08/19/2025
DAY OF FAQ!
Park your vehicle first and then head to registration.
• Show officially starts with opening ceremonies in front of city hall at 10am and Registration starts at 8am in front of city hall at registration booth—If Pre-registered go to the PRE-REGISTRATION Booth instead. (Note: pre-registering does not guarantee you a spot on main street)
• Streets close for parking by our crew shortly after 7am and local traffic is diverted to Congress and Liberty. We suggest arrival before 830 for parking on Washington Street as it fills up fast. Show includes all side streets and Washington street from the old Thomassen Ford/CVS to the Charles Town Presbyterian Church.
• If you arrive before we close streets, please park along Washington and patiently wait in or very near your car so we can get you spun around and parked once we close the streets at 7ish. Any completely unattended or non-show cars on the street at 7am will be towed so we can resume parking.
• Show entrances are on each end of Washington St. and George Streets—see map—barricades are in place but volunteers or police will allow show vehicles to enter.
• If you want to be on the East side of the Courthouse enter from East (casino) and if you want to be on the West side of Courthouse enter from the old Thommasen Ford side (rt 51 from inwood)
• Trailer parking available at the corner of North and West St. at old skate park
• No tents allowed by car registrants! City of CT reserves the right to save certain spots throughout the show for sponsors etc.
• Please be respectful of the businesses you are parked in front of and allow them sufficient room etc to allow patrons into their shops etc. This show was designed to bring people to these businesses. We thank you in advance for your patronage!
• 50/50’s will be available as will hourly door prizes
• Spectators are free—it only cost if you enter a car into the show. Free spectator parking can be found on Liberty and Congress (adjacent to Washington) throughout the downtown area and various city lots.
•Please contact show coordinator beforehand f you have a very long, large or irregular car so appropriate parking can be secured
• This show is designed to be parked all day, leaving early off of Washington St is NOT allowed unless an emergency. Registrants that want to attend and leave-early should use the George St entrances and tell the parking attendant / Handicapped necessary registrants please use George St entrances as well.
• If you have more than one car in your group, the first person in line should tell the parking attendant how many follow so we can try to park you together.
• If Washington Street becomes full we will use both North Lawrence and North Samuel for overflow registrant parking.
• Awards ceremony will occur around 2:15 with closing around 3. And Yes! We really do spend 5k on local trophies but our local sponsors pick up that bill!
• Vendors are located on S. Lawrence street & KIDS Zone is on Charles Street
• One last note about Judging—we have tried every angle available over the last 12 years. None have worked perfectly but we believe what we have is the best available mix of all. So.. Top 50 plaques are given to the top 50 vote getters from the participants who vote. Each participant will be given a ballot with 10 spots for naming their favorites not including their own. In recent years, we noticed a gap for the newer cars of the 2000’s+...so we now have separate plaques for New GM, New Ford, and New MOPAR as we are an absolute all inclusive show. From there we have 14 metal cup trophies and 15 more plaques that are picked by various sponsors and members of the community i.e. Chief Police, Sponsors, Merchants, and of course the Largest CT CUP typically picked by the Mayor. This allows for those sponsors and individuals to pick any vehicle they want regardless of class, originality etc.. While we strive to get it right we understand not all are going to get trophies.. All do get dash plaques plus the opportunity to tell thousands of people about your car that day… so we hope you get one of the 80 awards but please don’t come only for that… we want your car and story!
