2011 Rose City Roundup – What’s a Little Rain?

Posted by Nick K on Jun 27, 2011 in Featured, Shows & Events | 0 comments

PDX Car Culture Alive at Portland Car Show

Rain Didn’t Spoil This Parade! – Story and photos by Nick K.

This time of the year Portland,Or has it’s Rose City festival. Which includes a number of festivities such as the Starlight Parade, Fleet Week, Rose Cup Races, a number of firework shows and now, the Rose City Round Up car show. Which is becoming a Kustom Kulture staple in a rich history of Portland’s Rose City Festivals.

Portland’s best hot rod and kustom kulture show geared up for it’s 4th Rose City Round Up. The Rose City Round-up is an annual event hosted by the Driven Dead Car Club (CC) to celebrate the hot rod lifestyle of the Pacific Northwest. This being my 1st run at the Round Up, I was quite revved up for this event. It’s no secret that I have a fondness for the Great Northwest not to mention a love for the culture. I had plenty of time to think about it as we drove 10hrs up Interstate 5 to get to Portland, Or. I have to admit it’s quite a drive when you have a 5 year old daughter and her 11 year old sister getting more and more antsy be the minute. But with that said,the trip was well worth every minute traveled.

Giddy like a kid before Christmas, Saturday morning I was the first one up making sure all my equipment was ready and dialed. As I peaked out of the hotel curtain I saw what I was hearing about and hoping would not happen… rain. Well, it is the Pacific Northwest. We finally got ready and headed downstairs to put down some AM grub and then off to the Jubitz Travel Center where the Rose City Round Up was being held for it’s 4th year. What we found to be a very positive thing was each year of the show, the Driven Dead CC chooses a charity to give proceeds to. The Driven Dead chose the Oregon Food Bank as the beneficiary again for 2011 as we recognize our community’s need due to economic conditions. Giving back, how cool is that!?

As we entered the show the rain started to tapper off a little which was a good sign. The music was already playing courtesy of D.J’s Matt Stanger and Ian McWilliams. Who also spun in between bands like Honky Tonk Union, Wave Sauce, The Viggs, Drag Strip Riot, The Lordy Lords and Redwood Son who started it all off. So needless to say, the music was covered for the entire day… and speaking of covered, there was a good amount of cover from the off and on rain all day.

The damp Portland air played havoc with the Pin-Stripe Panel Jam. This being the 3rd year of this installment to the Round Up. I rolled up on pinstriper Volo and asked him if I could grab some shots and in typical Portland form he was more than happy to let me do so even though I could just see the frustration with the weather. I came back later when Volo and Broham were pinstripping panels to check out how his custom bowling pin came out and even with the weather, it came out sick. So it didn’t look like the rain ruined their parade.

Actually now that we are on the topic of pinstriping. I must say the PDX scene has some amazing lines. To my understanding, the man responsible for that is Jeff Wolf of Wolf Pinstripping & Lettering. Jeff’s a member of one of the shows heavy hitters –  Deviants C.C.. It seamed like every row of rods had phenomenal pinstripping and every row had a different car club.

The show, of course, had it’s hosts The Driven Dead, well represented, as well as the Deviants C.C. ,Dirty Micks C.C., Roadmen C.C., Cherry City Bombers and the Vintage Rollers just to name a few. Like at every show I attend I always have to venture over to the shows host booth to grab a show shirt and rap with some of the guys from the Driven Dead and tell them how much I was enjoying the show and of course pass out some MyRideisMe.com stickers.

After that I went around the corner to check out the custom show awards and the raffle booth which had some pretty insane give aways like a Pabst Blue Ribbon skateboard, some great lowbrow art dedicated by local artist/photographer Jenny Evans and a Fender strat, yeah that’s right, a frigging Fender Strat.

As the rain picked up I had to seek some shelter so I made a bee line for the venders booth and I had only one in mind. April May photography booth. I walked in for some cover to introduce myself and talk shop after her and Roy Varga were done discussing the odds of Roy being able to pull off a pin-up shoot today. Come on, I’m not going to be rude. April’s a Pacific Northwest native and one of the baddest hot rod photographers PDX has to offer.

Really folks, this show had it all. I may be saying that because it was my first Rose City run or maybe because everyone you talked to, they treated you like they‘ve known you for years… or it could have been that fondness for the Great Northwest. Whatever it was it was a blast!

Catch all my pictures in the Hot Rod Picture Gallery for Rose City Roundup

A great all around show and from my stand point, one not to be missed. In closing I would like to give a special shout, I know it’s not like me to throw something like this out but I do have to pay homage to my partner in crime Kristi. Because if it wasn’t for her watching the girls all day at the show I could not have done this, much love darlin.

I also can’t leave without giving thanks to all of P/Towns hot rod community and photo nerds (and you know who you are ) for your amazing hospitality. Leaving for home on that Sunday was hard just for the simple fact that I knew I was already there. So with all that said, if you want more info on the up coming Rose City Round Ups go to rosecityroundup.com (link not working) or facebook.com/DrivenDead. For info on any other shows happening in the PDX area you can also go to pdxcarculture.com