I have not written in this blog for a long time and I’m sorry for that. A lot of unfortunate things have happened in my life in recent years and it has really stunted my want to write.
That being said, I participated this year in RADwood Chicago. For those who do not know what RADwood is, it’s the celebration of cars, car culture, and the lifestyle of the 80’s and 90’s. Kind of a satire on the famous Goodwood Concourse d’Elegance, which usually shows high end vehicles that the one percent lavish over, RADwood does quite the opposite and has cars that could be owned by anyone in any income bracket, as long as it was built between 1980 and 1999.
Most of the cars seen at a RADwood shows are cars that both Gen-Xers and Millenials grew up with, whether it be nostalgia for a family vehicle, a car they had on a poster on their childhood bedroom wall, or just an overall fondness for vehicles built within that period. There definitely is an eclectic grouping of vehicles, regardless of their physical condition.
Coming out of the first round of COVID lockdown, we’ve all been very antsy to get out and enjoy the summer. For me, when they announced there would be a RADwood Chicago event, I was more than excited. I had just got my 1991 VW Jetta GL running and looking halfway decent, so I had a vehicle to take. As soon as tickets were on sale, I purchased myself one and got pretty amped. I still had things to finish on the Jetta, so I set a goal and started to get things done.
The Good
The RADwood guys were able to score the Waldron Parking Deck, which for those of you who don’t know, is on the south end of Soldier Field, right on the shore of Lake Michigan. For any car show based event, this was probably one of the best places to have it in the City of Chicago. I was a little concerned for space, because the parking deck is not that large. Upon arriving, they had plenty people directing you in. They were parking cars a full parking spot away from each other and that was nice, because I’ve been to many car shows where you’re lucky to have a door lengths gap between vehicles.
There was a definitely a variety of vehicles from American cars and Trucks, to imported JDM cars, to Mini Trucks, to Motorcycles. People were dressed for the part as well, because part of RADwood is celebrating the era, so dressing up and bringing accessories of the time is highly recommended if you're attending.
There were concessions, from food to Hagerty Insurance. A live band was also present and played a lot of songs of the era. Most everyone you talked to was kind and more than happy to talk about their car. My Jetta was decked out with 90’s ski gear, so I received a lot of compliments, which a lot of people did with their vehicles. I’ve been to many car shows with older crowds and classic cars and I’ve never seen the enthusiasm and conversations that took place at this event.
The Bad
I’m not gonna rag too hard on the RADwood guys. I’ve been a part of setting up car shows and it’s not as easy as people would think it is, first year events always have issues, especially in a city you haven’t had a show in. However, my complaint isn’t on how things were run, it was getting the word out about the show.
RADwood put out the word only a few months ago that they had scheduled the Chicago event. I didn't think much about it then, because I had my own stuff to do, but day of, it became glaringly obvious that giving people only a few months notice with minimal advertising of the event, isn't going to result in as much attendance as one would think. From my own experience, they posted the event on their Facebook page and then focused on the other events they had scheduled, until about a week out from the Chicago event when they started posting about it again. I don't follow them on Instagram, so I don't know how often they talked about Chicago. I understand that SoCal is their biggest show and NorCal is right behind it, but with such short notice, they should have hyped the Chicago event more.
Now, I thought that I was the only one who thought this, until I started speaking with other participants. I spoke to about a dozen people and the consensus was that people only found out about this event recently, like within the last week, which means word of mouth didn't get around until the last second and I only know that because I heard "My friend just told me about this a few days ago" several times. In this day and age of people constantly on the internet, word of mouth is still going to be one of the ways you get the word out about your event. The sooner you get the word out, the longer you have for word of mouth to get out, whether it be online or in person.
Because of this, the attendance was probably at a minimum for a Midwestern car show, especially in a major city. I didn't take a complete tally, but there was around 100 cars. Not terrible, but not great either, at least in the terms of how popular the RADwood scene has become. I've been to cruise nights with more cars. I honestly was expecting there to be over attendance and people having to be parked on the lower level. Even so, people came from all over; Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio, so word did get out and people did want to come.
Other than that, they ran the show pretty well.
The Ugly
Usually "The Ugly" is saved for something atrocious involved with the show, but the show was pretty good. What really killed it was the weather. It was a high of 92 degrees with a heat index of 102. While we were on top of a parking structure, the original designers were smart enough to make it a Green Space as well, so there were several trees that provided shade for those of us who were not smart enough to think ahead and bring umbrellas or an outdoor awning. Luckily there was somewhat of a breeze and by the afternoon, there was some overcast that provided some much needed shade. This may have contributed to the lack of attendance, but who knows, car people are not always rational in decision making. Late August in the Midwest is no joke, it's generally the hottest time of the year.
The other issue that I experienced, mostly because I was focused on my period correct display with my car, was not bringing a cooler and chairs. We were not the only one, there were several people dreading that they also did not do the same. Luckily concession was selling water, but at $4 a bottle, you burn through cash really quick. Lessons learned for next time.
The show was supposed to last until 4pm, but because of the weather, they decided to cut it short and did the awards early. Pretty much the majority of everyone cut out after that.
In Conclusion
I guess if you've made it this far, you're probably thinking I didn't enjoy myself. Despite my griping about the weather and the lack of attendance, I really did enjoy myself. I had some great conversations and saw some truly excellent cars. I do look forward to RADwood coming back to Chicago, despite that I heard several times that Detroit was better. Hopefully though, they make it sometime in September when it's not so hot, but not too cold either.
No comments:
Post a Comment