– By Aaron Courteau – Sunday, September 13th, 2020 began as a foggy & crisp morning with the slightest of a mist in the air. Perfectly normal for the islands of England or Ireland, but not necessarily IDEAL weather for the start of a relatively spur of the moment car show being held during a global pandemic. Thankfully, the interest amongst the vintage foreign car community was strong enough that the first of the cars showed up just after we opened the gates at 7:30am, and a ever growing stream of cars continued to flow in – all the way through the closing hour of the show at noon. Rich Stadther was that first die-hard in his gorgeous MGTD, and it was a sigh of relief to have him show. It meant EVERYTHING WAS GOING TO BE OK!
Aaron Courteau 
When Michael Jurayj and I set out to see if it was even possible to get an event at Keg & Case it was mid-August. We’d attended a few of the Saturday morning gatherings at Silver Lake Park, but were really itching to get an event – a SAFE event – organized that not only had a bit more of a “show and tell” attribute to it, but also one that would allow us to get in the face of the community with our shared hobby, and to do a bit a charitable good at the same time. Our initial meeting with Gates Lindquist – the P.R. Director at Keg & Case Market was delightful, and she was a team player right out of the gates (sorry about that). She immediately saw the potential in this high-tide raising all boats opportunity. So, the next few weeks were sorting logistics with the only drawback being the inability to get the word out sooner than we would have liked.
All the pieces fell perfectly into place though. Gates allowed us to arrange for the “breakfast-centric” LITTLE BLUE FOOD TRUCK to be on-sight to keep us fed. The on-premises FIVE WATT COFFEE agreed to sell attendees discounted beverages. THE WELLSTONE CENTER was chosen as the benefactor of our Food Drive and came away with a large moving boxed FILLED with donations. At the 11th hour we were granted permission to move the display area to the parking lot of The Keg & Case as opposed to a blocked off public street which not only save us money, but even the location staff agreed made for a better overall experience. Lastly, almost three dozen display cars (and a couple of two wheeled vehicles) and their owners graced the premises making this a certified success! All day our staff was given the greatest compliments from attendees – displayers and admirers alike. This space WORKS!
There were Alfas, BMW’s, Citroen’s, FIATS, a LOTUS, a Jaguar, a Jensen Healey, a Maserati, a NASH, and Triumphs. We would have loved to have seen representatives of the other clubs and hope the next event(s) might draw even more. The space will allow for hundreds of cars (when the time is right for that), but in the meantime – even doubling or tripling what we had this past weekend would be amazing!
We are on The Keg & Case’s calendar for another morning show on Sunday the 27th from 7:30am – noon. THE LITTLE BLUE FOOD TRUCK plans to be back in attendance (they reported GREAT sales and were very happy), and we assume Five Watt Coffee will be back partnering with us in the same way. By then, ROSE STREET PATISSERIE should be open on location as well for that early morning sweet treat. I think we’ll try to make arrangements with THE SALVATION ARMY for this next event and include a Coat Donation – considering the impending doom of our Minnesota Winter being a few more corners down the road. Gate’s and I are speaking on the 15th to discuss future plans – hopefully to include not just more morning events, but hopefully some evening ones as well to spice things up! Gates give me the feeling there is a very real interest on her part of further partnering with us and InterMarque.
We thank wholeheartedly those who supported this last-minute effort to serve our “community”, and the efforts of those at InterMarque who championed to help make it a success. Let’s do it a lot more!
Cheers!
Aaron Courteau & Michael Jurayj
aaron@wondervisionproductions.com
651-274-6265
michael@wondervisionproductions.com