North Grand Mall will be swarmed with classic cars Saturday as part of the Iowa Street Rod Association Car Show.

“We want the public to have fun, and encourage people who have their own cars to come out, whether they’ve spent a lot of time on them or have just started,” said Robin Shockey, vice president of publication for the Iowa Street Rod Association.

The show is open to the public, as opposed to most of the shows the association hosts, which are for members only.

“This one we’re throwing by ourselves, but the association is indirectly involved in many throughout the state. We send flyers, post notices of the shows in our newsletter, things like that,” Shockey said.

The show will be part of the All-American Weekend the mall is hosting, with other events such as a 5K run for cystic fibrosis, a Rib Fest cook-off by the Iowa BBQ Society and a farmer’s market.

“There’s a committee that decides what events this show goes with. We’ve had a car show as part of the All-American Weekend since the first show six years ago,” said Harley Alcox, vice president of membership for the Iowa Street Rod Association. “The first show we did for the public here, we tied in with a football game, but the timing doesn’t always line up for us.”

The cars present will be in entered in a competition, to be judged by the attending public.

“We feel that having the public judge is the best way to go for public events,” Alcox said. “We may lose a bit of accuracy from not having real judges, but it gets the public involved, and this competition is really for fun anyway. There’s trophies for the top finishers, but this is to give people a chance to show off their cars, and the work they’ve put into them.”

Alcox said he expects a pretty good turnout for the event, which is consistent with what he’s seen in the past.

“We usually get around 125 cars, and the head count is around a couple thousand. That’s pretty good for our shows, because we don’t really have a lot of PR,” Alcox said.

The All-American Weekend starts Friday, with the 5K run beginning at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the farmer’s market, car show and Rib Fest run from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The mall will be open to shoppers throughout the weekend.