Despite the fact that the 1973 classic “American Graffiti” — written and directed by Modesto native George Lucas — is more than 50 years old, and the era it portrayed is more than 60 years in the rearview mirror, Brent Burnside believes the annual American Graffiti Parade & Festival is as relevant as ever.

“When you get down to it, it’s a remembrance of the good ol’ simple days,” said Burnside, chairman for the 26th annual event, which gets underway Friday with a parade through the streets of Modesto, then continues Saturday and Sunday at Modesto Junior College’s West Campus. “We’ve got a classic-car culture that, really, all of Stanislaus County participates in.”

Lucas, a 1962 graduate of Modesto’s Downey High School, earned a pair of Academy Award nominations — Best Director and Best Screenplay — for “American Graffiti,” an homage to his car-crazy youth. He didn’t win an Oscar in either category, but he did help to create the classic-car culture that is so prevalent in the Modesto area today.

An estimated 6,000-7,000 will descend on Modesto Saturday for the first day of the festival (9 a.m. to 5 p.m.), a boom for local businesses and restaurants.

Burnside has been involved with the festival since joining North Modesto Kiwanis in 2015, and the festival chairman since 2017, when he took over the top spot from John Sanders. Charlie Christensen is the parade chairman, a task that requires getting the California Department of Transportation involved since McHenry Avenue is part of State Route 108. Sanders, meanwhile, handles bringing all the local dignitaries together. 

“John and Charlie were neighbors, and John got Charlie involved with Kiwanis,” said Burnside. “I used to live in their neighborhood, and Charlie and I coached our kids’ teams together, and he got me involved with Kiwanis.

“But this isn’t about us. It takes about 120 volunteers to make this event happen.”

The parade caps out at 1,000 cars, while Day One of the festival will feature around 1,300 cars.

Burnside has always been a “car guy.” His father was a mechanic for Gallo Winery, and passed along his love for tinkering on cars. Burnside’s mode of transportation during his high school days in the mid-1980s was a 1968 Mercury Cougar.

“Back when they used to cruise in Modesto, I was the kid pouring bleach onto the asphalt so the cruisers could do burnouts in a cloud of smoke,” he said.

And now that oldest daughter Sierra is finished with college and younger daughter Sydney is halfway through, he can devote more time to working on his 1950 Mercury Sedan and his 1965 convertible Ford Mustang.

“My daughters like cars just because their dad does,” said Burnside. “But I think there’s a generation of kids growing up that don’t have access to vocational ed classes and don’t get that hands-on experience. I think the system has failed them to a degree.

“And technology has advanced so much that you can’t just mess around with cars anymore. Everything’s computers now. You can’t just hop up the jets in the carburetor or install a shift kit in the transmission.

“So, I think it’s good for the community to keep this event fueled.”

The parade/cruise gets under way at 5:30 p.m. on Friday. Cars enter the parade/cruise route from Orangeburg Avenue, west of McHenry Avenue. Once on McHenry, cars will head north to Briggsmore, where they’ll flip around and head south on McHenry until reaching the “Five Points” intersection, where they'll make a slight right onto J Street, then another onto 11th Street, another onto I Street, and one final left onto 17th Street before returning to McHenry.

Musical guests for the weekend include Valley Music Institute (11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday), Blue Line (1-2:30 p.m. Saturday), Texas Funk (3-5 p.m. Saturday), and Journey Revisited (11:30 to 1:30 p.m. Sunday).