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FERNDALE — The birthplace of the Woodward Dream Cruise is ready to celebrate the historic event once again.
The 29th annual Ferndale Dream Cruise will take place Aug. 16-17 with many events to attract attendees to the downtown, highlighted by Mustang Alley, which is presented by Ford Motor Co., which will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 17.
Bill Tondreau, a member of the Mustang Alley committee, said 612 people registered to take part in the event before they had to cut off registration to allow people from the general public to sign up for the alley on the day of the event.
“I’ve been doing it for 18 years. It still surprises me how they wait for that moment to get preregistered, and how fired up they get just to be involved,” he said.
Tondreau said he works the gates to help bring in the Mustangs for the alley. He stated that he makes it a point to greet everyone who comes and attends.
“I feel it’s most important to greet them,” he said. “They’re taking the time to come out and, working for Ford, they’re our customers. I think it’s important to greet them all and thank them. So, it’s amazing to see how many people are lined up for this, because they know the day of the event, they’re a mile-and-a-half long up Hilton Road. They get there sometimes before I get there. It’s crazy.”
Tondreau noted that for this year’s alley, they have 355 volunteers, which is 150 more than they usually have.
Other events of note include the Emergency Vehicle Show from 1 to 7 p.m. Aug. 16, the Lights & Sirens Cruise Parade, which will start at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 16 at Woodward and East Nine Mile Road, and the official ribbon-cutting ceremony at 5 p.m. Aug. 16. There also will be Michigan Motorsports Racing Association’s Quarter Midget Youth Racing custom cars on display and the Kids Car Club Play Zone.
Event Director Michael Lary noted the ribbon-cutting ceremony will feature guest speakers Detroit Lions legend Herman Moore and Julius Curry, owner of Curry Motorsports.
Lary said he’s happy to have both Moore and Curry as speakers, as they are focused on helping youth, which is how the Dream Cruise got its start almost 30 years ago with the fundraising for a youth soccer field.
With 29 years under the city of Ferndale’s belt with the cruise, Lary has seen the event change from specifically being about classic cars to being about all kinds of vehicles.
“The audience, the spectators of people who come to this event, have changed the mission or the purpose of the Woodward Dream Cruise. So now it still remains about the classics or the days that have gone by, but it’s also evolved to embrace all things that are automotive,” he said.
“You see every year not just the classics, but you see people in their creative mind, the art of the automotive, and how people have taken a beat-up vehicle, for example, and turned it into something really creative and beautiful and funny,” he continued. “It doesn’t have to necessarily be an antique or a classic. It can be a modern vehicle, but everything that evolves or anything that’s automotive is celebrated. So it has evolved to where it’s not about us, those of us who organize this event, because it doesn’t matter what event you organize, it’s the spectators, the audience, that decides what they like and don’t like, and the majority of the people that come to this event now are from all areas of the automotive industry and what they like and don’t like. They all come together and they celebrate the automotive, because it is the Motor City.”
For more information on the Dream Cruise, visit ferndaledreamcruise.com.
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