Sandpoint calling all cars

Poodle skirts and ducktail ‘dos will take over Sandpoint later this month when Lost in the 50’s celebrates its 20th anniversary.

But, like the era it glamorizes, the car show and concerts may be history if the event is not a financial success this year, organizers say.

Lost in the 50’s still has a bill or two to pay from last year, and the proliferation of classic car shows, combined with the high cost of hiring performers, makes it harder to cover expenses.

“If we can’t make it, if we can’t get more people involved, we’ll be done,” said Carolyn Gleason, who conjured up Lost in the 50’s as a fund-raiser for the Festival at Sandpoint in the early ‘80s. Ten years ago, the event broke away from the Festival and raised money for the local food bank and other causes.

Now it’s just trying to keep itself solvent, organizers say.

Gleason was born in 1950 and never tired of ‘50s and ‘60s music. The original idea for Lost in the 50’s was to celebrate the origins of rock ‘n’ roll by bringing in original artists from that era.

“I wanted to see the performers from early rock ‘n’ roll before they weren’t there anymore,” Gleason said.

The car show part of the event was essentially a means of bringing more people to town and to the concerts, said Gleason, who doesn’t even own a classic car. (“I can’t afford them,” she said.)

Over the past 20 years, Gleason and her fellow ‘50s fanatics have brought in 46 oldies guest artists to Sandpoint.

This year, the performers are ‘60s teen idol Bobby Vee, Freddy “Boom Boom” Cannon (who has a record 110 appearances on “American Bandstand”), and the Lost in the 50’s “house band,” Rocky and the Rollers.

The car show grew from 26 cars two decades ago to 800 at its peak. Last year, the car show drew about 500 entries. Many fair-weather participants wait until the day of the event to enter, said Sally Transue, who’s in charge of organizing the car show.

“We always keep our fingers crossed,” she said. Two years ago it snowed, resulting in a number of no-shows. Also eating away at attendance has been the abundance of other car shows and rallies in the region.

“In the beginning, we were pretty much the only game in town,” Transue said. “Now there’s a lot of things that are in competition.”

With the growth came expenses. Years ago, the volunteers gave up trying to control traffic themselves and now hire flaggers. They rent a sound system and portable toilets, hire youth groups to pick up garbage and erect tents, purchase prizes for the car show, cover travel expenses for all the performers, not to mention their fees, rent the fairgrounds and Panida Theater, and pay a hundred other smaller expenses. Overall, the three-day event costs more than $60,000 to put on, Gleason said.

The problem is that the biggest crowds come to the free events – the Friday night car parade and the Saturday car show. Lost in the 50’s makes its money at the Friday and Saturday night concerts and from alcohol sold at those shows.

The attendance at the dances has dropped off from about 2,000 in the ‘90s to about 500 Friday night and about 1,100 Saturday night in the past couple of years. Gleason said she hopes for about 1,000 dancers Friday night and 1,500 Saturday night this year.

Dance tickets are $24. Included in the price is a free bus ride to and from area motels, so out-of-town guests don’t have to worry about drinking and driving. Still, renting the bus costs organizers $800. And that’s a tiny fraction of the cost to bring in the three bands, pay their travel expenses and provide the venue, Gleason said.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary, this year Lost in the 50’s is bringing in professional Elvis, Roy Orbison and Jackie Wilson impersonators to the Panida Theater for an evening of “Rock and Roll Heaven,” which Gleason hopes will be a money-maker.

“Those people who say they don’t dance, they’ll go to the Panida and still get great rock ‘n’ roll and we’re not paying for performers who are original guest artists,” she said.

Some in-kind sponsors who are helping keep costs for this year’s event down include local motels that donated rooms for performers, and ACE Septic, which is donating dozens of portable toilets.

Even the local courthouse bailiffs helped out by postponing one volunteer’s jury duty so she could spend the next couple of weeks preparing for Lost in the 50’s.

While not all businesses benefit directly from the event, Lost in the 50’s is a boost to downtown and the whole community, said Kathleen Hyde, who owns Bearweare in downtown Sandpoint.

“It’s a real positive shot in the arm for us,” Hyde said. “The big picture is it brings people here that weekend and afterwards.”