If beautiful cars are your passion, clear your Saturday. The 21st annual car show of the Bartlett Festival is about to rev your engine. Here’s another fact to warm your heart: The event is a fundraiser for the Tennessee Baptist Children’s Home in Bartlett.
Expect to see about 150 cars there at W.J. Freeman Park, said Burt Milam, president of the organizing group, Memphis Classic Chevy Club. “Every year it has grown.”
Participants can register on site at the park between 8 a.m. and noon on Saturday. The entry fee is $25 per car, and judging will be conducted throughout the day. The awards ceremony will be around 2:30 p.m. at the event’s registration tent.
Every paid entrant gets an award, usually a plaque, Milam said. The Mayor’s Choice Trophy and the Chuck Hutton Trophy are about 30 inches tall. The first 100 entrants will receive a dash plaque for their vehicles.
Categories include production cars from 1900-1989, street rods, modified cars from 1949 to present, mini cars and trucks, motorcycles and vehicles that are currently under construction. There are a total of 37 categories.
“There is a vast range of ages of cars, from Model A’s to brand-new cars with drive-out tags on them,” Milam said.
Participants should be aware that there is one important change this year: All cars must enter the park from the new entrance on Bartlett Boulevard across from Ivanhoe. Look for the signs.
The Memphis Classic Chevy Club, now in its 41st year as a continuously active club, has almost 100 members and draws from a multi-county area. They organize four car shows per year: One sponsored by Chuck Hutton Chevrolet, another at Faith Baptist Church, the Covington car show on the square and the Bartlett Festival’s car show. They also have classics on display at the City of Bartlett’s Fourth of July celebrations. They also help at the Memphis Super Chevy Show and the F-Body Nationals (the Camaro and Firebird Nationals) in Memphis. Just for fun, they cruise the roads together, such as to the Dairy Queen in Brownsville or Atoka.
Through their annual efforts, the club members enjoy helping a good cause: Milam said last year they raised $15,000. The year before, it was $18,000.
Milam listed favorite thing about the car show as “just getting together and sharing a love of cars and raising money for the kids.”
For more information about the host club, visit memphisclassicchevys.com. They meet at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of each month at the Brunswick Kitchen, 5197 Brunswick Road, Arlington.
