A Day At Symco Weekender 2019-Vintage Cars, Trailers, And More

The Iola Car Show in Iola, Wisconsin may be one of America’s largest straight up car shows.  Then you have Symco Weekender also held in Wisconsin, which is a huge vintage car/trailer show/swap meet, that is full of straight up personality.

Symco Weekender is held every year the second weekend in August in the (very) tiny town of Symco, Wisconsin. Actually the whole event is held in it’s own cute village complete with old buildings that were moved here from various locations around Waupaca County. Even the Unionville (Union was originally the town name before it became known as Symco) town hall (1896) was moved here and is known as the Unionville Saloon.

Not only are there rows upon rows of vintage cars, there is a whole area along the river set up for vintage campers. There is also a huge swap meet, rockabilly music, lots of food, and vendors selling vintage style clothing. Speaking of vintage style clothing, many people dress up for the event, wearing 50’s style clothing, and you can even have your hair done vintage style by the salon located inside one of the buildings. It’s like a step back in time and you can’t help but wish you had donned your poodle skirt and sported a slicked back pompadour.

Why a day at Symco

I had a short working day on Friday, so we decided to make the 1 1/2 hour drive to go check out what all the fuss is about. Since renovating Beatrice we have been slightly obsessed with all things vintage camper. Vintage camper enthusiasts have their own community. With so many groups such as Tin Can Tourists, and Sister On The Fly, camping vintage style has become ultra fashionable. Rallies like Symco and the upcoming Midwest Vintage Trailer Rally in Montello, Wisconsin are places where we “vintage people” can gather and swap stories and ideas.

Some vintage enthusiasts will say that you actually need to have done a restoration of an old camper to be classified as true vintage, so technically my Beatrice does not really belong to this group since she is a renovation. Nonetheless, we still think of her as vintage and just love to see what people do to these vintage beauties restoration or renovation. Plus Megan and Rick love the old cars.

Symco, Wisconsin is tiny town located on the Wolf river in central Wisconsin.

It’s one of those places that you would never happen upon and if you do, would miss if you blink. Each year the town population swells into the thousands as hot rod enthusiasts from around the country pull up campers and spend the weekend.

You can see everything in a day like we did, although if you want to get through everything, I would suggest going early. There are events throughout the weekend, so to really immerse yourself, take your camper and stay all weekend. Don’t plan on camping inside the actual vintage trailer part of the show as that goes first to those registered the previous year, but there is camping in the surrounding area and this year they asked that you pick row L or K in the overflow area if you have a vintage camper. That way if there was extra room inside the show, you may be able to get your foot in.

We had no idea what to expect when we arrived.

We paid our entry fee (Friday wristband-$10) and just walked around. Immediately we got the feel that we had stepped back in time. Rockabilly music was being piped in through the loudspeakers, people dressed up, mini bikes running everywhere, and a general relaxed fun atmosphere gave us that vintage feel.

We headed for the vintage camper area first.

There were all kinds of campers. Decked out Shastas, to rough looking unpolished campers. Many of the camper owners were dressed up in period costumes. A few parts of this area were muddy due to the heavy rain that had fallen in the area. There were some areas that were closed off and a couple trailers that were a muddy mess from trying to park.

Next we checked out some of the hot rods.

Requirement for all vehicles is they need to be made 1964 or earlier. All vehicles require inspection upon arrival. Inspectors are looking for traditional styled cars and must follow a strict criteria.  Some vehicles we saw were completely restored and some were as is. Not all were all shiny and show room sleek. Some were just as if they had been pulled from the weeds where they had been left abandoned many years ago.

We finally sat down to get a bite to eat and do a little people watching.

Did I mention that one of the events on Saturday is a Pin-Up contest? Open to ladies 18 or older for a weekend admission, this is the time to show off that costume! It was easy to see there were many ladies walking around Friday in full practice mode for the Pin Up contest! I sure do wish I had taken more pictures of the people I had seen, but you can go to the Symco Facebook page (link at the bottom of my post) to see pictures from this years event.

Next we finished checking out the hot rods while Rick reminisced to Megan about all the cars he had growing up.

Burn-out contest!

We started walking through the rows of swap meet vendors when over the loudspeaker came the announcement of the burn-out contest which was to begin in a few minutes. We made our way over to that area, grabbed a seat for the action. From the size of the crowd, this was pretty popular!

That was fun to watch.

Then it was back to finish out the swap meet. By this time it was early evening and we had seen everything, so we called it a day.

For more information about Symco Weekender visit the website. Or follow the page on Facebook.

Thanks for reading and as always, if you like what you see, please share!

Lori

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