Slick back your hair, cuff your jeans and grab that black leather jacket to cruise over to one of the most popular Kool April Nites events. The Classic Cruise rolls out Friday, April 24, kicking off the weekend’s big car show at the Redding Civic Auditorium.
Arguably the most popular event after KAN’s Big Show, the free cruise is more than a chance to see classic car owners driving their highly polished, tricked out beauties in a four-lane parade along the Hilltop Drive-Churn Creek Road loop. It’s a homage to 75 years of Redding and California cruising history.
While the cruise route seems made for the event, Redding’s actual weekend cruise scene was downtown up until the early 1990s. So why didn’t early KAN planners place the Classic Cruise downtown like the Redding Rodeo or Lighted Christmas parades?
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One possible reason lies in the event’s status as a cruise, and a ban that pushed cruising outside downtown parameters — a topic of discussion at early KAN meetings. If that’s the case, the cruise doesn’t just commemorate a 20th century cultural phenomenon, it’s part of it.
Redding had ‘American Graffiti’ era
A staple of California youth culture, Redding had a vibrant Friday and Saturday night cruise ritual until the early 1990s, longtime residents said. Teens and young adults would pile into a friend’s car and slowly drive through their town’s main streets, hoping to see and be seen.
Cruising had its beginnings on some of California’s most famous boulevards including the Sunset Strip and Whittier Boulevard in Los Angeles. Early cruising in the late 1940s and ’50s was a marriage of California’s wide streets and American car manufacturers’ now-classic models, according to tourism publication, Discover California.
Cruise culture crossed racial and ethnic lines. Hispanic youths birthed the Lowrider Movement in the early 1950s — dropping suspension to make vehicles ride low and painting cars bright colors with metallic flecks. For Hispanic and Black youths navigating intense statewide segregation and discrimination, cruising and car customization was a form of cultural expression and symbols of freedom, Discover California said.
The practice inspired popular 1960s classic songs like the Beach Boys’ “I Get Around” and “Little Deuce Coupe.” Note the name of the classic rock band’s 1989 album, “Still Cruisin’.”
Those who were part of the cruise scene had other things on their minds besides birthing cultural phenomena and breaking barriers.
“We did it to see boys,” said Lisa Andreasen, who cruised with school friends in the late 1980s and early 90s. “Growing up Red Bluff, we came to the big city of Redding” to go cruising.
Downtown Redding’s streets were crowded bumper-to-bumper on Friday and Saturday nights, she said.
At the time, “my brother was a Redding firefighter” stationed downtown. “He told me, ‘I hope you’re not cruising downtown.’” Andreasen said she didn’t answer the question.
When Redding and California cruising was banned and when bans were lifted
Cruising wasn’t universally appreciated. Law enforcement and politicians argued cruising slowed traffic, encouraged street racing and enabled street gangs and hooliganism, according to Discover California.
The result: Many California cities and counties enacted cruise bans in all or some streets. The state followed with a 1988 law supporting cruise banning ordinances — two years before the first Kool April Nites event.
Redding attorney Andreas Mittry said he remembered Redding or Shasta County enacted the local cruise ban soon after, in the early 1990s. The timing of the law coinciding with the fledgling KAN Classic Cruise.
Californians could once again cruise freely starting in 2024. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law AB 436, legalizing lowrider and other cruising throughout the state.
The law ended a “40-year ban on lowrider cruising — a proud cultural and artistic tradition of Mexican Americans in California,” Newsom said.
The 2026 KAN Classic Cruise rolls out at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 24. Starting at 5 p.m. the city shuts down the streets on a loop from Hilltop Drive, to Dana Drive, to Churn Creek Road to Cypress Avenue. Spectators can bring lawn chairs or spread a blanket on the sidewalk; or join a watch party hosted by one of the hotels or restaurants on the cruise route.
For more about Kool April Nites and a full schedule of 2026 events go to koolaprilnites.com.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica on Record Searchlight Facebook groups Get Out! Nor Cal , Today in Shasta County and Shaping Redding’s Future. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Kool April Nites cruise sprung from banned state youth cultural phenom
Reporting by Jessica Skropanic, Redding Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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