Westmont’s Cruisin’ Nights & Street Fair rolls into 20th anniversary

Westmont’s Cruisin’ Nights & Street Fair wasn’t always a weekly spectacle of practically every type of car imaginable.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the event began as something very modest that consisted of groups of friends from local Model T car clubs, which numbered about 20 cars a week. Over time, however, it evolved into one of the biggest car shows in the Chicago area, said Larry McIntyre, Westmont’s communications director.

Today, it isn’t only Model T’s that show up each Thursday night in downtown Westmont. All makes and models are welcome.

“Last year, we averaged over 400 cars a week and over 2,500 guests each week,” McIntyre said.

The show’s popularity was further solidified by WGN Radio’s Dane Neal, who proclaimed it to be the “Best Weekly Summer Car Show in the Chicagoland Area.”

“This event draws people from throughout the Chicagoland area. We close down Cass Avenue from Burlington Avenue to Naperville Road, so that’s three full blocks [of] dedicated parking for classic cars,” McIntyre said.

Just like years ago, cruise nights also are a social event, he said.

Car enthusiasts who come to display their vehicles “like to show off their cars and talk about their cars, but truly it is a social event,” McIntyre said.

“The event officially starts at 5 p.m. on Thursdays,” he said. “But we will have cars lining up the street” much earlier in the day.

McIntyre stepped in 20 years ago after former Westmont Mayor Bill Rahn asked him to help form a new nonprofit that would focus on creating and continuing Westmont community events with one of them being the weekly classic car show.

Within 30 days a new group of volunteers formed the nonprofit Westmont Special Events Corporation. It replaced Westmont Main Street, the organization that originally founded cruise nights.

For the first few years of the event, awards were given.

“Over time, we did away with them to make it a social event and not a contest,” McIntyre said. “We created the event to appeal to everyone rather than a car show for car guys.”

As a result, each week families and people of all ages flood closed-off Cass Avenue to enjoy music, food and drink specials and participate in children’s activities while perusing the vehicles.

With a wrist band, attendees can buy an alcoholic beverage from a Westmont restaurant and walk throughout the three blocks of downtown Westmont with the beverage in hand.

“Each week we have different themes, which creates different energy,” said Kristina Kaniauskaite, executive director of the Westmont Special Events Corporation.

One of the biggest highlights for families is the weeks that police and fire vehicles are displayed. On these nights, the event ends with a lights and sirens parade at 9 p.m.

On other weeks cars such as GMs, Jeeps, sports cars, electric cars, military vehicles and farm equipment are highlighted, but as always all vehicles are welcome.

“We also have many different businesses participating, which also creates the street fair environment,” Kaniauskaite said. “Every year, we say this was a record year, but each year the event breaks attendance records.”

The event would be impossible to hold without the dedicated group of volunteers of the Westmont Special Events Corporation, Kaniauskaite said.

The volunteer group also puts in hours for other events such as the Taste of Westmont, the Muddy Waters Blues Museum and pub crawls.

Westmont Cruisin’ Nights & Street Fair is located on Cass Avenue in downtown Westmont north of the BNSF railroad tracks from Burlington Avenue to Naperville Road.

Participants in the car show should enter at Norfolk Avenue near Bank of America, 139 N. Cass Ave.