Woodward Dream Cruise
The Woodward Dream Cruise is the world’s largest single-day automotive event. A vintage car cruise that harkens back to the cruising heydays of the 1950s and 1960s, it takes place along Woodward Avenue in Detroit and its northern suburbs. In its current incarnation, the Woodward Dream Cruise routinely gathers more than 1.5 million participants and spectators to celebrate the automotive heritage of the Motor City. Over the course of a typical Dream Cruise weekend, tens of thousands of vintage automobiles parade up and down the Woodward corridor, some traveling as far north as Pontiac.
The event known as the Woodward Dream Cruise has relatively humble beginnings considering what it has become. In 1995, a Ferndale resident named Nelson House was looking for an interesting way to raise money to build a children’s soccer field. He thought it would be fun to parade vintage cars up and down Woodward in a way that would recreate the days when the youth of Metro Detroit roamed America’s oldest highway looking for good times at the local drive-ins and drag-racing with their peers. House and a group of volunteers organized the event with modest expectations. The results of the fundraiser were overwhelming. On August 19, 1995, the first Woodward Dream Cruise took place. It is estimated that 250,000 people showed up to take part that first year.
The Woodward Dream Cruise has grown steadily since 1995. Today, it is a free family-friendly event that is supported by a multitude of corporate, media and local government sponsors. The Dream Cruise celebrates America’s post-war boom and its fascination with the automobile, the American muscle car in particular. Each year the festivities generate more than $50 million in revenue for Metro Detroit businesses, more than other event in the local area. The Dream Cruise also supports a variety of local charity as sale of branded merchandise and refreshments go to benefit these organizations.
As corporate sponsor of the Woodward Dream Cruise for over 10 years, General Motors has paraded many of its current and vintage models along the Avenue as well as showing off highly touted concept cars like the SSR in 2000 and the next generation Camaro Convertible concept in 2007.
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