Any time you’re hosting an event that’s the first of its kind -- and especially one the scope of the Little Chicago Show and Shine -- there’s always a bit of a question of how things are going to go.
In this case, there aren’t many words in the English language to describe just how well things turned out Saturday on Main Street.
Over 220 cars of all eras and vintages drew thousands upon thousands of visitors to downtown Moose Jaw throughout the day, making the Show and Shine an absolute, overwhelming success for the Downtown Moose Jaw Association.
“I think we’re really excited about the turnout,” said Alex Carleton, one of the driving forces behind the Show and Shine. “It’s fantastic, there are a lot of people downtown and a lot of traffic down here, which is our main goal. We had 220 cars registered and lots extra come out on top of that, so we’re really excited to see everyone come out and I think we’re really going to make it better from here.”
The Show and Shine was most certainly not hard to miss, as the majority of downtown Main Street was blocked off to create a street-festival feel not unlike Sidewalk Days. And while Carleton and his fellow organizers had hoped things would go off well in the first iteration, even he was a bit surprised with how well things turned out.
“For a first-year event, there’s just something about a show like this,” he said during a brief pause from touring the show on Saturday morning. “A lot of people are car buffs, it’s a nice Saturday and it’s free to bring your kids down for a walk, and there are a lot of fantastic pieces here. So it’s just great to see the turnout.”
It certainly didn’t hurt that the show had a diverse line-up of vehicles ranging from high-end supercars to vintage vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. And even a few pieces straight out of the movies, like the Smokey and the Bandit Trans Am and even a mock-up of the Black-on-Black Pursuit Special from Mad Max.
That all made figuring out which vehicles were going to take home awards from the Show and Shine that much more difficult.
“There are too many to choose from, and that’s a good problem to have,” Carleton said.
One thing that’s for certain is the title ‘first annual’ can definitely be applied to the Little Chicago Show and Shine, with thoughts already going into making the 2023 edition even bigger and better.
“We hope to have it right around the same date next year, that’s the plan, and we’d like to make it even bigger,” Carleton said. “Next year we’ll have more entertainment, and we’ll hope to bring more and more tourists to support our downtown.”
