Engines revving for Cruise the Couve

Cruise the Couve is back for another year, giving those looking for an old-fashioned drive down Main Street Vancouver a chance on Saturday.

The all-day event will feature participants driving through uptown and downtown Vancouver on Main Street between 28th St. and 6th St. The event differs from other cruise-ins as there is no registration for those looking to get on the road.

A lot about Cruise the Couve is fairly unstructured as cruise lead organizer and CEO of Trapdoor Brewing Bryan Shull explained that even a start time was somewhat of a guessing game.

“People ask me about the hours of the event. We’re not in charge of that. When people show up, they show up,” Shull said. As official of a start time as possible is 10 a.m., though he added the peak hours tend to be from noon to 4 p.m.

Cruise the Couve’s first iteration in 2017 happened more out of necessity to fill a void once Cruisin’ the Gut, a similar Main Street event, was canceled that year. Shull knew that the tradition was unlikely to die even if Phil Medina, the old organizer, was not involved. The new cruise was organized so there would be some structure to the inevitable event.

“Without having the infrastructure on our street for that day, it would be chaos,” Shull said in 2017, “and it would be the last year that it would happen, because the neighbors would flood the city council to shut the event down and close the street off that day; it would die.”

Main Street businesses came together and quickly put on an event last year, which in April Shull said was a success with minimal complaints. This year there was a push for a more organized planning process.

“Last year was a scramble to just navigate,” Shull remarked, calling this weekend the first “official” year of Cruise the Couve as a fully-realized event.

In April Shull said that a significant hurdle would be the need for more funding for police, as Vancouver had backed out of providing free services this year. That amounted to essentially a 50 percent increase of cost, from $20,000 to $30,000, roughly.

Since then, Shull said the city’s parks and recreation department has stepped up, putting $3,000 in budget surplus toward the event. 

In order to raise the other funds, Shull said organizers looked at similar, successful events like the Harvest Nights Cruise in Battle Ground for a structure moving forward. They came up with tiered sponsorships allowing businesses to pitch in $500 to $5,000 to help the event.

Shull said that the sponsorship scheme was a success with organizers getting the big sponsors like presenter Gaynor Automotive in relatively easily. What they needed were volunteers to help run the show: setting up, tearing down and generally monitoring the event and VIP area.

Regarding response, Shull said there was considerable buzz about this year’s event, noting that organizers focused in on social media promotion to expand their reach. He said about one in 20 people he hears from express negative comments about the cruise, whether it be because of traffic or the lack of discretion over what cars can participate; the other 19 are excited for the event. 

The lack of regulation on entries highlights a point Shull made about what exactly Saturday’s festivities are.

“Cruise the Couve is just a name behind this community event,” Shull said. He noted that there is a significant dose of uncertainty with how just the cruise will look, remarking that “the event is a surprise every year, even though it’s the same.” 

When Shull spoke to The Reflector a week before the event, he commented how organizing the cruise starting in February felt like “a blur” at that point, though he expressed confidence that 2018 would be as good as 2017, if not better.

“Most of the hard work (for the event) is done. We’re down to just letting it happen,” Shull said.