Announcing that the Blue Devils Wicked Wheels Car Fest is Paused Until 2023
Earlier this year, we had to make the very difficult decision to pause hosting the very popular Blue Devils’ Wicked Wheels Car Fest, but we promise that the pause is just for 2022. Last December, we celebrated the fifth anniversary of Blue Devil Radio– that’s right. Five years of great music, exceptional student programming and authentic learning opportunities for our students.
During the first months on the air, we began to brainstorm ways to introduce the station to potential listeners. As a debut, and summer kick-off, we did a “splash” right around Memorial Day weekend that featured the “Top 97” hits of the golden era of rock-n-roll (as determined by Billboard) which caught the attention of a lot of new listeners. We wanted to do more–a lot more–and came up with the idea of a car fest. Our thinking was simple, the greatest hits of the golden era of rock-n-roll. Bring together friends who love both the music and cars that were making their debuts during those magical years. Perfect fit, right?
Just to remind anyone who hasn’t yet enjoyed Blue Devil Radio, the station can be found traditionally, by app or streamed at 97.7fm/WNLB. It’s the only station in the area to offer this musical genre in a commercial-free format. We’re not sure if the car fest is responsible for catching your ears, but the station’s fan base continues to grow daily. Evidently, so does the Wicked Wheels fan base.
When we introduced this new “end-of-summer/back-to-school” tradition to the community in 2018, we had no idea that its popularity would grow so quickly. We had one caller last week refer to the event as one of the region’s “premier programs.” Wow. Our first effort, affectionately called that “Wicked Weather Fest” (thanks to the four-plus hours of continuous and really hard rain) paved the way with Mother Nature’s blessing/remorse to events with almost perfect weather featuring blue skies, sunshine and temps in the mid-70s. We already have that forecast in the planner for 2023.
A feature of the event is that it takes place on a Wednesday afternoon/evening. We think we’re really on to something because in 2021, we ran out of space to accommodate the almost 300 car owners–some who live right in our community, and others who traveled great distances to “get a little wicked with us.” So why, if I am gushing about how great this event is, did we hit the pause button? Three words–elementary school reconfiguration.
An event that has grown to achieve the level of success associated with the Blue Devils’ Wicked Wheels Car Fest takes months and months of time and even more talent to produce. So, too, does the effort that we’ve undertaken this summer to reconfigure Crissey, Dorr and Holloway into pre-kindergarten through grade three facilities, and create Holland Intermediate. While our staff was resistant at first to concede, taking on both these major efforts within the same periods of time was not logical. So, while I reluctantly again share this news, I also excitedly share the promise that all plans are to return the Blue Devils’ Wicked Wheels CarFest to the 2023 summer calendar. We wouldn’t want it any other way.
