TOWANDA - Kicks and Route 66 go hand in hand. Especially if you're in Towanda.

The local bar and grill will host a lineup of classic cars today as part of the second annual Red Carpet Corridor Festival along Route 66. A disc jockey will be providing entertainment.

Kicks assistant manager Jammie Hinthorn said the bar and grill benefits from drivers of vintage cars and bikers enjoying the route.

"As soon as the weather gets nice you'll see a lot of old cars driving down Route 66," he said.

Hinthorn said the route is used by Central Illinois bikers who do "poker runs," in which they stop at bars along the route and get a playing card at each bar. The bar and grill organizes three parties per year in its parking lot for those traveling the Mother Road.

The two-day Red Corridor festival started Saturday with a variety of celebrations in towns along the highway throughout Central Illinois, including Towanda, Lexington and Chenoa.

Lexington hosted a pancake breakfast at St. Paul Church and citywide garage sales Saturday. Drivers could travel down "Memory Lane" visiting "Shoppes on Main," The Filling Station, Shake Shack and other local businesses.

Towanda had a communitywide garage sale, with 40 vendors selling their goods. Mayor Jim Arteman said the vendors' fee will go to the Pontiac Tourism Bureau to pay for the festival's advertising.

Some entrepreneurs traveled miles to sell their wares. Barb Scott of Bloomington was selling products from her home-based business, Kel-leigh's Candles, and Carol and Dan Boettcher of Belleville were selling sterling silver. The five-piece rhythm and blues band Velvet Groove performed such songs as Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Pride and Joy."

Local officials from Towanda to Joliet formed the Red Carpet Corridor to market their stretch of the highway after the U.S Department of Transportation designated the Illinois Historic Route 66 one of 45 American Scenic Byways a couple of years ago.

"It (Route 66) helps the community," Arteman said. He said the Towanda FS gas station receives a lot of business from drivers traveling the route, and Kicks does "pretty well."