It’s official: The 2020 Woodward Dream Cruise is canceled
It’s officially official. The 2020 Woodward Dream Cruise, previously scheduled for August 15 in Detroit, has been canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic. Five weeks after communities along Woodward began calling off events surrounding the annual collector car event, the Dream Cruise board of directors voted to scrap the Cruise for 2020.
“While we are deeply saddened by the tough decision to cancel the 26th annual Woodward Dream Cruise, we know it is in the greater public’s best interest to keep everyone safe and healthy,” board president Michael Lary said in a statement. “We look forward to resuming the Dream Cruise in 2021 and making it a memorable and safe experience for all.”
The last several months have been a rollercoaster ride for Dream Cruise organizers, who hoped the Cruise could be held on a lesser scale. Considering the recent uptick in COVID-19 cases in other states, the decision to cancel the Cruise comes as no surprise.
That doesn’t mean it won’t go on in an unofficial capacity. For months, Lary has repeated that “cruisers are going to cruise.”
“We plan events around the Cruise, not the other way around,” Lary said in May. “So if people want to cruise, they’ll cruise—and I’m sure they will.”
As is the norm during the summer months, collector car owners have been cruising Woodward Avenue on a nightly basis, and the numbers should ramp up on August 15.
The Dream Cruise, which was first held in 1995 as a small fundraiser in Ferndale, Michigan, bills itself as “the world’s largest one-day celebration of classic car culture.” Under normal circumstances, it attracts upwards of 1.5 million visitors annually and more than 40,000 vehicles from the U.S. and around the world.
“We’re all looking forward to the day when life reaches some sort of normalcy,” Lary said in May, “but in the meantime, we want to do the right thing and make sure everyone has a good time without jeopardizing their health.”
