I recently zoned out for a bit scrolling through the last 10 years of pictures on DODOlogic. It’s funny to think that this site has been going for so long, and even funnier is how many of my memories are tied up in the site. I noticed that a younger me looked for every opportunity to post. I’d go to an event and make several posts out of a single event. Now I find myself looking for excuses not to post… and when I stop and think about it, it’s pretty saddening. Maybe I feel like I’ve ran out things to say, or maybe I’m just lazy/tired.
A more reasonable person would probably post a farewell or just let the site die – not me, though. The truth is, I still very much like cars, most car people and being around cars. I should probably just make more of an effort to post content.
With that said, I was recently in Regina, SK: the birth place of both myself and this blog. I don’t live there anymore, and I only visit once a year. I also don’t make it a habit of doing car stuff when I visit, but this time around, I decided to see what was going on.
Years ago, DODOlogic started doing car meets in Regina. We’d do two events a year and they grew into something beyond our initial expectations. After many years and much frustration, DODOlogic walked away from organizing them. Events were never our main purpose and regular life was taking priority. We decided to relinquish the events to our pals over at Prairie Street Performance.
That brings us to present day and their new event: Summer Slow Down, which used to be known as Fallout when DODOlogic ran it.
Some may argue that the name change hurt attendance, and others might say that, timeline-wise, it was too close to Saskatoon’sDriven car show. I’d probably side with the latter – and it also doesn’t help that the Riders were playing later that afternoon.
Lessons like this come with the territory, and they’re easy to learn from. It’s easy to romanticize the DODOlogic meets, but they had their hiccups and their outright failings. If you look back to the very beginning of the DODOlogic meets, the numbers were about the same as they were for the Summer Slow Down.
So, as easy and gratifying as it might be to come back after many years and say something like “We did it better” or “The scene’s dead/dying,” I don’t think that’s the case. I think the scene is changing and the one thing I’ve never wanted to be was an old dude who talks about how young people suck.
I do think that car scenes fade quickly, but that’s always been the case. The success of a scene doesn’t rest on the shoulders of event organizers; it’s up to the enthusiast. Events like Summer Slow Down have potential, as long as the enthusiasts put in the work, build cool cars and bother to show up.
Agree? Disagree? Post in the comments.
The article about this meet, wasn’t even about this meet lmao
They never are… That said the meet had around 100 cars in the parking lot at all times. Otherwise, what is there to say about the meet? There were some cars in the parking lot, some better than others. Some people chatted and others didn’t. Event recaps have never been our strong suit as they always end up sounding the same. We prefer to mostly just ramble on about non-sense.