Back in 2018, I was, as many people say, sick and tired of being sick and tired. I had been working a job at a company that I really didn't like and it didn't really feel like much was going to change. That all did change in February of 2018, when I acquired a car once owned by my grandfather, a 2004 Infiniti G35 Sedan. As a young teenager I had always dreamt of what the car might look and sound like had it been modified. Of course growing up in an auto body household and brought up by movies like The Fast and the Furious, cars had always intrigued me.
By July of 2018 the G35 had been mostly refreshed with all new suspension, wheels and some bolt ons under the hood. It was nothing crazy but it was mine and I loved that I finally put my own touch on my grandpa's old car.
During those first few months putting my few touches on the car, I started to plug in to my local car community in South Florida, and within a few months of liking posts and commenting on peoples photos, I had decided to take the G to my first car meet I'd been to in almost 6 years. That first meet changed everything. And before I get ahead of myself I'll start off my prefacing that I had started my own 'car club' page at the time and was attending that meet under that moniker and 'community', even though at the time it was just me; and had told the organizer I'd love to collaborate and help them market their next weekly meet.
So over the course of the following day after that meet, I had put together a flyer for their next meet using a photo I snapped on my camera and made it look like a flyer you'd see for a registration only show. I had studied the car scene and show culture for so many years and was finally able to implement so much of the knowledge I had picked up over the years.
Well the next Sunday arrived, the day of the very first Sunday Sunset Vibes, a name I had come up with and thought could be catchy for future events. An hour and a half into the meet, the garage we held it in got so packed that the property owner asked security to shut it down. And although that first meet got shut down, we knew we had struck gold.
Over the course of the next few weeks we would hold the meet at all different lots and garages, never more than 2 weeks in one spot as we'd always attract a huge turnout and the property owner would again have us shut down. Until about our 5th or 6th week in, where we found an old lot in the back of a local university that was only used for overspill parking during their football games. We had finally found our home for the next 43 consecutive weeks. Our weekly meet had grown from 30-40 cars to well over 300.
At our peak there was a fallout between parties, and while my intentions were never malicious or otherwise foul, the other group no longer wanted the stress or responsibility of throwing those events. That's when I started to move those weekly meets to monthly events, Iconic Sunsets. It gave me much more time to plan each event and now I was able to make individual flyers for people's cars who planned to attend the next month's event. I had turned it into a premium feeling car show, but to attend was free and it caught on.
By February of 2020 we had been building steam for months and the events were growing every month. That's when COVID shut down the world. It sucked. We had worked so hard to make these events as fun as we could and grow our community organically over time and we had been halted by something the world had never seen before.
A couple months go by and the itch was real. So we said screw it and planned Iconic Sunsets 6, in May of 2020. We marketed the show for weeks and the day had finally arrived. There were so many cars that shows up that we shut down both entrances to the campus and the exit off I-95 where the show was held. We had close to 500 cars and 2,000 spectators, masked up and eager to be outside and around cars once again.
The campus PD allowed us to keep the show going for nearly 3 and a half hours before an incident broke out and shut us down. We had done it again, overcame the impossible, seemingly at least, and put on the best event we could for our community.
Although only a few shows following, COVID eventually caught up to us, we had successfully built something that was enjoyed by the community, and it taught me that building this brand was way bigger than me, my family or our financial gain. It was about what we were able to do for our local car community and beyond in the few short years where we got our start. Now here we are, we haven't held an event in almost 3 years, but this year that all changes. I am working hard on our next few events and our pinnacle event, ICON AutoFest 2024, a trade show, car expo and celebration of car culture.
It's been a long road, and there's still a long road ahead, but I am forever grateful for that Infiniti G35, that I've since had to move on from, but that's a story for another time. Cheers to you all, and see you soon for the return of our free to attend events and our end of year show, ICON AutoFest 2024!