Car Enthusiasts Fill the Fairgrounds at This Years 37th Annual Street Rod Nationals

37th Annual Wester Street Rod Nationals, Bakersfield, CA Photograhed by Jessica Mullich

The Kern County Fairgrounds was bumper to bumper classic beauties this weekend at the 37th Annual Western Street Rod Nationals. Car enthusiasts watched in awe as these late-model marvels rolled into the grounds bright and early Saturday morning. The gates opened at 8:00 am admitting thousands of eager spectators and entrants to the show.

This year’s show consisted of close to 2000 entrants. According to local Bakersfield National Street Rod Association member this local show is smaller in comparison to the others.

“We’ve got close to 2000 cars out here today. There really is room for more but this show typically remains fairly small. Our next show in Springfield is a big one though. We’ll be expecting close to 4000 cars from all corners of the country” says local NSRA member.

Bakersfield Fire Fighters Booth, Bakersfield, CA Photographed by Jessica Mullich

When combining the 2000 entrants and their guests, with the mass number of spectators at the show, the local Bakersfield Fire Department concession stand had their work cut out for them.

“The morning crowd was fairly consistent; we didn’t really have to rush. But when the lunch time crowd came around it was complete chaos. We had 3 volunteers taking orders, 6 guys in the kitchen and at the grill, 1 cashier, 2 servers and 3 guys working the adult beverage side and we still didn’t have enough people to meet the demand. By mid afternoon we were completely out of tri tip and we still had an entire day left in the show. It was a really great time. We look forward to being bigger and better next year,” says Engineer Jason Johnson.

This year marks the 27th year Kern County has hosted the Western Street Rod Nationals Plus.