If you live anywhere in Western Canada or the Pacific Northwest region of the United States, the one show you do not want to miss every year is the Peach City Beach Cruise in Penticton, British Columbia. This year marked the 17th annual event and organizers are proud to say its seen continual growth year after year. We’ve been attending for the past 3 years and took our 2004 Dodge SRT-4 to this year’s event.

“The word is getting around; we are one of the key shows to go to on the circuit. If you are a car guy, it’s one of the places you must go to,” Peach City Beach Cruise President Wayne Wood said.

For the past years, the event has been mainly preregistration based however day of registration was available. For the first time in its 17 year history, the show sold-out more than a week in advance; leaving organizers to unfortunately turn around some people on the day of the show who didn’t preregister. The show itself takes place over 3 days with multiple events taking place within the show. It’s been called the Canadian version of “Hot August Nights in Reno.”

With half the street being closed off for car show parking, the other half is set-up as a one-way cruise lane for cars new and old to cruise along the beach in-front of the hotels. People line the streets day in and day out to watch the cars cruise by and there is guaranteed to be a party at every hotel!

On Thursday night, everybody starts to cruise into town. Friday morning the car show starts with parking being set-up on Lakeshore Drive along the entire mile of beachfront and parks in-front of beautiful Okanagan Lake. You truly couldn’t ask for a more stunning backdrop to a car show. Friday evening, those who want can take place in a cruise along Main Street at 5:30pm. There was also entertainment, a beverage garden and more. Saturday morning, the car show swings into full action with over 25,000 people walking the street looking at all of the killer cars on display. This year featured over 780 vehicles; some coming from as far as Texas and Nebraska! Tons of folks stayed up late on Saturday night as the party, cruising and show continued on past midnight.

There were plenty of Mopars in attendance, both new and old. The show brought out some high dollar examples including an original B5 Blue 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona still owned by the original owner and a survivor 1971 Dodge Charger R/T 426 Hemi car with only 7,000 original miles on it!

“The weekend was an incredible success. The comments we got back were great. The out-of-towners are just ecstatic. They’ve even booked rooms for next year and are bringing their friends,” says Wayne. He continues to say, “The weather was about as perfect as could be. Cars were parked the full length of Lakeshore Drive as well as on the adjoining streets and parks. Even Dennis Gage of the TV show “My Classic Car” filmed an episode of the show at the event this year!”

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