Dad’s day a great day in Santa Rosa to ogle classic cars

Every Father’s Day, Santa Rosa’s Juilliard Park fills with more than 300 restored cars, hot rods, rat rods, and low riders for a free show run by an all-volunteer contractors’ association for close to three decades. This year, seven-year-old Ripley Hansen led his dad Tor through the rows, and dad admitted he was the one learning. From trophies for Best Flames and Best Rat Rod to why a modest entry fee and free admission keep the rows growing, read on to see what makes this Sonoma County tradition work.

On Father’s Day, seven-year-old Ripley Hansen led his dad, Tor, through rows of more than 300 restored cars at Santa Rosa’s Juilliard Park, and somewhere between the hot rods and the low riders the roles quietly reversed. Dad admitted he was the one learning about cars because of his son. That small moment is the whole point of a show that has been running for close to three decades on a patch of city grass, with no marquee sponsor, no television cameras, and an all-volunteer contractors’ association behind it. Spectators walk in free, owners pay a modest fee, and every year the rows get longer. What keeps pulling hundreds of owners and their families back to a Father’s Day show most people outside Sonoma County have never heard of?

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A Seven-Year-Old Tour Guide

The image that anchored the original coverage was Tor Hansen being led around Juilliard Park by his seven-year-old son, Ripley, as the two took in the gleaming collection of more than 300 immaculately restored and cared-for entries. It is usually the parent who explains the cars to the kid. Here it ran the other way, and Tor admitted he was learning more about cars because of his son. For a show staged on Father’s Day, that reversal is the best possible advertisement. The cars are the reason for the event, but the fathers and kids walking between them are the reason it lasts.

Built by an Engineering Contractors Association

The show is organized by the Engineering Contractors Association and has run for close to three decades, growing into a Father’s Day fixture for Sonoma County without any of the machinery that usually props up a long-running event. There is no national sanctioning body, no factory display, and no corporate title sponsor. A group of contractors decided decades ago that a car show in a city park was a good way to spend Father’s Day, and they kept doing it until it became a tradition. That volunteer backbone is why the event feels more like a neighborhood gathering than a production.

Nine to Three on the Grass

The format is as simple as the venue. The show opens at 9 a.m. and wraps by 3 p.m., giving families a full day to wander rows of stock rides, hot rods, trucks, motorcycles, rat rods, and low riders parked side by side on the grass at Juilliard Park. A modest registration fee gets an owner a spot in the show, and spectators walk in free, which is a big part of why turnout regularly climbs into the hundreds of vehicles. Free admission means a family with no particular interest in cars can wander in on a whim, and that is how new fans get made.

Trophies for Everything Except Perfection

Unlike concours events that reward only the most flawless restorations, Juilliard Park hands out trophies across categories built for personality as much as polish: Best Rat Rod, Best Engine, Best Flames, People’s Choice, and separate classes for stock and hot rod builds. That range means a beat-up survivor with an untouched original engine bay has just as much shot at hardware as a nut-and-bolt restoration. It also changes who enters. Owners of backyard projects still wearing primer show up alongside six-figure muscle cars because the judging does not punish them for being unfinished.

Stock Rides, Hot Rods, Rat Rods, and Low Riders

The variety on the grass is the show’s other great strength. A stock 1960s muscle car parks next to a chopped hot rod, a rat rod built from salvage sits across from a candy-painted low rider, and vintage trucks and motorcycles fill in the gaps. That mix reflects Sonoma County’s car culture more honestly than a single-marque show could. It also keeps a seven-year-old interested, because there is always something stranger or louder two rows over. For a muscle car fan, seeing the classics in that broader context is a reminder of how wide the hobby really is.

Food Trucks, Live Music, and an Afterthought Called Judging

Food trucks and live music turn the judging into an afterthought for a lot of the families who attend. Kids climb into driver’s seats they will never own, parents debate paint codes, and strangers trade stories about the cars they used to have. The show runs on those interactions rather than on the trophy table. An owner who spent the winter rebuilding an engine gets to explain it to a dozen curious kids before lunch, and that exchange is worth more to most of them than a plaque. It is the kind of low-stakes, high-turnout event that does not need a headline sponsor to survive.

Why Father’s Day Is the Right Date

Staging the show on Father’s Day was a smart choice for reasons that go beyond the calendar. It gives dads a built-in reason to load a kid into the passenger seat, drive across town, and spend a few hours pointing out engines, badges, and body styles most children have never seen up close. For the Hansens, the day turned into the son teaching the father. For other families, it is the first time a kid sees a big-block engine bay or hears a hot rod start. That kind of hands-on exposure is where a lot of lifelong car people get their start, long before they ever pick up a wrench.

Sonoma County’s Deep Car Roots

Santa Rosa sits in a county with a long history around cars and racing. Sonoma Raceway, one of Northern California’s best-known road courses and drag strips, is a short drive away, and the region’s mix of rural roads, agricultural trucks, and wine-country money has produced a car culture that runs from farm pickups to serious collections. The Juilliard Park show draws on all of it. The 300-plus entries on Father’s Day are not trailered in from across the state. They are the cars Sonoma County residents own, restore, and drive, which is why the show feels local in the best sense.

How a Free Show Survives Three Decades

The staying power of the Juilliard Park show says something about car culture in general: it does not take a factory-backed event or a six-figure purse to keep a tradition alive. It takes a park, a few hundred willing owners, a volunteer organization that shows up every June, and enough curious kids tagging along to make sure the next generation returns. Free admission removes the barrier for spectators, a modest entry fee keeps the show self-supporting, and the trophy categories keep owners of every kind of car coming back. That formula has now worked for close to 30 years.

The Next Generation Is Already Here

Ripley Hansen leading his father through the rows is the future of the hobby in miniature. Every long-running show eventually depends on the kids who wandered through it years earlier deciding, as adults, that they want a car of their own on that same grass. Juilliard Park has been running that experiment for nearly three decades, and the growing rows of entries suggest it is working. For a hobby that worries constantly about aging out, a free Father’s Day show where a seven-year-old teaches his dad about cars is about as encouraging a sign as there is.

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