Cruise Nite! Love all night with
Johnny & The Love Handles Friday
July 01, 2015
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
It’ll be love all night when Johnny & The Love Handles rock the Cruise Nite crowd Friday in historic Downtown Santa Paula.
Cruise Nite, Ventura County’s original car show is held the first Friday of each month, April through October and draws participants and car lovers from the Tri-Counties as well as Los Angeles County.
Even Bakersfield: “We started coming out here last year when we were visiting a friend in Santa Paula,” said Leonard Ludlow at the June Cruise Nite.
“It was a Cruise Nite and our friend said we had to come downtown for dinner…and now we’re hooked,” with Ludlow and his family making the trip to Santa Paula at least every other Cruise Nite.
Ludlow said although he loves cars he doesn’t own a pre-1975 beauty, the main rule for Cruise Nite displays.
“I’ve got a nice Camaro, fully loaded…bought it last year!” he admitted. “It’s parked in the Depot parking lot not that I think anyone would care!”
The coolest event in the county Santa Paula’s Cruise Nite, is now celebrating its 17th season of hundreds of sweet, pre-1975 cars and even more friends strolling historic East Main Street enjoying live music, restaurants, shopping and the vibe of the historic Downtown.
The July 3 Cruise Nite will be held from about 5 p.m. to dusk although car owners start arriving Downtown well in advance to snag that perfect space to park and show their vehicles.
Cruise Nite closes East Main Street between 10th and 7th streets, an event so popular that side streets are also utilized for the spillover of vehicles that can include motorcycles.
Sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and the Santa Paula Police Officers Association, Cruise Nite offers a night of fun for the entire family.
The popular Johnny & The Love Handles band will be performing under the Clock Tower and special Cruise Nite T-shirts — each month featuring a different displayed car — will be available for sale across the street.
There was also a second band at the June Cruise Nite set up in the alcove of a East Main Street shop just west of 10th Street, far enough away from the main entertainment that both bands could be enjoyed as visitors strolled the blocks.
Santa Paula Citizens Corps and the Santa Paula Fire Department will be offering Sidewalk CPR instruction — the new hands-only method of life-saving — in the area of Main and Mill streets.
According to Fire Chief Rick Araiza, each person that takes this 2-minute instruction will be entered in a raffle for a La Cabana gift card.
Things are always happening at Cruise Nite where many downtown restaurants offer specials and additional in-house entertainment and friends meet friends — and make new friends — as they stroll the Downtown.
Cruise Nite, the original regularly staged car show in Ventura County, started with a few short blocks closed to display pre-1975 cars, but under the direction of event coordinators Henry Aguilar and Dave Anderson, retired SPPD officers, the car show quickly grew.
Cruise Nite now draws hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people, a crowd that includes Santa Paula Police Reserves and SPPD Explorers who answer questions for visitors.
There’s so much to see and do in the Downtown area, from the city’s famed murals to its array of museums, that often visitors come early to explore Santa Paula and get a good table for dinner before Cruise Nite starts
Cruise Nite is also a hit on cyberspace: photographers and video-graphers flock to the event, take pictures or film video for immediate Internet posting, visual invitations for others to come on down and visit Santa Paula.
Cruise Nite also has a Facebook page: visit and Like it to enjoy photos of hundreds of Cruise Nite cars and visitors!
https://www.facebook.com/groups/114732165207637/
