David MacDonald appreciates talking about dreams—especially when it comes to cars and trucks.
This weekend, as the Spring Break Jam 2022 custom truck and car expo returns to South Padre Island, the longtime owner and president of Heat Wave Inc. will be mixing with car enthusiasts and talking about how their automotive visions came to life.
“To be honest with you, I just love being out there with all the people,” MacDonald said. “I think it’s just awesome that we’re able to get together and all these car enthusiasts are able to talk about cars and what they’ve done about cars—and what they want to do to them, and talk about their dreams and hoping they can make them happen.”
Even the Heat Wave’s annual show, now in its 25th year at the SPI Convention Centre, is something of an annual creation that gives MacDonald joy “just watching the show go from nothing in the parking lot to a big festival back down Sunday when it’s over to a big parking lot again.”
Heat Wave Inc. is a custom truck and car show promotion company that began in 1989. The organization’s latest event opens Saturday, March 5, at 9 a.m. and continues through Sunday, March 6. The fun wraps up at 6 p.m. on the first day and at about 5 p.m. Sunday.
With somewhere between 500 to 600 custom rides from all over Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana converging on the scene, the event is one in which many people spend the entire day engaged in the entertainment and food. Vendors offer a mix of bacon-wrapped hotdogs, burgers, tacos, and even aquas frescas.
Beyond the car-gazing, the event can get competitive with an audio contest, burnout contest, hydraulic contest, and a bikini contest.
Also, Spring Break Jam sometimes leaves its marks on people in a completely different way—tattoos.
“What’s different (this year) is we have more tattoo artists than we’ve ever had in the history of the show,” MacDonald said. “That’s something that’s really getting to be a big thing there in the Valley.”
For 25 years without interruption, the annual show has been making waves on South Padre Island—even last year when COVID-19 precautions delayed the expo to April.
“I haven’t missed a year,” MacDonald said, crediting South Padre Island for allowing his streak to remain alive.
That annual streak started with his first show in Texas 33 years ago, and along the way MacDonald said the greatest lesson has been to treat people well.
“I’ve learned a lot of lessons, and I’m still learning,” he said. “Basically, the lesson I’ve learned in promoting events is that you just have to be calm and deal with the people in a good way, a positive way, try to keep positive vibes throughout the event, so that people can have a good time and enjoy themselves.
“That’s the one thing. Sometimes you know just one little negative thing can have a big effect, and you want to keep the vibe positive.”
So when did the dream begin? When did MacDonald first hope of creating a positive custom truck and car show that delivers reliably year after year for decades?
“When I was 16, I had a mini truck, and I used to go to shows here in Texas,” MacDonald said.
Then, he visited his sister in California and took in the impressive car shows there.
“We never really had any shows like they had on the West Coast,” MacDonald said. “So I decided, hey, we need to have something like that here in Texas, so that’s when I decided to bring this to Texas.”
Tickets are available for a discount online early in the week, MacDonald said. However, tickets are also available at the gate for about $25 a day or $30 for the weekend. Children 10 and younger are free. For more information, log on to www.heatwaveshow.com.
“I love the Island,” MacDonald said. “I think it’s the most beautiful place in Texas, as far as the beach atmosphere, it’s just the best place you can go. The city treats us really good there.”
