2021 GRAFFITI | MODESTO PARADE
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By SABRA STAFFORD
icture the scene: A warm Saturday night in Modesto. Dusk is approaching and the downtown shops and offices have locked up and turned the signs in their windows from open to closed. Maybe in the distance you can hear the low rumble of an engine as the car makes its way to 10th Street. It won’t be long before this is the domain of teenagers cruising a circuit along 10th and 11th streets, yelling out to one another as the cars slowly pass by with the sound of Rock n’
Roll lofting out the car radios and providing the night’s soundtrack. Likely, before the cruise comes to an end, the flirting between one car full of girls and another full of boys will end with both cars parked at Burge’s drive-in. This is a ritual that will play out over and over again each weekend and will come to symbolize a moment of youthful innocence and possibilities that will be immortalized in Modesto native George Lucas’ film “American Graffiti.” In doing so, Modesto’s future will be
linked with cars and cruising for decades to come. Modesto has had its ups and downs with cruising in the past, but has come to embrace this slice of American culture and now celebrates it annually with Graffiti summer. The 2021 American Graffiti Festival & Car Show, the oldest and largest of Modesto’s Graffiti-related celebrations, will be Aug. 20 to 22, and will feature hundreds of classic cars in a Friday evening parade downtown and on
GRAFFITI 10 AUGUST 2021
McHenry and a Saturday and Sunday car show and music festival at the Modesto Muni Golf Course at Tuolumne Boulevard and Roselawn Avenue. This is the 22nd year for the event, sponsored and organized by the Kiwanis Club of North Modesto. Net proceeds go to local youth programs. The show is expected to draw more than 1,000 classic cars and trucks – 1979 and earlier – from throughout the West.
