It started with two sisters who wanted to start up a smallish car show to help out local charities and draw some attention to downtown 91原创 businesses.
Helen and Leslie Stoddart ran the 91原创 City Antique Mall, and after seeing the vintage cars some of their customers drove, they decided to organize an annual show in 91原创 City.
With the backing of the Downtown 91原创 Merchants Association and the City of 91原创, on the evening of Sept. 6, 1997, they blocked off Fraser Highway from 203 to 206 Street to host the cars for the first 91原创 Good Times Cruise-In.
Entry was free, and registration of vehicles was by donation, with proceeds going to the 91原创 Lions Club.
The whole event was organized by a tiny group, said Lori Watts, one of the only volunteers who has been involved with the Cruise-In across its whole history.
"Helen and Leslie asked me to come with them to the Merchants Association," Watts said.
The first year, she recalled, there were about 400 cars in the show.
"I think we expected about 200."
Watts recalls how she got people to help out in the early days of the car show 鈥� offering them free Cruise-In T-shirts.
For year two in 1998, Riccardo Sestito, who would go on to be a long-serving president of the Cruise-In, joined the board. Though he's stepped down from that role, he's still involved in the show.
"The first year, we didn't really know what we were doing," Watts said.
Sestito, who had attended the first show, got involved when the Stoddarts came to him about insurance for the 1998 event, and he told them they should organize the event as a society.
"I had experience working with the Abbotsford Air Show," Sestito said. One of his first roles was getting all the volunteers communicating 鈥� he had learned from the air show how to set up radio communications so people in different areas could talk to one another.
Watts remembered that the second year drew considerably bigger crowds, after a TV news report the morning of the event.
"It grew," she said. "By the third year, it was a big show."
And then it kept getting bigger. TV host Dennis Gage of My Classic Car did his first show outside the United States at the third edition of the Cruise-In in 1999.
"We just blew up," said Sestito.
In those fast-growing early years, local restaurants and merchants weren't able to keep up with the massive crowds. Around year three, many restaurants ran out of food following their lunch rushes. The area occupied by cars kept growing 鈥� stretching from 201A Street on Fraser Highway all the way down to what is now the end of the one-way section, and spreading out to parts of Douglas Crescent, 56 Avenue, and Glover Road.
The all-volunteer organization kept growing as well, adding more directors to handle the workload. Local car clubs came on board and helped with a great deal of the volunteer work on the days of the event, later joined by volunteers and members of service groups that received the annual donations from the show.
More media attention and car world celebrities found out about the event. In'N'Out Burger arrived in 2003 and has become a permanent presence.
Legendary Vancouver DJ Red Robinson was involved and attended for many years.
Watts said one thing that helped was that the Cruise-In society decided early on that they would not create beer gardens or otherwise encourage drinking. It has kept the show family-friendly.
Sestito noted that they were wary after seeing other popular community events, like the White Rock Sandcastle Competition, be cancelled because of bad behaviour and disruptions linked to alcohol.
Over the years, the car show has always been about people showing off their classic and custom vehicles. But the society has experimented with all sorts of other related activities
For a few years, participants could camp out overnight on the grassy outskirts of the 91原创 Regional Airport. There was also a dance held in an airport hangar.
One popular feature was the annual trip to the Hillcrest Drive In in Surrey 鈥� the drive in itself moved to Aldergrove as the Twilight years later.
Three big events have defined the Cruise-In since it began.
In 2010, the organizers decided they needed a break, and there was no show. The previous year, there had been burnouts by a few drivers leaving the event, and between that and the stress, the crew needed a year off.
Then in 2017, the show moved from its longtime home in 91原创 City to Aldergrove, where it has continued ever since.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused another missed year, as safety concerns and regulations over distancing meant that the car show, like many popular events, did not go ahead in 2020.
Over 25 Cruise-Ins across 27 years, there have only been a couple that were soaked with rain, including the first year in Aldergrove 鈥� and even a downpour didn't keep people away.
With both Sestito and Watts stepping back a bit from Cruise-In, they are a bit nostalgic for the early days. The event, they recall, had a more small-town feel.
"It was stressful, but it was fun," said Sestito.
