NAGS HEAD, N.C. — The OBX Rod and Custom Festival returned to the island this week for its seventh year, which was all started from organizers long-time love and appreciation for cars.
"I always loved cars. Started with Hot Wheels, Hot Rod Magazine. I always wanted a vehicle that was nice enough to be in a Hot Rod Magazine," said Michael Tillett, one of the three founder's of the event.
Michael Tillett, Richard Quidley and Sara Hole are the reason the OBX Rod and Custom Festival is what it is today.
"I came to Richard in 2017 telling him I wanted to try to do an event, would you help me out? And we partnered up with myself and Richard, and then we brought Sarah on board and this how this got started," said Tillett.
It's not hard to know when the event is going on, as custom cars and hot rods drive up and down the Outer Banks throughout the week. With the expectation that more than a thousand cars are registered for the event this year.
"Our first year we had, I believe it was 386 cars. So, last year our total ended up at 1,073. I'm pretty sure that this year will eclipse 1,200," said Quidley.
The stunning sounds and scenes of the cars that are involved in the event are special for all involved, but what it's all for is much more important.
"We do this all for charity. We've got multiple charity groups here on the Outer Banks, but our main charity is the Children and Youth Partnership for Dare County. Anything to help the kids K-12th grade with whatever they need. This event is a real charitable event. We keep just enough to get rolling the next year, and we give the rest away to different charities," said Tillett.
So far the OBX Rod and Custom Festival has raised close to $200,000 for charity.
"In the last few years we've been able to raise in total over $186,000. We anticipate that this year alone, we should be well close to $60,000," said Quidley.
The organizers are thankful to be able to continue to put this on every year.
"We provide the canvas. The guys bring the cars, that's the paint," said Quidley.
The event kicked off on Friday but there remains tons to happen on Saturday at The Soundside Event Site that spectators can come check out for free. For more information head to the event's website here.
