It’s Labor Day weekend—time once again for the annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival,  in Auburn, Indiana. Here’s a report on this year’s gathering. 

The ACD Festival is one of the oldest collector car events in America, dating back to 1954. It’s also one of the biggest, with a huge swap meet, car auctions, a parade, and a full slate of activities that stretch over the entire week.

The activities of Festival week tend to cluster around two geographic points: the museum district near downtown Auburn, and the sprawling Auctions America complex (the place formerly known as Kruse Auctions) one exit south of town on Interstate 69. For a full rundown on the events in Auburn including a schedule, map, travel and lodging info, and so forth, you can visit the official ACD Festival website. Info on the auction, swap meet and happenings down the road can be found at the Auctions America website.

One nice convenience at the Auctions America ranch is onsite golf car rental—saves wear and tear on the old feet getting around the hundreds of acres. MCG will admit that these days, he likes to take it easy and narrow his focus to a few key aspects of the festival. One favorite is the muster of cars at Eckhart Park on Saturday in preparation for the big parade through downtown Auburn in the afternoon.

If you can imagine hundreds of magnificent Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg autos all gathered in one place at one time….well. we don’t have to imagine. At Eckhart Park we get to see it.

As explained here last year, the park is just a few hundred yards east of the famed Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (see the MCG feature on the museum here) behind the former Auburn manufacturing complex. With its creek, lawns, and venerable old shade trees, the park is a picture-perfect venue for a vintage car show. Gallery below.

Look for part two of the ACD Festival coverage here.