The Downtown Jamestown Cruise-In event is returning to the city’s downtown this summer after all, – now in the charge of My CHQ and Wicked Warrens.

Following the CHQ Chamber’s announcement in May that they will not be hosting the event again this year, My CHQ and Wicked Warrens CEOs Dylan Moran and Rob Roth said they got together and decided to take it on, as it is one of the bigger events for downtown that has been held for over 30 years and that they could not let it go away.

The Cruise-In is set for Aug. 15, from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. including setup and tear down, with actual hours of operation for the event being from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. It is still in the early stages of planning as official approval for the event is set to come from the Jamestown city council’s public safety committee during their meeting Monday night. Roth said while things are not 100% set yet as they are still waiting for approval and looking for things like sponsorships, they are ready to roll with the event.

“We’re excited and ready to go,” Roth said. “It’s a big event for downtown that we felt we could not lose. There were some other people thinking about picking it up and moving it to a different location but we strongly felt that it needed to stay downtown, and I think the city approves of that, too.”

Moran said for the event itself people should expect mostly the same things as in the past. There will be a beer tent outside of Wicked Warrens and music provided by DJ Carmelo instead of the typical live bands, though that should be the only difference from past events. He added that they hope to have vendors and food trucks sign up to participate and that people will come and not only visit them but also the businesses that already exist downtown, as the point of the event is to help promote those businesses as well.

“It’s a massive event for downtown,” Moran said. “People come to see the cars, and it’s like with what I do with My CHQ and our events, I think people like to come out to support their community. That’s been tougher since COVID and I think we are still not quite back to where we used to be before that, but people are getting back out and events like this help them rediscover their sense of community.”

Making sure that the Downtown Cruise-In happened this year was something that both Moran and Roth said was very important to them as the event is both a popular and important one for downtown. Additionally, Moran said just seeing the reaction from people after the cancellation was announced shows how popular of an event it is.

“Just from the reactions of people that were upset and hoping someone would pick it up shows how big and popular the event is,” Moran said. “People love it and we’ve seen the reactions, and it was something we couldn’t let go away.”

Roth added that the event is very important for downtown, drawing in a lot of people and cars, saying that it is one of the biggest events for downtown that he knew of and that it was “important to have it stay downtown.”

After official approval by the City Council – which could come during Monday’s Public Safety Committee meeting – and everything is set and ready to go, Moran encouraged people to come out to the event in August, saying that it is an important year to have people come out to it.

“It is pretty last minute and when it’s all approved and everything it will be less than a month away,” Moran said. “We need a lot of support to make it bigger and better in the future.”

Moran said when the negative things happen, such as the Cruise-In being dropped, there tends to be a very big reaction from people, but not always such a big one when positive things happen sometimes. Sometimes when events do happen, people do not show up, he said, adding that the Cruise-In may not be the best example of that as it is so popular, but saying that for other events as well showing up is important.

“Events bring the community together, so when they happen it is important to show up,” Moran said. “Events are important for the community and local businesses and for your own mental health, and they help the community thrive.”