Once again, Labor Day weekend brings the annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in Auburn, Indiana. Here’s our report on this year’s gathering with a big photo gallery of the festival parade.
The annual Auburn Cord Duesenberg Festival in Auburn, Indiana is one of the oldest events in the collector car hobby, dating all the way back to 1954. It’s also one of the largest, with multiple car auctions, a sprawling swap meet, a parade of classic cars through downtown Auburn, and a full slate of activities all focused on Auburn’s hometown automotive makes: Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg.
Activities at the festival cluster around two geographic points: the museum district just south of downtown, which was once home to the Auburn auto factory complex, and the sprawling Auctions America facility one exit south of town on Interstate 69. For a full listing of all the attractions around Auburn including a schedule, map, travel and lodging info, and so forth, visit the official ACD Festival website. Info on the auction, swap meet, and happenings around the auction complex can be found at the Auctions America website.
Among the finest traditions of the festival—it’s one of our favorites, anyway—is the aforementioned parade through downtown Auburn. The gathering of classic cars begins in the morning at Eckhart Park, then at one o’clock proceeds over to the courthouse square in the center of town, where come the evening there’s an annual block party for the ACD faithful.
As we’ve explained in previous features, Eckhart Park is only a block or two east of the famed Auburn Cord Duesenberg Museum (open during festival weekend, fortunately; see our feature on the museum here) and next door, NATMUS, the National Auto and Truck Museum of the United States. With its green and shady setting, the park is a perfect venue for car viewing and photography, and there are countless other choice spots along the parade route. If you haven’t attended the Festival and seen the parade, you really owe it to yourself. Here is the finest assembly of Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg vehicles on earth, and it happens every year. In the meantime, enjoy the gallery below.
I go to the club show in the park every year. It is my favorite show of the season. I cannot enough of the Auburn 851 Speedsters. It is great fun to listen to the ACD Club judges pick nits on these incredible cars.
You are right the parade through town is a highlight. The year I went (1996-7) I recall one “older gentleman” in an Auburn holding back some distance in the line of cars. All of a sudden, he gunned the engine and accelerated to close the gap. He had a mighty grin on his face as he did so -and in those few seconds I got a glimpse of the young guy still inside!