RetroFest™ 2019

June 21 & 22, 2019 in beautiful Downtown Chatham and Tecumseh Park! With RM’s 40th Anniversary celebration, we will be able to give back to the community in much bigger ways than ever before, while we celebrate being the Classic Car Capital of Canada, and creating the ultimate weekend for classic car enthusiasts!

Friday afternoon before the Cruise there will be Parade on King Street. So bring your lawn chairs and set up early. You won’t want to miss this. We will have the batmobile and Flint Stone Cars on floats, the Kingsville/Essex Marching band as well 2 life size mechanical elephants (and some celebrities coming down). There will be a total of 29 floats starting at the Civic Centre and ending at William Street. Parade will start at 5:00pm, then stay for the cruise!

The Classic Cars will start lining up at the John D. Bradley Centre (565 Richmond St, Chatham, ON N7M 1R2) at 4:00pm. (Can good drive at the Bradley so bring something to drop off). Party-Time DJ will entertain you and we will have some food trucks available in the parking lot (Sizzler Hawaiian Snack Shack; Sal’s Red Food Truck; and All Fired Up). The Cruise takes off at 6:00pm. The route (shown below) will reach downtown King Street around 7:00 pm. No registration is required for the cruise but all vehicles must be 25 years or older to be staged. We have an overflow area designated if necessary across the road. There will be more treat-vendors on the Downtown Chatham Centre sidewalk with Tasty Treats; Dandy Cotton Candy; Mega Cone Creamery; Spreadable Edibles; and Mr. Popper with his fabulous Kettle Corn!

The park on Friday will be different this year as it will be preparing for a very special performance by Sam Roberts Band. See their videos here: http://www.samrobertsband.com/  Tickets are on sale at CKtickets.com . Proceeds for the Show and the 50/50 Tickets  will go to the Foundation of  Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Click on it to purchase tickets and see what the total is up-to-date.

Saturday is a whole new day of activities:

The roads will be closed by 5:30am forThe KHAC Classic Car Show (vehicles must be 25 years or older). Registration will be open at 8:00am at King and 5th Street if you were unable to pre-register. The car show will be made even more special with additional RM displays and activities, as well as special awards and celebrity judges. Awards will be at 3:00pm. We will have our Junior Judges at 10:00 am and Ms. RetroFest Contest in the Tecumseh Park on the bandshell starting at Noon.

The Kinsmen will be running the Beverage Garden Friday and Saturday in Tecumseh Park.

All Activities in the Tecumseh Park will run 10am until 6pm Saturday!

10am-Noon there will be a DJ on stage; at Noon Ms. RetroFest Contest; 2pm until 6pm will be two bands playing: Chasers and Dirt Band. Optimist Club of Chatham will have their Soap Box Derby from 9am until approx. 1pm and 1pm until 2pm Snow’s Martial Arts will perform for you.

There will be a special reading dome with comfy bean bag chairs, with special readers (list still being compiled with guest speakers); there will be a Hagerty Test Garage that will teach children from the age of 2 to 6 years old how to change the oil and other car items; there will be a massive Lego area, a photo-op lane with some great props like the batmobile; a kiddie paddle boat pool, a Zorb Ball pool, a large adult size runner bouncy balls a couple of smaller bouncy castles, the Foam Pit, a demo tractor that shows you the working mechanisms, TJ Stables pony rides and petting zoo; and not every least…the Zip Line is back!

We will have tons of food trucks/tents, information booths and shopping booths.

There will be tours to RM Museum by shuttle buses (times to be determined)

Lots of free PARKING and Shuttle service starts at 8am at the Former Target Parking Lot.

RM Grounds opens at 9am with a once-in-a-lifetime collector car display at RM Museum featuring some of the rarest and most beautiful cars in the world. Ticket proceeds from the once in a lifetime cars will go to the Children’s Treatment Centre of Chatham-Kent can be purchased at CKtickets.com. Shuttle service ends at 7pm

Other activities on the RM Grounds include Graffiti Competition, tours, music featuring Toast and Jam

An evening of entertainment at the Capitol Theatre with BIG SUGAR. Big Sugar & Superfly Concert Doors Open at 7pm.  Proceeds from the Big Sugar concert will go to Chatham-Kent Hospice. Order your tickets at http://cktickets.com

Wayne Carini of Chasing Classic Car TV Series will be here and you just never know who else will show up this year.