By Gord Coulman…
Richard Jentner and I participated in the 28th annual Rock’n August, one of the largest car shows in Western Canada.
The event spanned several days (Aug. 6-10) and included pancake breakfasts, cruises, a street dance, and several displays, culminating in the Saturday show and shine along the banks of the Sturgeon River in historic St. Albert, Alberta. Rock’n August is a summer-time tradition in St. Albert and is supported by partnerships of both the St Albert & Edmonton Cosmopolitan Clubs. Proceeds from the event go to diabetes research and over $1.4m has been raised to date.
Thanks in part to perfect weather, the 2024 event was expected to be the largest ever, with more than 800 cars and many thousands of spectators.
Richard brought his beautiful 1966 DS21 with its mirror finished black paint and gorgeous black leather Pallas interior. Richard has made some subtle changes to the car, including a five speed transmission and an engine compartment that sparkled with chromed parts and green spheres and reservoir (converted to LHM from the original LHS fluid).
I brought my yellow 1987 2CV Club, which many spectators considered to be among the most unique vehicles in attendance. As always, the 2cv inspired many interesting memories among attendees who had lived in Europe at some point in their lives, including one English lady who had a childhood memory of standing on the back seat of her family’s ancient 2cv, bumping down the beach with her head out the open top!
Richard and I had the only French cars, other than a very nice Renault Fuego that participated on Saturday.
Another interesting car was a tiny two cylinder Fiat from Poland, perhaps even smaller than the 2CV.
Rock’n August was a lot of fun, and perhaps we will see more Citroëns there next year.