Cars, costumes, and candy
On October 18th, Las Vegas Car Meets hosted Cars at the Cantina -Trunk or Treat bringing community members and their children together for a night of fun. Festivities included carnival games, train rides, face painting, and a bounce house. Additionally, they held costume contests for children, adults and teams, as well as best vehicle and team decorating awards.
Published 10/23/23.
Las Vegas Car Meets is a social media page that seeks to bring the community together. They host events like this throughout the year and claim to be "the go-to for car enthusiasts out of Las Vegas, Nevada."
The meets that they host are seen as some of the best in the community as these meets promote a "no-nonsense" mindset, in which most community members agree with. Nonsense includes revving, burnouts, drifting, and other "hooning" activities. Meets are held in close proximity and collaboration with businesses, therefore a certain level of respect is upheld between community and business. Holding events in such manner promote safety and creates an environment of chill and relaxing car appreciation.
In collaboration with Liquid Death, Vegas Drift, Gateway Classic Cars, 360 Carshow, It's Sticking to Me, Legal Ride, Vegas Elite Supercars, Car Scene Network, and El Dorado Cantina, the meet served to connect car people with business owners even more. Stamp passports were handed out to encourage members to visit each and every vendor. Participants who submitted a completed passport entered a raffle to win prizes.
Local vendor and costume contest participant, Zeus Ochoa of heyzeusart, prepared his car for two weeks just for this event and costume contest. In the first phase, he did the eyes, smile, and horns and the side graphics in the second. This 2021 Civic Hatchback sports the spooky vibe of Gengar and its evolutions, representing his love for Pokemon.
"I've been a part of the car community for 4 or 5 years," Ochoa said. "I've been vending my art for the last two years primarily at car events. I want to pull up to more car meets to sell art out of the back of the Civic."
For Ochoa, the car community is a perfect place to share his love of art and cars. He takes commissions and looks forward to creating more artwork for car owners in the near future.
Las Vegas car community member Elsye Ventura primarily goes to car events with her cousin and his 2001 Honda S2000. She said it took her and her family about two hours to prep, one for makeup and costume, and the other for the car. This S2000 sported an ofrenda out of the trunk and fierce teeth in the front with the family dressed in Día de los Muertos attire.
"I like events like this," Ventura said. "They bring the community together and let's everyone look at cool cars."
Events like this allow community members to show off their personalities, heritage, and interests even more with the help of these costumes. The nature of Halloween events promote more self-expression than regular car meets would normally allow. Judgement within the car community is real, and most days out of the year a car decorated in Star Wars gear would be scoffed at. However, for this entire month that energy is applauded and appreciated because of the love for Halloween.
For the car enthusiasts that have children, the opportunity to bring kids to a safe and welcoming environment is amazing. The kids love the candy as well as the cars. Car owners were kids once and understand that feeling of admiring a car and dreaming that they will get it one day. Now that they've grown up and have the car of their dreams, recreating that feeling for kids is something they aim for. Events like this makes that sentiment possible.
Las Vegas Car Meets is throwing a 3-day event later this month featuring cars, models, and entertainment, alongside the West Coast's largest taco festival. On the 27th, Trunk o' Treat at Craig Ranch Park, on the 28th, 360 Cars & Tacos, and on the 29th, Shorty Memorial Lowrider & Mini Truck Show.
