,000, and sponsors have chipped in about $2,600 to accommodate the cruisers and gawkers.
“If we have really nice weather, we could have a decent size crowd,” Ennis said, acknowledging that it may swell to thousands. A larger car event in Raleigh draws 25,000 visitors and hundreds of automobiles.
For Cary, the automobile show and a slate of other new events are part of a larger downtown revitalization effort, which has included millions in spending on new properties and cultural projects.
The town wants to show that there’s plenty to do and see downtown, in part by creating more to do and see downtown. Cary government and local groups already hold several downtown-area concert and performance series, and the Lazy Daze art festival, but the new push is to bring big crowds to the downtown drags more often.
Over the next three months, the town is set to hold 10 new performances and parties in its old core. The schedule includes a relocated Ritmo Latino festival, an outdoor performance series, early evening music sessions and a regular old block party.
A farmers market also is returning to the downtown area this year.
The town won’t be able to gauge the success of the new downtown events for several months, Ennis said.
“You probably need to get through a whole season ... to really get a feel for that,” she said. But Cary’s hope, she said is to create “a place that’s alive.”
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