Moreland Park was filled from corner to corner with about 600 cars and thousands of people, and dozens of vendors and food trucks lined the Sportscenter parking lot on Saturday for the inaugural Bluegrass Legends Experience Car Show presented by Don Moore. Already exceeding expectations for the inaugural event, organizers said they’ve got a 3-year contract and are hoping to grow the car show annually. The show will continue today from 10 a.m. to about 6 p.m.
See more photos from the event here.
Jimmy and Janie Allyn — who run the web-based, nationally recognized media service Bluegrass Biker News — started planning the event nearly a year ago.
“We started last October working with Visit Owensboro and the City of Owensboro. Those people have been fantastic. They’ve welcomed us. Our goal is to grow this to a long-term event,” Jimmy Allyn said.
The show features all manner of cars, trucks, rat rods, Jeeps, and motorcycles. Allyn said his goal for the first year was to have 500 cars, so he was happy to have about 600 entries.
Allyn said entries came from Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa.
He was also pleased with the community turnout.
“I feel very comfortable saying we’re going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,000-7,000 people each day,” he said. “We had intended on opening the gates at 8 this morning. The lines were so overwhelming that we actually opened the gates at 7, and from 7 until essentially 1 it was a constant stream of cars right.”
All proceeds from the car show will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Allyn hopes to raise $50,000 over the course of the weekend but said he won’t know for a few weeks exactly what the amount will be.
Allyn is already looking ahead to the future of the car show. He said they have a 3-year agreement with the City to use Moreland Park and the Sportcenter. The event is scheduled for the third weekend in August each year.
That means it will return August 16-18, 2024.
