Crusin’ West Fargo

Culture | August 12th, 2015

West Fargo Cruise Night continues its increase in popularity

West Fargo is gearing up for its third Cruise Night of the year on Thursday, August 20. Food and beverage vendors will be onsite, and the event is geared toward people of all ages. Cruise nights take place every third Thursday of the month, having started in June and ending in September.

West Fargo Cruise Night stretches the majority of Sheyenne Street, running from Main Avenue to Seventh Avenue. Visitors and auto enthusiasts will be able to admire custom, classic and restored rides including hot rods, motorcycles and more.

The event has gained quite a following over the years, and many people work hard to keep the event not only fun, but peaceful as well. Jay Thomas, a WDAY radio personality, indicated a huge turnout in June and expects the numbers to go up with each Cruise Night.

“This one in June, there had to be close to 10,000 people out there. It was nuts. And we quit counting hot rods at 1,000,” he said.

The event is hosted by Toppers Car Club, a non-profit organization consisting of 19 members. Rich Barnes, president of Toppers, echoes many of Thomas’ sentiments.

“This next one is going to be tremendous,” Barnes said. “Any time we are on the air with WDAY and have live coverage? People see the news and they remember that, and before you know it, it’s totally packed with people.”

If anyone happens to miss out on next week’s Cruise Night, don’t worry. There is one last Cruise Night in September, and it promises to be big as well.

“Usually our September one is our really big one,” Thomas noted. “That’s the last one of the summer, that’s kind of like the kickoff to the annual West Fest celebration.”

Word of mouth has definitely helped make West Fargo Cruise Night immensely popular as well. Both Thomas and Barnes say people from all over the country, as well as Canada, have shown up to partake in the event. The next Cruise Night will have two maps displayed with pins. Participants can come up and indicate where they travelled from and pin it on one of the maps for bragging rights.

“People are coming up from Nebraska just to come up to this thing. One of the Cruise Nights last year, a group came up from Arizona,” Thomas said. “So I think the word is getting out there ... It’s gotten so big. We’ll never move it.”

Both Thomas and Barnes also agreed that the event wouldn’t run as smoothly if it weren’t for the people and city employees.

“Everybody works together,” Thomas said. “Nobody goes ‘Oh man, you know, we gotta do this again? Do we have to be part of this?’ It’s just everybody from Toppers to the City of West Fargo, the police department, the mayor, the chief.”

“I can’t say enough about everyone in West Fargo,” Barnes said. “I really can’t. It’s the community that makes it so good.”