Somernites Cruise is hosted in Somerset, Kentucky, a town of about 12,000 that has built its entire identity around it, earning the title “Car Cruise Capital.” The show is on the fourth Saturday of the month from April through October, downtown streets fill with hundreds of cars, trucks, hot rods, you’re going to see everything at this show.
The event itself Somernites Cruise pairs a Friday night Rock and Roll Block Party with the Saturday car show and cruise downtown, and it’s free to attend. Each month tends to carry its own theme, August, for instance, is “Mustang Alley,” a dedicated Ford Mustang showcase that’s drawn crowds of 600 to 800+ Mustangs in past years. Whatever the month’s theme, every make and model is welcome, so it’s never a one-marque show. Depending on the month before the show there’s Saturday Morning Fun Run, some months it’s driving destinations such as Cumberland Falls, local distilleries and Historical sights around the area. Mustang Alley is a little different, it has traditionally kicked off with a little track time before the cruise starts. Head to London Dragway where a small entry fee gets you as many passes down the strip as you can squeeze in before the day’s show and shine gets underway downtown.
My favorite time was for Mustang Alley in 2019, and the highlight wasn’t just the sea of Mustangs, it was the real Bullitt hero car that Steve McQueen drove as Lieutenant Frank Bullitt, and the film’s chase through the hills of San Francisco is still held up as one of the greatest car chases ever put on screen. The car all but disappeared from public view for decades, owned by the same New Jersey family from 1974 until it finally resurfaced in 2018 before selling at a Mecum auction in January 2020 for $3.4 million, making it the most expensive Mustang ever sold at that time. This Mustang is so popular Ford has even produced specialty Bullitt Mustangs through the years starting in 2001, 2008-2009 and finally 2019-2020, every one available in Dark Highland Green. Seeing it in person in Somerset, before it went to auction, is the kind of thing that sticks with you as a car person. I have watched this very Mustang chase that Charger no telling how many times since I was a kid.
In the evening the show moves to the main highway running through Somerset. People line both sides, lawn chairs and phones out, as a steady stream of cars cruise up and down for hours. For the most part everyone’s on their best behavior, but it wouldn’t be a proper cruise without a few show offs, the occasional burnout pulling away from a red light, or a couple of impromptu drag races that never amount to more than a brisk takeoff before things settle back down. The lineup rolling by is such a great variety, T-buckets and rat rods mixed in with modern muscle, everything from a stripped-down hot rod to a brand-new Hellcat, all sharing the same stretch of road for one night.
Somerset sits right at the edge of Lake Cumberland, so a cruise-in weekend is an easy excuse to turn into a longer trip Cumberland Falls (the “Niagara of the South,” known for its rare moonbow) and the surrounding Daniel Boone National Forest are close by if you want to stretch the visit into a full weekend on the water and in the woods. So If the Saturday Morning Fun Run didn’t take you to any of these places, make your own Fun Run heading home Sunday.
This Cruise in is something every gearhead needs to experience, a town that’s built a piece of its whole identity around a monthly car cruise, sitting inside genuinely good scenic-drive territory. And because the themes rotate, there’s a built-in reason to come back multiple times a season and shoot it differently each visit.
Here’s their website so you can start planning!
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