summerside arts festival joins forces with downtown summerside classic car nights
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this year, culture summerside is partnering with classic car nights to bring part of the summerside arts festival to the car night's first show on july 3. pictured: pat gallant with classic car nights, left, sara barrett with culture summerside, summer students chloe thompson ad samantha blanchard and classic car nights creator robert gallant.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
summerside, p.e.i. — take a walk through downtown summerside on any sunny friday on a summer evening, and you’re bound to take a trip back in time.
vintage cars line water street between central and granville streets, a live band plays the classic oldies, and for a few hours, a portion of the city becomes a party. it’s fun for the whole family, where you can walk the road to check out the vehicles, or dance, or just spend some time with friends and neighbours.
brothers pat and robert gallant created downtown summerside classic car nights in 2019, when robert was president of downtown summerside.
they share a love of old cars — pat having also been president of the prince county street rod association — and wanted to engage people with the city’s downtown. they figured a car show was a way to achieve both goals at once.
they missed summer 2020 and 2021 due to the pandemic, but brought the shows back in 2022. over the years, it’s grown beyond strictly a car show.
“the car show’s great, we’re car people, we enjoy it,” said robert. “but it’s gotten to a community event now, where people just come down and enjoy themselves.”
robert gallant, left, sara barrett and pat gallant are joining forces to bring part of the summerside arts festival to the downtown summerside classic car night’s first show on july 4.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
the house band, fallback, is a local one that plays classic tunes for every show, adding to the ambiance.
“people just go, grab their lawn chairs, they just sit there and they listen to that,” he said. “cars? they couldn’t care about the cars.”
this year, the event is expanding even further. the aim, robert said, is to get everyone involved and bring some activity to the downtown.
in the spring, culture summerside staff approached robert, inquiring about a potential partnership.
“when we talked about it, we thought it was a perfect fit,” said robert. “the reason why it’s a perfect fit is because historic downtown summerside is where we have our show.”
the car nights, said robert, generally begin slow and become busier as the summer progresses.
robert gallant, creator of downtown summerside classic car nights, thinks the partnership with summerside arts festival is a great opportunity to draw people to both events.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
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so, on july 3, the first classic car night of the year, it won’t just be about the cars.
as it overlaps with the city’s arts festival, among the classic cars and music, culture summerside will also have its tent set up for 60 artisans to work at their craft, for people to come and watch and engage.
“myself, i’ve been down there to the shows that they’ve had here, and with the arts fest, my wife likes that,” said robert.
“we like that. that’s another reason why, when they approached us, i just said, well, i’ve seen what they’ve done in the past. to be associated with them, it can only enhance our show. and i think we can enhance them, as well.”
community collaboration
sara barrett, culture summerside’s cultural programmer, is excited for the opportunity to merge the two shows and bring the arts scene to the community.
in particular, she wants the arts festival to be fun, have energy, and a little something for everyone — a partnership with classic car nights, she said, can provide that.
“last year, we reimagined the arts festival,” said barrett. “so, it went from being three days in july to being several weeks in june.”
sara barrett, cultural programmer with culture summerside, is excited for the opportunity to bring part of the arts festival to classic car night’s first show.
kristin gardiner
/
journal pioneer
last year and again this year, barrett added, they partnered with the farmer’s market to bring the artisans downtown while the market was open. artisans have also been set up at holman’s ice cream parlour in the past.
partnering with classic car nights, barrett thought, was a natural evolution of the festival’s growth.
“we thought it would be great to expand the use of the tent and have more artists involved,” said barrett. “we naturally thought of classic car nights. it’s a beloved community event, and they have a different kind of crowd and different people engaging with our artists.”
the arts festival begins on june 8 and includes events like a basket weaving workshop, a neighbourhood block party with a barbecue and music at legere park. it runs until july, just in time to join forces with the car nights.
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“we’re doing a lot of getting out there in the community, and bringing the arts to people, rather than just expecting them to come to us,” barrett said.
“we really tried to grow out. one of our goals is to get the arts fest as big and collaborative as possible. and we can’t really grow something unless we have great partners.”
bringing people together
the gallant brothers are equally looking forward to the shared event, and what it means for not just them, but both organizations.
“we thought, with that many people down the street, what a good opportunity for them,” said pat.
“it’s also a good opportunity for us to get their crowd, that go down to the arts festival and just mingle,” robert added. “we’ll have the arts festival people coming down, they’ll be looking at the cars, and then the car people will be coming down to check out the arts festival.”
the summerside arts festival starts june 8 and concludes on july 4. weather-dependent, classic car nights will run every friday from july 3 to sept. 4, starting at 6:30 p.m.
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kristin gardiner is a reporter for the journal pioneer in prince edward island. she can be reached at kgardiner@postmedia.com.
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