Woodward Dream Cruise

The Woodward Dream Cruise is a classic car festival held annually on the third Saturday of August. The festival spans much of Woodward Avenue from Pontiac through Ferndale in Oakland County, Michigan, all the way to the State Fair Grounds inside the Detroit city limits, just south of 8 Mile Road. The portions of Woodward within the city of Detroit are not involved in the Cruise festival.

The event, which attracts nearly two million people and approximately 40,000 muscle cars, street rods, custom, collector and special interest vehicles each year, is a modern tribute to the classic cruisers. These are the cars that were available and prevalent during the 1950s, ’60s and early ’70s (prior to the OPEC oil embargo, which led to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy regulations of 1975 and the proliferation of more fuel-efficient smaller and less powerful automobiles). Some of these classic cruisers, of course, were earlier models that had either been scrupulously maintained or even “souped-up” and customized by their proud teen-age (and older) owners.

During this post-war era, people would “cruise” in their cars along historic Woodward Avenue, often looking for peers or friends who were also out for a drive, and occasionally (or, perhaps, more than occasionally) seeking an opportunity for some street racing or at least a chance to “burn rubber” (or “light ‘em up”) in a quick getaway from a newly green traffic light.

It was 1994 when Ferndale, Michigan plumber Nelson House, seeing the need for a children’s soccer field in his community, dreamed up the cruise to help raise money. Community members grabbed the idea and held planning meetings on the second floor of a local bank in early 1995.

Organizers initially expected 30,000 or 40,000 people to come to the Aug. 19, 1995 inaugural cruise on Woodward Avenue in Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Berkley, Huntington Woods, Royal Oak and Birmingham. About 250,000 actually showed up, an early sign that they had a hit on their hands.

The soccer field was eventually built in Martin Road Park, and House is just a casual cruise spectator now. That first one was his favorite, he said, because it wasn’t so commercialized and crowded (Source: Oakland Press 8/15/04). It is now the largest single day classic car cruise in the world.

The days leading up to the Dream Cruise are traditionally a time of anticipation along the Woodward strip as more and more of these classic vehicles are brought out onto the streets in the week preceding the event, and ancillary events are scheduled in the sponsoring communities of Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Berkley, Birmingham, Bloomfield Township, Bloomfield Hills, and Pontiac.

With the success of the cruise the classic cars now start appearing on Woodward during the first weeks of summer, and cars begin cruising in significant numbers as long as two weeks before the official day of the cruise. This has led to some increased friction between cruise organizers and residents living close to Woodward, who complain of the noise and disruption in their lives.