Car show
Main Street to close for Cruise Night
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Wednesday, January 4, 2006
GALESBURG - A new event, the River2River Cruise Night, will roll into Galesburg this summer. At least one city official said it could become one of Galesburg's largest annual festivals.City Manager Gary Goddard, city risk manager/human resources coordinator John Guiste, Galesburg Chamber of Commerce President Bob Maus and businessman Scott Howe came up with the idea and are organizing the event.
"We've been thinking about it for quite a while," Goddard said this morning. "We started in earnest in June or July of '05."
The Cruise Night participants will be allowed to use Main Street from Cherry to Seminary streets and Cherry Street one block north and south of Main Street, if necessary, on Aug. 18 and 19. Standish Park will be used Aug. 19 for the River2River Car Show. The show will include several "featured" cars and the car show will be a juried event with awards in several categories.
Mayor Gary Smith asked Tuesday how many cars and people could be expected for the event. Goddard said a one-night annual Cruise Night in Monmouth generally attracts about 1,000 cars and 10,000 people, while a show in Knoxville drew 300 cars.
Galesburg Convention and Visitors Bureau Executive Director Diane Bruening is excited about the car show.
"I think it's going to be great," she said today. "That's going to draw a lot of people in. There's just something about cars, we're just drawn to them."
Bruening said the hope is the first year the event will be as big as the Cruise Night in Monmouth, with the potential for growth in the future.
Alderman Roland Paulsgrove, Ward 7, said a similar event now in its third year in LaHarpe "draws somewhere in the neighborhood of 4,500 cars. ... A lot of people, an awful, awful lot of people come." He said national car magazines cover that event.
Paulsgrove will have three cars on exhibit. According to Goddard, Paulsgrove is "possibly the only person to have all three of the 35th anniversary Camaros."
According to Goddard, Paulsgrove has the hardtop, the T-top and the convertible.
"It has great potential to blossom into a great event," Goddard said, "perhaps to rival Railroad Days."
