Maple Leaf Carshow

Since 1966, Carthage has held a festival each October called the Maple Leaf Festival. The week-long festival is named for the many maple trees that grow in thetown, whose leaves change into bright colors such as red, orange, and yellow in the fall. Many people from towns from all over Jasper County and further attend the parade, bringing applicants for the parade such as hometown bands, businesses, spookhouses, television stations, and various entertainment. It is a tradition for the people participating in the parade to hand out large amounts of candy to children, as well as advertisements and other small items such as frisbees and footballs. The parade usually runs from the town square, where snacks can be bought and ends at the junior high school, where children can be picked up. The Maple Leaf Carshow grew from a small group of local hot rodders who drove their cars in the parade and parked them around the square for the remainder of the day, to a grand scale carshow drawing in cars from all over the region. On warm sunny days, car show goers can expect to see upwards of 600 cars. For the participants there are 25 categories to enter your vehicle in. Each registered car owner, will be provided a ballot to judge the other cars. Trophies are awarded to the top 3 cars in each category. Each year features a custom t-shirt available for purchase and a dash plaque that is given to the first 400 people to register.