Woodward Dream Cruise

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Every summer Detroit, Michigan hosts the Woodward Dream Cruise, the world’s largest one day automotive event. An appropriate event for Motor City that’s held on the first paved road in the United States, Woodward Avenue. We have a friend in Detroit who’s a bit of a motorhead and invited us to come out to visit for the weekend. My husband had gone out to visit for the Dream Cruise a couple years before and was pretty excited to go back out to Detroit to see it again.

While I enjoy classic cars and checking out the occasional cruise night, I had never even heard of the Woodward Dream Cruise before my husband attended it with his friend. It’s held the third Saturday of each August along fourteen miles of Woodward Avenue. The eight lane road is filled with drivers slowly cruising along and lined with even more cars that are parked for display. The crowds gathered to share their enthusiasm for cars and car culture seem to go on and on. Drawing in approximately 1.5 million people and 40,000 cars from all over the world each year, this event has come a long way since it’s start back in 1995 as a fundraiser for a local soccer field.

What to Expect

Beginning as early as the Thursday before the Woodward Dream Cruise there are numerous car shows, concerts, parades, and related events that visitors can enjoy as a warmup to the main event. While much of the Cruise is on Woodward Avenue, the side streets off of Woodward host many official events, displays, vendors, and amenities. The cruise website has thorough schedules of events for each of the neighborhoods along the route.

With Ford as the presenting sponsor of the event, it’s unsurprising that the company and their vehicles have a strong showing. There’s even ‘Mustang Alley’ on 9 Mile Road where it intersects with Woodward Avenue. We walked the length of the car show featuring many of the Mustangs that have been released over the model’s lifetime. Both my husband and his buddy were oohing and ahhing over nearly every one we saw as we walked along. 

Many other car manufacturers and automotive industry companies have a presence at the event as well. Representatives chatted with cruise attendees about their products and displayed their upcoming releases. Quite a few had branded swag to give away as well if you signed up for email lists or entered contests.

The Cars

Throughout the event you’ll be treated to the sight of every kind of car you can imagine, not just the typical cars you might expect at a cruise event. Mixed in with the usual vintage and classic cars were many you would normally never see gathered together. There were muscle cars, woodies complete with surfboards on the roof, imported exotic cars, hot rods, rat rods, kit cars, large trucks, cars and trucks with lift kits and hydraulics, cars customized for various themes (we saw one that was covered in skeletons of various creatures), vehicles made famous by movies such as the ‘The General’ from the Dukes of Hazzard, the ‘Mystery Machine’ of the Scooby Doo gang, the ‘Black Beauty’ from the Green Hornet, the Mutts Cutts van from Dumb & Dumber, and Ecto-1 from the Ghostbusters, and the list goes on… 

Enjoy it Your Way

There are a number of ways that attendees can enjoy the day. Many bring out their favorite rides to cruise along in the day-long parade down Woodward Avenue with fellow motor heads. There are a lot of folks who camp out along the curb to watch the action, many of whom had canopies for shade as well as food and drinks to enjoy. Others just come to walk along taking in both the cars driving by and the ones parked for display. We did a bit of a mix as we drove over in our friend’s 2012 Boss 302 Mustang and proceeded to cruise along Woodward Avenue before parking so we could walk around to see the cars that were parked. 

There are also free SMART Dream Cruise Shuttle buses available for visitors to ride along and enjoy the view from inside air conditioned and wheelchair accessible buses. For more information on the SMART Dream Cruise Shuttle, click here.

Tips to get the most out of your visit to the Woodward Dream Cruise:

Come Prepared:

There are some obvious things you should bring with you such as sunscreen and water since the cruise is in August and weather can be hot. Snacks are another good thing to pack as it can be a lot of walking throughout the day. If you’re planning to sit along Woodward Avenue to watch the cars go by, you can bring yourself some chairs and coolers to stay comfortable. I’d advise you to bring Tylenol or ibuprofen since all the cars can get pretty loud and the exhaust fumes can combine to give you a headache. On that same note, bringing ear protection may not be a bad idea if you’re sensitive to a lot of noise.

Dress for comfort:

Check the forecast before your visit to make sure you wear appropriate clothing and accessories, i.e. lightweight for the heat or an umbrella if it’s rainy. If you’re planning to walk around, you’ll want to wear comfortable shoes as well (we ended up walking about six miles during our visit).

Take it all in:

To get the most out of a day at the Woodward Dream Cruise, try out all the different aspects of the event. Walk around to see cars, cruise along Woodward Avenue to enjoy the action, stop along the route to sit and watch it all go by. There are also a lot of bars and restaurants along Woodward Avenue that are easily found for food & drinks if you want to take a break.

This is definitely a must-see event that car lovers of all ages should add to their bucket lists. If you can dream it, you can see it at Woodward Dream Cruise.

For a great start to your Sunday after the cruise, be sure to check out my post about Brunching at Browndog Barlor & Restaurant!

Have you ever been to the Woodward Dream Cruise?

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