Cars and Guitars promises affordable fun for all

By Mo Cranker on August 14, 2018.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com @MHNmocranker

Medicine Hat’s classic rock and classic car festival is back this weekend with a bit of a different makeup than previous years.

Cars and Guitars will run Friday-Sunday with a number of free and paid events each day.

“This is a self-produced event the Canalta Centre puts on every year, and we’re hoping to keep it going forward in the years to come,” said marketing and sales director Kelli Ireland. “We started this three years ago, and it’s just such a fun event that everyone in our community can come out and enjoy.

“We’ve got music, we’ve got cars, we’ve got 10 food trucks this year, lots of little local vendors and we’ve got the local breweries that are going to be out at the beer gardens this year.”

Things kick off Friday evening at 6 p.m. with a classic car cruise downtown, people are encouraged to bring a lawn chair and watch the classic cars drive through the downtown core.

“It’s a great weekend of events for the whole family and that starts with the cruise through downtown,” said Ireland. “A lot of what we’re offering over the three days is free, and we’re getting some vendors and food trucks from outside of the city — there’s going to be a lot of variety this year.”

A big draw to the event each year is its night shows, and Ireland says organizers are trying something different this year.

“We’re trying tribute bands this year instead of bringing out real, live classic rock bands,” she said. “It was tough for us to find someone to perform that we wouldn’t have to charge back through the customers — we didn’t want to have $100-plus tickets this year so we went with the tribute bands and $32 weekend passes.

“We want this event to be a couple great nights out with your friends enjoying some good music at an outdoor stage — we’re hoping it can be a more inclusive event with weekend passes being so cheap”

The event features its usual classic car show Saturday afternoon at the Canalta Centre and has added a Sunday event of drag racing at the Medicine Hat Speedway. Both events are free for spectators.

For more information on the weekend festival, tickets or to see a full schedule of events go to http://www.carsandguitarsfestival.com

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