On the third Saturday of August each year, a grand occurrence takes place throughout Southwest Detroit. Marked by the screeching tires, honking horns, and joyful exclamations of onlookers, the city booms with a new vibrancy. Tens of thousands of automobiles of all makes and designs, from 50s cruisers to personally customized vehicles, flock to one central location: Woodward Avenue. This celebration, the Woodward Dream Cruise, is the largest single-day automotive gathering in the world. The Dream Cruise revved up and started rolling on August 19, 1995, and will have spanned the course of 19 years this coming August.

 

 

The Dream Cruise may currently draw over 40,000 cars and 1.5 million people from all across the world, but this iconic event arose from humble beginnings. The Woodward Dream Cruise actually began its adventure as a small fundraiser to raise money for a soccer field in Ferndale, Michigan. Nelson House, a plumber from Ferndale, was originally inspired to fund the field with a cruise. The aim was to reflect the nostalgia of the 50s and 60s, back when hot rods and muscle cars raced down Woodward Avenue blasting rock n’ roll tunes, and cruisers frequented the drive-ins and restaurants peppered along the street. Little did House and his fellow volunteers know, but this idea for a cruise to raise money for the children in his community would blossom into the annual summertime spectacle it has become today. 

 

 

In fact, that first year, the inaugural cruise was expected to draw in about 30,000 people. Instead, 250,000—nearly ten times this number—came wheeling down Woodward in August, 1995. Since that first boom of car enthusiasts, this number has only grown, reaching the current 1.5 million people that annually attend from across the globe. With the influx of people comes an income boost for Detroit’s economy, as well. Though the Woodward Dream Cruise is free and anyone may attend, it draws in money just as it draws in spectators, bringing in over $56 million to Metro Detroit each year.