FAIRBURY - The sounds and sights of cars of all kinds once again filled the streets of downtown Fairbury this Sunday for the small city’s annual mid-September vehicle-centered community celebration: the car show and cruise night, administrated by Fairbury’s city museum and executed by a dedicated team of car experts and other essential volunteers. 

"This was originally designed to bring people to town, check out the museum, and we outgrew it," said Kirk Weichel, who's long been a judge for the car show and one of the event's volunteers and promoters. "We decided it was time to move to a bigger and better place, so the city allowed us to move downtown and use the beautiful square, and we get nothing but compliments...it’s just been fantastic, and we really appreciate everybody supporting us."

Some shops and stores encircling the downtown square kept their doors open, a rare sight for a Sunday, but one that reflects how essential an event like this is for Fairbury’s economy and community.  

"It means a lot because it means community involvement, and community involvement is really important for Fairbury," said Patricia Vanhousen, who celebrated her fourth anniversary as the owner and manager of The Cottage Boutique earlier this summer. "I think that it’s important to bring people that are not a part of Fairbury into Fairbury so that they can see how great of a community that it is, and so that we can share all of our shops with everybody that comes into town, and just show them that we’re a great community."

"To us, it’s never been about making money. People come into this store just to see her and talk. They come in here to enjoy some good vibes...they just enjoy coming in," said Doug Ferree, who said with a smile his role at the Cottage Boutique is just to support Vanhousen "as best as he can."

With many of the car show’s contestants making a concerted effort to increase their vehicles’ visual appeal - just one of a few dozen categories of awards car show contestants compete for - art was an important subplot during the 14th installment of this annual celebration: it served as the official debut of the second half of the Americana-fueled mural painted on the wall of Schmidt Machine by local artist Tony "Once" Boettjer, and provided a platform for a new pop-up art class chaired by local artisan Rose Clauson, who demonstrated a do-it-yourself fluid acrylic lesson in the Cottage Boutique's spare room.

“The whole idea of this art form is to free up your brain. [People think] ‘Oh my goodness, I’m going to fail at this, I can’t paint because I can’t draw.’ This is so freeing, just put colors together and move it," Clauson said. "Somebody said one day that it’s like a massage for the brain – it just relaxes you. We call it your art, your way – you pick the colors, you pick the canvas, and it’s all you.” 

Clauson will be chairing other classes at the Fairbury VFW later on this fall.

With more than 100 unique trophies designed and crafted by locals on offer for winners of a few dozen categories, more than 200 cars of all makes, models, colors and centuries were entered into this year’s competition, a number that has been pretty consistent for the event’s organizers since they moved the show to the downtown square half a dozen years ago.  

A serious rain shower that knocked out power to hundreds of properties a little ways north of Fairbury just before 3 p.m. Sunday adjusted the judging schedule and deluged the streets and car decals somewhat, but it didn't dampen the spirits of those involved. 

"My goal is to bring something to town that’s positive and puts a lot of smiles on faces. That’s always been kind of my saying. I want to see people here happy, laughing, looking at stuff that we might never get to see again, at least until next year," said Weichel. "Just trying to bring the community together, and bring something to town – like the car show, like the cruise night last night – where you can go and participate and it doesn’t cost you anything to show up. There’s not many things you can do for free anymore, and this is one of those."

The rain did force all the show's judges to complete their assessments more than an hour earlier than they initially planned so that the winners could be revealed before the worst of the rain arrived. Event organizers said they'll go through their records to ensure that everyone who was awarded a trophy actually receives it: check out the event's Facebook page for further updates and information.

Ultimately, on top of showing off all the classic and colorful vehicles, the event’s goal is to show off the community of Fairbury, and give locals and visitors alike a place to come together.  

"They’ve come out with better trophies and better prizes, for one. They attract people from further distances. They have their regulars that come every year, but they do attract new people. I think it’s a good thing, and every year it just gets a little bit bigger," said Ferree.

"We’re living in such a bad time right now, and so many bad things are happening...this is a day of celebration, and maybe everybody’s soul needed that celebration," Vanhousen said.

This event will take place at this same time of September next year, and there are already conversations about combining the car show and cruise night with other local events to try to make them all as impactful and memorable as possible.