The smell of exhaust and sounds of honking horns hung over Festus Main Street as hundreds of car enthusiasts braved the humidity on June 6 to admire vintage and modern vehicles driving through downtown for the annual Mayor’s Summer Cruise.
Attendee Ken Czeschin, who described himself as a “frequenter” of the cruise, said, “It’s good to be hanging out with people with the same interest.”
The cruise didn’t require a check-in, but it has always brought crowds to Festus.
Barb Lowry, the recreation and tourism director for the city of Festus and a former cruiser herself, described cruising on Main Street as sometimes being so full, “You couldn’t have fit another car on Main Street with a shoehorn and butter.”
The cruise, while an annual tradition, looked quite different than when it first started. According to previous Leader reporting, the cruising was originally done by teenagers for decades, until the city began blocking Main Street on Friday and Saturday nights in the 1980s due to traffic concerns.
“Adults were not lined up in lawn chairs up and down Main Street watching us. Thank goodness,” Lowry said, describing her former cruising days.
Two-way traffic on Main Street was reopened in 2003 to bring customers to downtown Festus, according to previous Leader stories.
“We’ve got a great Main Street,” Lowry said. “(The cruisers) take advantage of all the stuff on Main Street.”
This year’s cruise faced a unique challenge; a rival cruise was organized in De Soto on the same day. The cruise was planned by Wake Up JeffCo, a local grassroots organization, and was a fundraiser for the group’s legal fund.
Lori Merriman, the founder of Wake Up JeffCo, estimated 100 vehicles took part with more than 100 people attending the cruise.
“We didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “We’re happy with the participation.”
Lowry was happy with the turnout of Festus’s cruise, saying she’d given out a hundred commemorative plaques throughout the day. She said the event was rooted in community rather than local issues.
“This is cars, this isn’t politics,” she said.
Kevin Carbery contributed to this article.
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