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Bernie's Car Show Coverage: My first time attending the 2021 Florida Classics Weekend

Dec 9, 2021


I finally went to the Florida Classics. Florida Classic Weekend is a weekend celebration leading up to a football game between FAMU and BC-U. However...  in the Big Rim/Wheel World, no one cares about the football game. 

On November 19th to November 21st, I found myself in Orlando on West Colonial Drive which is the center stage for the weekend. No matter how many events there were during the entire weekend, everyone just knew to go to 2155 West Colonial Drive, which is the address to Magic Mall. This was my first time attending the Classics, so I didn't know what to expect. Everyone told me that "I was going to see some cars" and it won't be a waste of time. I'm glad that I listened to them. 


I've shied away from Florida Classics because I wasn't sure of the structure of the weekend, meaning I knew there wasn't a defined event at the end of the weekend. Because I'm not from Florida and I honestly don't travel to Florida often (despite how close I live to that state), I wasn't sure if I was going to find where everyone was. After going to the event, I've realized that I just overthought the entire concept of Florida Classic Weekend. No surprise there...



Days leading up to the weekend, I saw how guys were making sure their cars were ready for the weekend. Then Friday came... and I was disappointed because it rained. But that didn't stop everyone. 


Out of the three days, Saturday was THE BEST DAY!!!  I was amazed. So everyone gathered back to the Magic Mall or as close to the mall as possible. Cars were parked in front of the mall, along the side street that was adjacent to the parking lot, illegally along West Colonial Dr, and in front of every business about 6 city blocks wide. Cars from as close as Orlando (very few though because those who weren't from Orlando showed up). From Southern Florida all the way north to Virginia, to Illinois and Indiana, everyone gathered and had a great time. There were just so many cars. 



So after the Magic Mall bonanza was shut down, everyone pretty much went to any gas station that was opened, and that's where I went wrong because I couldn't find a place to park. I should have left my rental and walked over like everyone else did. But at that point, OPD started messing with the flow of traffic by blocking off turning lanes and entire blocks which forced me to give up and go back to my Airbnb rental.



Another mistake I made was Sunday... Sunday had two events- the Riding Big Car Show and Music Festival and the Big Rim 4 Super Bowl (which was the race). I opted to go to the car show, but I should have known better because of being burnt in the past by the V-103 Car and Bike show (Other than DJ Envy's Drive Your Dreams Car Show, I do not trust radio station sponsored car shows. The only reason why I trust Envy's is because he's heavily involved in the planning of the show).  The car show was okay, however there were far more cars parked outside of the show than inside. 



Even though this was my first time going to the Classics, I learned how to move differently so next time, I know exactly where to go and what to do. This was a bit of a learning lesson, but everyone who said I was going to have fun was exactly right. 
























































To see the rest of the photos, check out Bernie's 2021 Florida Classics Weekend galleries: Saturday and Sunday.
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