Why does the Farina Foundation car cruise never park in the same lot twice? If you've lived in McCandless long enough to notice, you've probably wondered. The car show has bounced from a shopping center lot, to a school parking lot half a mile from the rest of the festival, to a spot connected by sidewalk to Town Hall. This year it moves again, but this time the change isn't about parking. It's about time. The car cruise gets its own night entirely, a full evening ahead of Saturday's main event, and that shift only makes sense once you see the number sitting underneath it: this is the 25th annual Community Day, and it happens to land on the town's 175th anniversary. That's not a coincidence. It's arithmetic that's been running quietly since 2001.
A Car Show That Keeps Changing Addresses
For years, the Frank J. Farina Jr. Memorial Car Cruise filled the Ashton Commons lot on Cooper Drive, ground once occupied by the Trader Horn store. Then, for five years running, the cruise moved out to the North Allegheny Intermediate School parking lot on Cumberland Road, a location organizers themselves described as away from the rest of the celebration. Car cruise regulars had to make a choice: stay with the cars or walk over to the festival at Town Hall.
In 2024, the town brought the cruise back to its original ground, returning it to Ashton Commons on Cooper Drive, close enough to Town Hall that a sidewalk along McCandless Drive connected the two. Parks and recreation director Abby Lucostic called it a way to make the day feel more cohesive after five years of the cruise sitting apart from everything else. It worked, geographically. But squeezing a car show, a parade, live music, and fireworks into one Saturday afternoon and evening was always going to be tight, no matter how close the parking lots sat to each other.
The Fix That Distance Couldn't Solve
This year, the Farina Foundation and its car show move again, but the fix isn't geographic. Instead of sharing Saturday with the rest of the festival's lineup, the car cruise gets tonight, September 18, entirely to itself, a standalone kickoff ahead of tomorrow's main event. It's a small scheduling change with a bigger implication: after five years of trying to solve a crowding problem by moving people closer together, the actual solution turned out to be giving the day more room to breathe.
That kind of expansion doesn't happen to a festival that's shrinking. It happens to one that's outgrown its own footprint.
Twenty-Five Years, Right on Schedule
Here's the detail that ties it together. McCandless was chartered in 1851, originally organized under the name Taylor Township before being incorporated as a second-class township and renamed for U.S. District Judge Wilson McCandless in 1857. Community Day itself didn't start until 2001, the same year the town marked its 150th anniversary. Lucostic put it plainly at the time: it's been a celebration of community since then, held every second Saturday of September.
Run the math forward. Twenty-five years after a tradition that began as a 150th-anniversary event lands you exactly on a 175th anniversary. The 25th annual Community Day isn't just an arbitrary number that happens to coincide with a round anniversary. It's the same 25-year clock that's been ticking since the town first decided to throw itself a party for turning 150.
Whether the overlap was planned to the year or simply worked out that way, the town is treating it as more than a coincidence. The McCandless175 Committee has spent the better part of a year building programming specifically around it, and this weekend is where that planning becomes visible.
What Else Is Different This Year
A few markers set this Community Day apart from the 24 before it:
- Allusion Brewery has produced a commemorative McCandless175 Brew, poured at the event as a one-time nod to the anniversary rather than a permanent addition to the lineup.
- The Heritage and Cultural Center has been running a monthly lecture series through 2026 focused on local history, with a session tonight, September 18, covering the town's earliest years as a farming community.
- The car cruise's move to its own night, discussed above, gives tomorrow's program more space without the day feeling rushed.
None of these are large changes on their own. Together, they read like a town deciding that a milestone year deserves more than a single afternoon.
Tomorrow, If You're Going
The main event runs at Devlin Park, adjacent to Town Hall at 9955 Grubbs Road, on Saturday, September 19. Setup runs from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., booths open to the public at 1 p.m., the parade steps off at 3 p.m., and the grounds stay open with booths running until 9 p.m. Fireworks are scheduled for around 8:15 p.m.
Parking at Devlin Park itself is limited, and the lot closes to incoming cars at 12:30 p.m. once booths are set up, for the safety of everyone on foot. The town is running a shuttle from the McCandless Park and Ride for anyone arriving later in the day, which is worth building into your plans if you're heading over after lunch rather than first thing. Cars are allowed back into the lot only after the fireworks wrap, so if you're driving, plan to stay through the finale rather than ducking out early.
If you've got an elementary or middle schooler in a McCandless school and haven't entered them in the McCandless Adventure raffle yet, tomorrow is the last day. Every resident gets one free ticket for a chance to win a ride to school in a dump truck, fire truck, ambulance, or police car, and Community Day is one of the last places to grab one before entries close.
Why the Timing Matters More Than the Lineup
Plenty of towns run an annual festival. Fewer can point to the exact year their tradition started and show that it lines up, almost to the year, with the milestone it was created to mark. McCandless can. The 150th anniversary gave the town Community Day. The 175th anniversary is giving it a second night, a commemorative brew, and a car show finally granted enough room to be its own event rather than a satellite orbiting someone else's schedule.
If you've watched the car cruise wander from lot to lot over the years without quite knowing why, now you do. It wasn't indecision. It was a town slowly working out how much space a 25-year tradition actually needs, and this is the year it got the answer.
For residents who've been here through several of these Community Days, or who are curious about the town's longer arc from a 1,482-person township in 1857 to the neighborhood it is today, the Heritage and Cultural Center's history timeline is worth a look before or after the festivities.
If you're weighing a move within McCandless, sizing up a bigger home in the same school district, or curious what a milestone year like this one means for property values nearby, Zita Billmann can walk you through what's happening on your specific street. Request a free home valuation to start the conversation.