What began as a small get-together among Englewood High School alumni has grown into a large community event for car lovers from all over.
Englewood Cruise Night, now entering its fifth year, will take place on the third Saturday in July as it does every year. This year’s date is July 19. The event will kick off from a new location: the Rodz & Bodz Movie Cars & More Museum, located at 401 Englewood Parkway in the old Hobby Lobby space.
Event organizer Shannon Huber reflected on the event’s humble beginnings.
“It started out as just some alumni from Englewood High School, just a few of us wanting to get together and cruise like we used to in high school,” she said. “It’s just grown. It’s not a show, it’s not a competition. It’s just a cruise up and down, see some old friends and make new ones.”
Cruisers will now gather at Rodz & Bodz after outgrowing the Englewood High School parking lot in previous years.
“We’ve struggled a couple years not fitting in the parking lot,” Huber said. “Rodz agreed to let us use their parking area as a staging area … A lot of people will bring their lawn chairs and sit out by their cars or in the shade, and people walk around meeting each other. I think there will also be some food trucks out there this year.”
The event has seen impressive growth, with Huber estimating over 800 cars last year.
“It’s gotten bigger every year. A lot of car clubs come from Golden, Loveland, Colorado Springs. Clubs of all kinds — car clubs, bike clubs — they just come and join,” Huber said. “We meet at Rodz around 2 p.m. and then roll out to cruise together around 5 p.m. The businesses and neighborhoods all line up along Broadway — it’s really cool. It gives them kind of a little parade effect in the beginning.”
Englewood Cruise Night typically runs until about 10 p.m. The route stays mostly within Englewood, cruising along Broadway, from Hampden Avenue up to just north of Girard Avenue.
“We try to keep it in Englewood,” Hubert said. “I know Highlands Ranch has a cruise that weekend, too, so we kind of intertwine with them.”
Now in its fifth year, Huber sees 2025 as a milestone.
“It’s exciting to see how far it’s come, considering what it started out as, or what I had intentions for,” she said. “When we first started cruising, it was just a cruise. Now it’s also to help the community — to bring people out, bring business to the smaller businesses.”
Despite some noise complaints in past years, overall community feedback has been positive, Huber said.
The event welcomes all kinds of vehicles, including classic cars, hot rods, motorcycles, mini bikes and more.
“I drive a ’66 Ford pickup,” said Huber. “We’ve got hot rods, motorcycles, three-wheelers, mini-modded bikes — last year there were like 50 of them all at once, they’re so cool … It’s not about what you’re driving. It’s about being out there and having a good time.”
As the main organizer, Huber hopes the new location at Rodz & Bodz will make this year’s event more family-friendly.
“Meeting at Rodz will be cool,” she said. “I’m hoping more families come out and enjoy it. We want the community to enjoy it as well.”