More than 300 rare and special vehicles were on display during the 23rd annual Oak Bay Collector Car Festival.
The event was held Sunday (July 23) and was the first where founder Ken Agate, 79, did not organize the event.
“Ken had been talking about stepping back for a bit and he’s still in the background,” festival co-organizer Tony Joe said. “He laid out the foundation for a great event. We’re very fortunate to be continuing the legacy he started. This is something that has been a gift for the community.”
Thousand of people gathered to check out the vehicles along Oak Bay Avenue between Monterey Avenue and Mitchell Street.
“We have cars from all over the globe and so many different vintages here,” Joe said. “There’s a lot of history. Many cars here are intergenerational and have gone through many different family members. Oak Bay Avenue is just a fantastic place to be able to look at cars in a very safe way.”
The free festival also included local food vendors and live music from Peter Jasmin and the Studebakers.
“There’s hundreds and hundreds of visitors here,” Joe said. “It’s a good thing when you see the number of people here and the happy faces. It brings people down from all over the region.”
Joe has been involved with the festival for four years now because he really loves cars.
“Myself and a lot of people here are car enthusiasts. It’s quite an active community. Myself and co-organizer Ron Dempsey are very fortunate to be able to use our talents, connections and skills to put something like this together.”
Joe also gave credit to the entire 10-member Oak Bay Collector Car Festival committee and a large number of volunteers. The committee sits under the Oak Bay Tourism board.
“It’s taken a committee to do the amount of work that Ken did every year. There’s a number of us that have all had experience at the car festival. It’s all volunteers. We were able to put together a really solid group with different skills, backgrounds and abilities. We created an event that we can improve on every year.”
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